Application of GIS for Decommissioning of Nuclear Plant

Introduction

Nuclear energy is one of the most efficient and pollution free source of energy for catering the modern civilization, it is being considered a pioneer in the development of modern technological advancement in society. However, when a power plant reaches the end of its useful life it is decommissioned, demolished and shut down so that the site on which it stood can be made available for other future uses. Decommissioning of the nuclear site the most complex and challenging task considering the associated dangers, it includes closing if its linked facilities, management of the radioactive waste and the remediation of the site etc.

 
How GIS plays vital role in decommissioning of nuclear plant?

The flexibility provided by the GIS to integrate environmental analytical data into spatial data mapping and error free geodatabase creation has paved a long route for GIS technology to serve and benefit the nuclear industry which in turn is used to analyze and interpret estimated time, cost, and amount of radioactive waste generated by the site.

The numerous areas where the use of a Geographical Information System (GIS) is proving to be beneficial includes:

• Specialized 3-Dimensional modelling: It used for visualizing geological and subterranean features of the nuclear site as information on the geological and hydrogeological conditions likely to exist beneath the site is very necessary to carry out as part of the site restoration procedure. GIS has been used to illustrate potential locations of new facilities too, for which proposed new facilities are also examined, by placing them in a 3D environment to compare different types of constructions and to perform seismic analysis.

 

• Change detection: Due to the power plant activity there is a chance of potential harm or massive impact on the surrounding ecosystem, such as the atmosphere, local bodies of water, vegetation, and wildlife, GIS is used to process that and measure how the attributes of a particular area have changed over the period of time.  GIS enables nuclear-decommissioning authorities to take these conditions into account when planning, but also to monitor and respond to any changes that occur either naturally or as a result of their activity.

 

• Nuclear Waste Management: There are many risks involved in incorrect disposal site selection, this selection should be done based on studying environmental and socioeconomic circumstances of each area, incorporation of AHP model and GIS, some main layers are determined and provided the weightage by classifying them as water resources, slope, population centers, roads, protected areas etc. in order to choose the most effective layer for site selection.

 
Conclusion

GIS is used to track, analyze, and manage data related to demolition planning activities. The process involves the digitization of topo sheets and manual data into GIS-database. The Geodatabase provides a platform to manage all historical and current spatial information. Photographs and other raster data are linked to spatial features to provides error-free reporting of sample results.

Even though eliminating radioactive materials is not an easy and simple task, the use of GIS allows nuclear-decommissioning authorities to restrict and manage of the hazard risk