CEICS, Campus of International excellence southern catalonia Coordinated by URV · Rovira i Virgili University

Mestral Technology Centre

The Mestral Technology Centre (CTM) is located on the site of the Vandellòs I nuclear power plant. It was set up in 2004 when the power station was already being dismantled, decommissioning having begun in 1998. The work of this centre is based on three areas:

• Supervision of the site during its latency phase
• Training in areas related to decommissioning
• Applied research in decommissioning techniques and methods

The centre brings together all the R&D projects run by ENRESA, the company responsible for radioactive waste in Spain. Rovira i Virgili University (URV) is a strategic partner of CTM, having established research cooperation agreements with it from the start, with good results.

Agreements between Enresa and the URV to develop new technology applicable to decommissioning nuclear power plants will make it possible to:

• Create a mathematical model to predict changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure inside the casing housing the power station’s reactor
• Analyze the behaviour of the cements in which packages with medium and low-level radioactive isotopes are immobilized
• Establish new guidelines to be applied across companies so that decommissioning projects meet environmental and quality requirements
   

One of the most successful projects arising from previous agreements has been the scheme to decontaminate radioactive liquids on the basis of MAG molecules, which can interact with the radioactive particles present in contaminated water. This system makes it possible to eliminate 98% of the radioactivity in water. The results are currently being applied in Zorita.

http://www.enresa.es/activities_and_projects/research_and_development