27 Facts About Radioactive waste

Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material.

Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons reprocessing.

The storage and disposal of radioactive waste is regulated by government agencies in order to protect human health and the environment.

Radioactive waste is broadly classified into low-level waste, such as paper, rags, tools, clothing, which contain small amounts of mostly short-lived radioactivity, intermediate-level waste, which contains higher amounts of radioactivity and requires some shielding, and high-level waste, which is highly radioactive and hot due to decay heat, so requires cooling and shielding.

The Radioactive waste is subsequently converted into a glass-like ceramic for storage in a deep geological repository.

Related searches

Time radioactive waste must be stored for depends on the type of waste and radioactive isotopes it contains.

Short-term approaches to radioactive waste storage have been segregation and storage on the surface or near-surface.

All radionuclides contained in the Radioactive waste have a half-life — the time it takes for half of the atoms to decay into another nuclide.

High-level waste is full of highly radioactive fission products, most of which are relatively short-lived.

Radioactive medical waste tends to contain beta particle and gamma ray emitters.

Low-level Radioactive waste is generated from hospitals and industry, as well as the nuclear fuel cycle.

Low-level Radioactive waste is divided into four classes: class A, class B, class C, and Greater Than Class C .

Intermediate-level Radioactive waste contains higher amounts of radioactivity compared to low-level Radioactive waste.

High-level Radioactive waste is produced by nuclear reactors and the reprocessing of nuclear fuel.

Ongoing controversy over high-level radioactive waste disposal is a major constraint on the nuclear power's global expansion.

Under U S law, transuranic waste is further categorized into "contact-handled" and "remote-handled" on the basis of the radiation dose rate measured at the surface of the waste container.

Future way to reduce Radioactive waste accumulation is to phase out current reactors in favor of Generation IV reactors, which output less Radioactive waste per power generated.

Nuclear Radioactive waste requires sophisticated treatment and management to successfully isolate it from interacting with the biosphere.

Long-term storage of radioactive waste requires the stabilization of the waste into a form that will neither react nor degrade for extended periods.

The resulting glass is a new substance in which the Radioactive waste products are bonded into the glass matrix when it solidifies.

The properties of phosphates, particularly ceramic phosphates, of stability over a wide pH range, low porosity, and minimization of secondary Radioactive waste introduces possibilities for new Radioactive waste immobilization techniques.

Process of selecting appropriate deep final repositories for high-level Radioactive waste and spent fuel is underway in several countries with the first expected to be commissioned sometime after 2010.

Ocean floor disposal of radioactive waste has been suggested by the finding that deep waters in the North Atlantic Ocean do not present an exchange with shallow waters for about 140 years based on oxygen content data recorded over a period of 25 years.

Management of radioactive waste and its safe and secure disposal is a necessary step in the lifecycle of all applications of nuclear science and technology .

Radioactive waste is therefore generated in practically every country, the largest contribution coming from the nuclear energy lifecycle in countries operating nuclear power plants.

Related searches

The radioactivity of high-level radioactive waste affords proliferation resistance to plutonium placed in the periphery of the repository or the deepest portion of a borehole.

At Maxey Flat, a low-level radioactive waste facility located in Kentucky, containment trenches covered with dirt, instead of steel or cement, collapsed under heavy rainfall into the trenches and filled with water.