Radioactive waste disposal Radioactivity

Nuclear energy Nuclear facilities Nuclear fission Nuclear fuel Nuclear fuel elements Nuclear fuels Nuclear industry Nuclear power plants Nuclear reactors Radioactive decontamination Radioactive waste disposal Radioactive wastes Spent nuclear fuels... 

The geologic aspects of waste disposal (24—26), proceedings of an annual conference on high level waste management (27), and one from an annual conference on all types of radioactive waste (28) are available. An alternative to burial is to store the spent fuel against a long-term future energy demand. Uranium and plutonium contained in the fuel would be readily extracted as needed. 

K. B. Krauskopf, Radioactive Waste Disposal and Geology, Chapman and Had, London and New York, 1988. 

Directions in Eow-Eevel Radioactive Waste Management A Brief History of Commercial Eow-Eevel Radioactive Waste Disposal, DOE/LLW-103, Rev. 1, The National Low-Level Waste Management Program, INEL, Idaho Eads, Idaho, Aug. 1994. 

M. R. English, Siting Eow-Eevel Radioactive Waste Disposal Facilities The Public Poliy Dilemma, Quomm Books, New York, 1992. 

Technology Descriptions The use of thermoplastic solidification systems in radioactive waste disposal has led to the development of waste containment systems that can be adapted to industrial waste. In processing radioactive waste with bitumen or other thermoplastic material (such as paraffin or polyethylene), the waste is dried, heated and dispersed through a heated, plastic matrix. The mixture is then cooled to solidify the mass. 

Waste management is a field that involves tlie reduction, stabilization, and ultimate disposal of waste. Waste reduction is tlie practice of minimizing file amount of material tliat requires disposal. Some of the common ways in which waste reduction is accomplished are incineration, compaction, and dewatering. The object of waste disposal is to isolate tlie material from tlie biosphere, and in the case of radioactive wtiste, allow it time to decay to sufficiently safe levels. 

FIGURE 17.30 This 35-year-old drum of radioactive waste has corroded and leaked radioactive materials into the soil. The drum was located in one of the nuclear waste disposal sites at the U.S. Department of Energy s Hanford, Washington, nuclear manufacturing and research facility. Several storage sites at this facility have become seriously contaminated. 

The laboratory operator must make a careful examination of all wastes that will be generated and, from this, work up a waste disposal system. Some wastes may be compatible and could be disposed of together. Others could react and thus cause problems. Flammables must be given special attention. Certain biological wastes may be very hazardous even in small quantities. Special rules apply to radioactive materials, even in the small amounts used for investigative purposes. 

Low level waste from commercial facilities is buried on site. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has projected the activities and volumes of low level radioactive waste from all sources buried at commercial sites to the year 2000 using information from the Idaho National Environmental and Engineering Laboratory (INEEL) waste retrieval project and assuming that the waste disposal practices then used would continue into the future. The 20-year decayed 241Am and 243Am concentrations were estimated to be 380 and 230 pCi/m3 (14 and 8.5 Bq/m3), respectively (Kennedy et al. 1985). 

Arthur WJ, Janke DH. 1986. Radionuclide concentrations in wildlife occurring at a solid radioactive waste disposal area. Northwest Sci 60(3) 154-165. 

Arthur WJ, Markham OD, Groves CR, et al. 1987. Radionuclide export by deer mice at a solid radioactive waste disposal area in southeastern Idaho. Health Phys 52(l) 45-53. 

EPA. 2001d. Radioactive waste disposal An environmental perspective. Low-level radioactive waste. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, http //www.epa.gov/radiation/radwaste/llw.htm. March 13, 2001. 

Janke DH, Arthur WJ. 1985. Radionuclide transport by cottontail rabbits at a radioactive waste disposal area. Northwest Sci 59(3) 221-229. 

Organophosphate ester hydraulic fluid components have also been detected in groundwater near a hazardous waste site (1.7 pg/L tributyl phosphate) (Sawhney 1989) and in surface water from a radioactive waste disposal site (triphenyl phosphate and tributyl phosphate) (Francis et al. 1980). Organophosphate... 

Francis AJ, Iden CR, Nine BJ, et al. 1980. Characterization of organics in leachates from low-level radioactive waste disposal sites. Nuclear Technol 50 158-163. 

Highway Maintenance Activities Storage areas and direct application Radioactive Waste Disposal... 

After equilibration, the amount of bound and free-labeled antigen can be measured, and a calibration curve can be used to determine the analyte. Radioactive labels have been extensively used because of the sensitivity of the measurement however, they have several disadvantages, such as the waste disposal problem and the unstable nature of reagents. CL tags were therefore considered attractive alternatives due to their low (excellent) detectability, which was not fully provided by most fluorescent labels. 

Table 1. Sedimentation Rates and Curve Fitting of 210Pb Measurements in Cores Collected at the U. S. Radioactive Waste Disposal Sites Near the Farallon Islands 60 km off San Francisco and at the Hudson Canyon, 350 km off New York City.

By combining the findings of Cacchione, Drake and the results reported here, a coherent model can be proposed to explain the deposition inventory of the radionuclides. The down-canyon current transports large quantities of sediment toward the radioactive waste disposal site at 4000 m. Within the upper canyon, fine material is transported the furthest. Near the mouth of the canyon, sediment erosion of the walls occurs due to the down-canyon currents meeting a proposed opposing on-shore bottom current. The eroded material from the walls is transported and the finer material is deposited in eddies formed where the two currents meet. 

Schell, W. R., and Sugai, S., Radionuclides at the U. S. Radioactive waste disposal site near the Farallon Islands, Health Physics, 39 475-496 (1980). 

Halford, D.K., O.D. Markham, and G.C. White. 1983. Biological elimination rates of radioisotopes by mallards contaminated at a liquid radioactive waste disposal area. Health Phys. 45 745-756. 

Hydrohalogenation, 10 597 Hydroiodic acid (HI), 14 360, 374. See also Hydrogen iodide Hydroisoquinolines, 21 205, 206 Hydrolases, 3 675-676 Hydrologic cycle, 26 2-3. See also Hydrogeochemical cycle(s) carbon circulation in, 26 27—30 chlorine circulation in, 26 31 nitrogen circulation in, 26 32 sulfur circulation in, 26 30-31 Hydrology, in radioactive waste disposal, 25 856, 857... 

Low-level radioactive waste (LLW), 25 851. See also Low level wastes (LLW) disposal of, 25 857-859 medical/biological, 25 865-866 storage of, 25 855 treatment of, 25 853 Low-level radioactive waste disposal facility, operation of, 25 858 Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act of 1980, 25 852... 

---