Stressing the Threat Posed by Radioactive Waste Disposal (Focusing on Nuclear Waste Disposal) and Proposing Solutions
For over 40 years nuclear technology has spread into many areas of modern society, enabling advances in energy production, defense, and medicine. But along with the use of nuclear technology comes an added burden --– nuclear waste.
Nuclear waste is the type of waste that results from the use and production of nuclear materials. Any activity that produces or uses radioactive materials generation, and various processes in industry, defense, medicine, and scientific research produce byproducts that include radioactive waste. Radioactive waste can be in gas, liquid or solid form, and its level of radioactivity can vary. The waste can remain radioactive form a few hours and up to hundreds of thousands of years. Since it can be such a hazard and can remain radioactive incredibly long periods of time, finding suitable disposal facilities for radioactive waste is difficult seeing as the disposal facility may contain radiation for a very long time. Proper disposal is essential to ensure protection of the health and safety of the public and quality of the environment including air, soil, and water supplies.
Radioactive waste disposal methods have changed significantly over the last twenty years. Evolving environmental protection considerations have provided the incentive to improve disposal technologies, and, in some cases, clean up facilities that are no longer in use. Designs for new disposal facilities and disposal methods must meet environmental protection and pollution prevention standards that are stricter than were foreseen at the beginning of the atomic age.
The safe and environmentally sound management of radioactive wastes is the subject of Chapter 22 of Agenda 21. The chapter notes that the radiological and safety risk from radioactive waste varies, from very low for short-lived, low-level waste, to very large for high-level waste.
The objective of Chapter 22 is to ensure that radioactive waste is safely managed, transported, stored and disposed of, with a view to protecting human health and the environment, within the wide framework of an interactive and integrated approach to radioactive waste management and safety.
Disposal of radioactive waste is a complex issue, not only because of the nature of the waste, but also because of the complicated regulatory structure for dealing with radioactive waste. There are a variety of stakeholders affected, and there are a number of regulatory entities involved.
Links:
• http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/docs/radwaste/index.html
• http://www.nrc.gov/waste.html
• http://www.uic.com.au/wast.htm
• http://www.etsu.edu/writing/3120f99/zctb3/nuclear2.htm
