Radioactive-hazardous mixed waste regulation

Regulation of Radioactive and Radioactive/Hazardous Mixed Waste. 

The term mixed waste refers mainly to waste that contains radionuclides regulated under AEA and hazardous chemical waste regulated under RCRA. Dual regulation of mixed waste has no effect on classification, management, and disposal of the hazardous chemical component or on classification of the radioactive component. The effects of dual regulation of mixed waste on management and disposal of the radioactive component are summarized as follows ... 

Regulatory Definition of Hazardous, Radioactive, and Mixed Waste. Existing federal regulations give specific regulatory definitions for all waste types. Wastes that are of most Interest to environmental restoration and waste management are hazardous waste, radioactive waste, and mixed waste. 

MEPAS allows the user to prioritize hazardous, radioactive, and mixed-waste sites, based on their potential hazard to public health. MEPAS is applicable to a wide range of environmental management and regulatory conditions including inactive sites under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), and active sites releasing air and water contaminants regulated under other statutory acts. 

These units include various types of liquid waste disposal sites, underground tanks, and unplanned release sites. The wastes disposed of in these units include nonhazardous solid, hazardous radioactive, and mixed waste. Section 7.0 describes these waste units in more detail. To comply with CERCLA regulations, the four aggregate areas (100, 200, 300, and 1100) were divided into 78 operable units. Two of these units are located at N Reactor (Figure 6-2). 

The requirements for managing hazardous chemical waste are sufficiently different from those for radioactive waste that treatment and disposal of waste that contains both types of substances is greatly impeded. Large volumes of waste that contains hazardous chemicals and radionuclides (referred to as mixed waste ) are presently being stored because the inconsistency in regulations has resulted in inadequate treatment and disposal capacity. 

EPA (1986c). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. State authorization to regulate the hazardous components of radioactive mixed wastes under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 51 FR 24504 (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington). 

Hazardous waste that contains radioactive material (i.e., mixed waste) is regulated under both the AEA and RCRA. Under the AEA, the EPA has responsibility for setting radiation protection standards, which are implemented through DOE orders, e.g., Order 5820.2A for DOE radioactive materials (2 ). This dual regulation further complicates environmental restoration activities that involve mixed waste. 

Mixed waste contains both radioactive and chemically hazardous materials such as toxic, corrosive, flammable, or explosive materials. The radioactive component may be either HLW or LLW. All liquid HLW is mixed waste, usually in the presence of organic solvents or heavy metals in addition to radioactive components. Disposal of mixed wastes is regulated by the EPA under the Resource Conservation and... 

This section deals only with regulated medical or infectious waste. If waste materials have other hazardous characteristics, e g., chemical or radioactive, handling of these mixed wastes will have to comply with the standards applicable to the other hazard characteristics as well. 

Materials that pose a hazard because of significant radioactivity are outside the scope of this volume, although they may be chemically treated in a manner similar to the nonradioactive materials discussed in this chapter. Their handling and disposal are highly regulated in most countries. Low-level radioactive mixed waste is discussed in section 7.C above. 

Little or no difficulty has been experienced from the presence of mixed waste. In the licensing of SFR-1 limits on the content of non-radioactive pollutants are given. However, only relatively small amounts of hazardous chemicals are handled by producers of radioactive waste in Sweden. Anyway, due to non-specific and flexible regulation of both conventional and radioactive waste the presence of mixed waste has been of little concern. 

Most research work on the use of supercritical water has been conducted batchwise and involved non-analytical determinative applications. Thus, supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) was proposed as an alternative treatment for hazardous waste disposal [191] and also as a commercial tool for decomposing trichloroethylene, dimethyl sulphoxide and isopropyl alcohol on a pilot plant scale [192]. Current commercially available equipment (the aqua Critox" system) is usable with industrial and municipal sludge, mixed (radioactive and organic, liquid and solid) waste and military waste. This commercially available treatment has a number of advantages, namely (a) because it uses an on-site treatment method, it avoids the need to transport hazardous materials (b) it ensures complete destruction of organic wastes and allows reuse of the effluent as process water with results that meet the regulations for drinking water and (c) no licence for effluent or air emissions is needed. 

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