Chapter 11 - Radioactive Waste Management

Abstract

The technical aspects of radioactive waste management are less complex than the sociopolitical ramifications. There are several kinds of radioactive wastes classified according to their physical and chemical properties, as well as the source from which the wastes originate. For technical, legal, and political reasons, wastes that originate from the military programs are handled separately from wastes from the civilian program. A compendium on the technology of radioactive waste management is assembled in this chapter. Among the physical properties that influence the manner in which a radioactive waste should be managed are the half life of the nuclide and the chemical form in which it exists. The chapter focuses on categories of wastes as employed in the United States. These are as follows: low-level waste, simply spent fuel, high-level waste, and transuranic waste (TRU). Some radioactive wastes may also contain hazardous chemical waste, in which case it is referred to as “mixed waste.” In the United States, radioactive wastes and chemical wastes fall under different regulatory authorities, so mixed waste has been especially difficult to manage, for bureaucratic, as well as technical reasons. However, there are current efforts to regulate mixed waste according to risk rather than by a combination of the existing, often conflicting regulations for radioactive and chemically hazardous wastes.