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Nuclear Waste
Nuclear waste is defined as any waste that results
from using radioactive materials for purposes
that include electricity production by nuclear
power plants, defense activities and nuclear weapons
manufacture, medical treatment, nuclear research,
industrial processes, and mining and milling of
uranium ore.
Nuclear wastes consist of various radionuclides
in the liquid, gaseous, or solid phase. The nuclei
or radionuclides disintegrate to other nuclides
through emission of alpha or beta particles, often
accompanies by gamma rays. This decay is caused
by nuclear instability and in independent of environment.
Individual atoms decay at random, although each
radionuclide decays with a characteristic half-life,
i.e. the time for half the original quantity of
radionuclide to decay.
The safe handling and disposal of nuclear wastes
generated by the commercial nuclear industry has
been an important and continuous problem to the
public since the earliest days of nuclear power.
Nuclear waste needs to be managed in a ways as
to minimize the immediate and long-term effects
on humans and the environment, nuclear waste management
is but one of the problems still affecting public
acceptance of nuclear energy.
The main objective in managing and disposing
of radioactive waste is to protect people and
the environment. This means isolating or diluting
the waste so that the rate or concentration of
any radionuclides returned to the biosphere is
harmless.
To achieve this for the more dangerous wastes
(long-lived ILW and HLW), the preferred technology
to date has been deep and secure burial in a geological
repository. Transmutation, long-term retrievable
storage, burial in the ocen floor, and removal
to space have also been suggested.
LLW and short-lived ILW are disposed of in various
ways, mostly in shallow burial. They are often
incinerated or compacted first, to reduce their
volume. Near-surface disposal of such wastes has
been going on in about 70 facilities in several
countries for over 35 years. A further 30 repositories
are expected to open in the next few years.
The nuclear wastes discussed are high-level,
low-level, and transuranic wastes produced as
a consequence of using fissionable material, e.g.
Uranium, as a source of nuclear energy. Other
activities produce radioactive wastes. Tailings
and wastes from phosphate extraction and from
other mining and beneficiation processes, which
contain significant quantities of naturally occurring
radionuclides.
References
The following three sections relating to Nuclear
Waste have been researched using the below list
of references:
- Institute
for energy and environmental research.
- Office
of Civilian Radioactive Waste management
- Nuclear
SA
- Nuclear Waste Management, 1982, Environmental
Engineering Division, American Society of Engineers,
U.S.A
- Institute
for energy and environmental research.
- http://www.uic.com.au/wast.htm
- http://www.nrc.gov/waste.html
- http://www.epa.gov/radiation/mixed-waste/
- http://www.radioactivewaste.gov.au/
- http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/radioactivity/waste/
- http://www.radwaste.org/ngo.htm
- http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/nuclear/waste
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