A major challenge for the global nuclear industry is to process and safely store legacy, current and future nuclear waste. That include packaged waste of different nature, some of which aligned for long-term geological disposal.

One of the most complex challenges for the industry is to characterise the contents of these shielded waste containers. Containing cemented or vitrified waste, these highly engineered packages have been designed to prevent the radiation stored within from escaping out into the environment, which therefore makes the use of conventional imaging techniques difficult, if not impossible.

With those constraints, improving waste classification, reduce storage costs or mitigate the risks associated with containment breaches, which would mandate a large-scale decontamination and repackaging programme at significant expense, is a tall order.

A new in situ characterisation method is here needed for a better evaluation of the contents of radioactive waste containers Ideally, the implementation of high precision imaging will allow for the optimisation of post-dismantling radioactive waste management and a marked reduction on associated disposal costs.