The British Radwaste Information Management System & the production of the UK Radioactive Waste Inventory

摘要

The aim of the BRIMS project is to provide a generic, industry-standard tool capable of the long-term preservation of radioactive waste-related data created during all phases of waste management. It has received extensive support from the industry during its development in terms of technical input and funding. Many organisations have now committed themselves to incorporating BRIMS in their radioactive waste information management strategy. The development of BRIMS has been undertaken in a methodical way over a period of about six years. Discussions concerning its functionality has encouraged stakeholders to focus on the issue of waste-related information requirements and to identify some of the fundamental issues and challenges. The project philosophy is such that stakeholder involvement is key to its success. Having gained agreement for the basic functionality and design, significant progress has now been made to provide effective, yet flexible, tools for managing a wide-range of information. BRIMS has been developed to the point where it provides a set of common tools for the management of a large proportion of waste-related information reflecting the main phases in waste management; creation and characterisation (WIV), conditioning and packaging (WPV) and storage and disposal (WFV). The commonality of the system components, from the information preserved to data file structure, will significantly aid the inevitable exchange of information during the lifetime of the waste. Commonality also has the distinct benefit of minimising the costs of developing and maintaining a large database.