The safe management of radioactive wastes is of paramount importance in gaining both governmental and societal support for nuclear energy. The scope of this new textbook is to provide a comprehensive perspective on all types of radioactive wastes as to how they are created, classified, characterized, and disposed.Written to emphasize how geology and radionuclide chemistry impact waste management, this book is primarily designed for engineers who have little background in geology with low-level wastes, decommissioning wastes, high-level wastes and spent nuclear fuel.This textbook provides the most up-to-date information available on waste management in several countries. The content of this work includes transporting radioactive materials to disposal facilities. The textbook cites numerous case studies to illustrate past practices, current methodologies and to provide insights on how radioactive wastes may be managed in the future. An international perspective on waste management is also provided to help the readers better understand the diversity in approaches while highlighting what many countries have in common. Review questions for classroom use are provided at the end of each chapter.Related Link(s)

This reviews sources of radioactive waste and introduces radioactive decay and radiation shielding calculations. It covers technical and regulatory aspects of waste management with discussion questions at the end of each chapter to provide an opportunity to explore the many facets of waste management issues. An extensive reference list at the end of each chapter retains the references from the first edition of the book and incorporates references used in preparing this revised text, giving readers an opportunity to look at historical records as well as current information.

The Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management (DOE) is responsible for the safe cleanup of sites used for nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. Low-level radioactive waste (LLW) is the most volumetrically significant waste stream generated by the DOE cleanup program. LLW is also generated through commercial activities such as nuclear power plant operations and medical treatments. The laws and regulations related to the disposal of LLW in the United States have evolved over time and across agencies and states, resulting in a complex regulatory structure. DOE asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to organize a workshop to discuss approaches for the management and disposition of LLW. Participants explored the key physical, chemical, and radiological characteristics of low-level waste that govern its safe and secure management and disposal in aggregate and in individual waste streams, and how key characteristics of low level waste are incorporated into standards, orders, and regulations that govern the management and disposal of LLW in the United States and in other major waste-producing countries. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that nuclear power generation facilities produce about 200,000 cubic meters of low and intermediate-level waste each year. Vital medical procedures, industrial processes and basic science research also produce significant quantities of waste. All of this waste must be shielded from the population for extended periods of time. Finding suitable locations for disposal facilities is beset by two main problems: community responses to siting proposals are generally antagonistic and, as a result, governments have tended to be reactive in their policy-making. Decision-making and Radioactive Waste Disposal explores these issues utilizing a linear narrative case study approach that critically examines key stakeholder interactions in order to explain how siting decisions for low level waste disposal are made. Five countries are featured: the US, Australia, Spain, South Korea and Switzerland. This book seeks to establish an understanding of the political, economic, environmental, legal and social dimensions of siting across those countries. This valuable resource fills a gap in the literature and provides recommendations for future disposal facility siting efforts. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of environmental law, justice, management, politics, energy and security policy as well as decision-makers in government and industry.

To complement the growing body of knowledge on the physical aspects of radioactive waste disposal, this new report identifies the "socioeconomic and institutional" policy issues that must be addressed in implementing the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Site location, transportation modes, disposal schedules, regulatory systems, and the effects of these systems on the people living near the sites and along the transportation routes are addressed.

Focused attention by world leaders is needed to address the substantial challenges posed by disposal of spent nuclear fuel from reactors and high-level radioactive waste from processing such fuel. The biggest challenges in achieving safe and secure storage and permanent waste disposal are societal, although technical challenges remain. Disposition of radioactive wastes in a deep geological repository is a sound approach as long as it progresses through a stepwise decision-making process that takes advantage of technical advances, public participation, and international cooperation. Written for concerned citizens as well as policymakers, this book was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and waste management organizations in eight other countries.

This book describes essential and effective management for reliably ensuring public safety from radioactive wastes in Japan. This is the first book to cover many aspects of wastes from the nuclear fuel cycle to research and medical use, allowing readers to understand the characterization, treatment and final disposal of generated wastes, performance assessment, institutional systems, and social issues such as intergenerational ethics. Exercises at the end of each chapter help to understand radioactive waste management in context.

The largest volumes of radioactive wastes in the United States contain only small amounts of radioactive material. These low-activity wastes (LAW) come from hospitals, utilities, research institutions, and defense installations where nuclear material is used. Millions of cubic feet of LAW also arise every year from non-nuclear enterprises such as mining and water treatment. While LAW present much less of a radiation hazard than spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive wastes, they can cause health risks if controlled improperly. Improving the Regulation and Management of Low-Activity Radioactive Wastes asserts that LAW should be regulated and managed according to the degree of risk they pose for treatment, storage, and disposal. Current regulations are based primarily on the type of industry that produced the waste-the waste's origin-rather than its risk. In this report, a risk-informed approach for regulating and managing all types of LAW in the United States is proposed. Implemented in a gradual or stepwise fashion, this approach combines scientific risk assessment with public values and perceptions. It focuses on the hazardous properties of the waste in question and how they compare with other waste materials. The approach is based on established principles for risk-informed decision making, current risk-informed initiatives by waste regulators in the United States and abroad, solutions available under current regulatory authorities, and remedies through new legislation when necessary.