Radioactive waste, disposition

Stewart, M. W. A., Begg, B. D. et al. 2003. Ion irradiation damage in zirconate and titanate ceramics for plutonium disposition. Proceedings of ICEM 03 The 9th International Conference on Radioactive Waste Management and Environmental Remediation, in press. 

Fig, 39. Panorama of options for consideration in 1lie disposition of radioactive wastes. (Top portion of rhnrt Options for disposition of low- and intermediate-level and cladding wastes. Bottom portion of chart Options for disposition of high-level wastes)... 

The disposition of the radioactive waste resulting from spent nuclear-fuel reprocessing is one of the major problems of nuclear technology. Many of these wastes are high-level (HLW) and present a potential environmental hazard. Because of the expense associated with long-term storage, it is desirable to minimize the volume of radioactive waste and store it as material with maximal chemical stability to avoid the dissipation of radionuclides in the environment. 

The hazardous waste classification system recommended by NCRP is depicted in Figure 6.1 at the beginning of Section 6. This proposal was developed with two fundamental objectives in mind. First, all wastes that contain radionuclides, hazardous chemicals, or mixtures of the two should be included in the same classification system. A comprehensive hazardous waste classification system should be developed to replace the separate, and quite different, classification systems for radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes, as well as the separate classification systems for radioactive waste that arises from operations of the nuclear fuel cycle and NARM waste. Second, all hazardous wastes should be classified based on considerations of risks to the public that arise from disposition of the material. In this Report, permanent disposal in a permitted facility for hazardous or nonhazardous waste is the assumed disposition of waste containing hazardous substances that has no further use to its present custodian. An important consequence of these two objectives is that the same rules should apply in classifying any waste that contains hazardous substances. 

C. The device must be immediately double wrapped in plastic. The outside container must be labeled BROKEN TRITIUM DEVICE - DO NOT OPEN . Store the broken device outside in a secured container. Contact the supply item manager of the damaged equipment for disposition instructions. Dispose of used gloves as radioactive waste per direction of the local RSO, and then wash hands well. 

Since that time the objects of the industry have changed from military to civil applications and three generations of plant have been constructed and operated. The United Kingdom reasonably can claim to have technical and industrial competence in all of the aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle, although the experience of the final disposition of highly radioactive waste is limited and affected necessarily more by social and political factors than by technology. 

Disposition or disposal of chemicals from the end-user facility follows established programs for the disposal of chemicals based on their classification. Examples of different classifications include radioactive wastes, hazardous wastes, mixed wastes, sanitary wastes, and high-level wastes. Chemicals that are not consumed are evaluated by the CCMC for usability. If it is determined that the ehemicals are viable and usable, they are declared as excess and accepted into the Excess Chemical Program and are thus made available for use by any organization on site. 

Board on Radioactive Waste Management, National Research Council (1999). Discussion Papers prepared for the Workshop on Disposition of High-Level Radioactive Waste Through Geological Isolation, National Academy Press, Washington, DC. 

HLW generally refers to materials requiring permanent isolation from the environment. It frequently arises as a by-product of nuclear power generation (reprocessing streams or spent fuel) or from the isolation of fissile radionuclides from irradiated materials to be used in nuclear weapons production. When nuclear fuel from reactor operations (civilian or defense) is chemically processed, the radioactive wastes include highly concentrated liquid solutions of nuclear fission products. Typically, these waste streams are solidified either in a glass (vitrification) or in another matrix. Both the liquid solutions and the vitrified solids are considered HLW. If the nuclear fuel is not processed, it too, is considered as HLW and must be dispositioned. The path most often proposed is direct, deep geologic isolation. 

National Research Council. 1999. Disposition of high-level radioactive waste through geological isolation Development, current status, and technical and policy challenges. Natl. Academy Press, Washington, DC. ... 

All the countries that produce nuclear waste have chosen the same alternative for the ultimate disposition of HLW, deep geological isolation, and they did so indepeiideiitly of one another. The United States has the most radioactive nuclear waste and the most complicated array of waste types of any nuclear country. Only in the United States can one find the same economy of scale for waste handling. Thus, it leads the world in most activities aimed at safe isolation. Ill France, Japan, and Great Britain, however, reprocessing is routinely practiced. Those countries reprocess HLW for many other countries. As mentioned above, reprocessing is not currently allowed in the United States. 

Of the many radioactive and inert constituents in waste solutions, only Tc and lanthanides coextract with actinides into the Truex process solvent. Trivalent lanthanides follow Am and Cm when the latter are stripped with dilute HNO3 depending on the disposition of the americium and... 

NCRP did not undertake a detailed investigation into the kinds and quantities of radioactive or hazardous chemical wastes containing low levels of hazardous substances that might be classified as exempt, based on the consideration that allowable dispositions should pose no more than a negligible risk or dose. Rather, published studies are cited to indicate that substantial quantities of waste currently managed as radioactive or chemically hazardous waste... 

Lambert SL, Kim DS (1994) Tank Waste Remediation System High-Level Waste Feed Processability Assessment Report. Westinghouse Hanford Company, C-SP-1143, UC-811 Lexa D (1997) Development of a substituted-fluorapatite waste form for the disposition of radioactive and toxic fluoride salt materials. Argoime National Laboratory Report ANL-NT-52, 21 p Lindberg ML, Ingram B (1964) Rare-earth silicate apatite from the Adirondack Mountains, New York. U S Geol Surv Prof Paper 501-B 64-65... 

The massive production of radionuclides (radioactive isotopes) by weapons and nuclear reactors since World War II has been accompanied by increasing concern about the effects of radioactivity upon health and the environment. As illustrated in Figure 4.15 and by the specific examples shown in Table 4.7, radionuclides are produced as fission products of heavy nuclei of such elements as uranium or plutonium and are also produced by the reaction of neutrons with stable nuclei. The ultimate disposition of radionuclides formed in large quantities as waste products in nuclear power generation poses challenges with regard to the widespread use of nuclear power. Artificially produced radionuclides are also widely used in industrial and medical applications, particularly as tracers. Radionuclides may enter aquatic systems from both artificial and natural sources, and their transport, reactions, and biological concentration in aquatic ecosystems can be a water pollution concern. 

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