Radioactive wastes, ocean dumping

Kadioactive Waste Dumping. Numerous proposed solutions for dumping radioactive wastes, including ocean burial, are described in the article on Nuclear Power Technology. ... 

Disposals The final placement or destruction of toxic, radioactive, or other wastes surplus or banned pesticides or other chemicals polluted soils and drums containing hazardous materials from removal actions or accidental releases. Disposal may be accomplished through use of approved secure landfills, surface impoundments, land farming, deep-well injection, ocean dumping, or incineration... 

Prior to the above-related revelations about former Soviet disposals of radioactive wastes in the marine environment, more than 98% of packaged low-level radioactive material disposed of in the oceans was believed to be dumped at deep sites in the North Atlantic Ocean. 92% of the total activity was dumped in the eastern basin. While, in general, 98% of the total radioactivity disposed of comprised beta-gamma emitters, small quantities of alpha-emitting nuclides were also included. At the two main sites in... 

World War II made a dramatic change to this. The race that began in order to be the first to develop mass-destruction weapons based on nuclear energy is well known. Following this came the development of nuclear reactors for commercial production of electricity. From the rapidly growing nuclear industry, both military and commercial, radioactive waste was produced and became a problem. As with many other waste problems, discharges to the sea or ocean dumping were looked upon as the simplest and thereby the best and final solution. 

The first ocean dumping of radioactive waste was conducted by the USA in 1946 some 80 km off the coast of California. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published in August 1999 an Inventory of radioactive waste disposal at sea according to which the disposal areas and the radioactivity can be listed as shown in Table 1. 

Low-level radioactive waste gives off small amounts of ionizing radiation, is usually generated in small quantities, and need only be safely stored for relatively short periods of time due to the half-lives of the radioisotopes involved. Low-level nuclear waste includes such things as contaminated laboratory clothing, cleaning equipment and supplies, medical waste that is radioactive, and discarded radioactive devices such as smoke detectors. It is only necessary to safely store this waste for periods of 100-500 years. Prior to about 1979, most waste of this type was sealed in steel drums and dumped into the ocean. Current procedures require that such waste be stored in steel drums and buried in secure sites under several feet of soil (Figure 13.14). 

Radioactive substances The principal sources of radionuclides released into the environment include nuclear weapon testing fallout from accidents such as the Chernobyl accident in 1986 or from foundering of nuclear submarines from the dumping of nuclear waste into the deep ocean and from discharges from nuclear power plants and nuclear reprocessing plants. 

This act bans dumping of radioactive, biological, and chemical warfare wastes in the ocean. It requires permits for dumping of sewage sludge and dredged materials. 

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