This Presentation gives a better understanding on radioactive wastes, its production, sources, treatment, conditioning, storage and disposal.It also conveys some of the controversies on radioactive wastes in our country. The safe guidelines published by the IAEA has also been discussed.

1. RADIOACTIVE WASTES
Presented by,
Gopika Beena Chandran
M sc Medical Biotechnology
BVDU, Pune

2. WHAT IS RADIOACTIVE WASTE?
• Radioactive waste is waste that contains radioactive
material.
• gas, liquid or solid form
• mining, defense, medicine, scientific research, nuclear
power generation produce by-products that include
radioactive waste.

3. Types

4. Classification of radioactive wastes

5. Sources

6. Production of radioactive wastes
• Nuclear fuel cycle-
• series of industrial processes
• involve the production of electricity from
uranium in nuclear power reactors.
• associated with the production of electricity
from nuclear reactions.
• cycle starts with the mining of uranium and
ends with the disposal of nuclear waste.

8. Treatment and conditioning
• operations intended to change waste streams’
characteristics to improve safety or economy.
• undertaken to change waste into a form that
is suitable for safe handling, transportation,
storage, and disposal(compaction, incineraton
etc)

9. Storage and Disposal
Storage pond for used fuel at the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp) at the UK's
Sellafield site

10. • Effective management involves:
1. segregation
2. characterisation
3. handling
4. treatment
5. conditioning
6. monitoring

11. Compaction: utilises a hydraulic or pneumatic press to compress waste into a
suitable container, such as a 200-litre drum for transport either to a waste
treatment facility, where further compaction might be carried out, or to a
storage/disposal facility.

12. Cementation- provides a means to immobilise radioactive
material that is in various forms of sludges and precipitates/gels
(flocks) or activated materials, as well as fragmented solids.

13. Vitrification: The HLW waste is initially calcined (dried) to a granular
powder. The product is then incorporated into molten glass, poured into a
robust stainless steel canister about 1.3 metres high, and allowed to cool,
forming a solid matrix. The containers are then welded closed and are ready
for storage and final disposal.

15. Controversy
• The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP), Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu,
India.
• Kudankulam NPP has been a controversial project since its inception, with protests
by local residents and various activist groups over potential radiation threats and
issues related to nuclear waste disposal.
• Intensified after the Fukushima nuclear incident in Japan in 2011.

16. All U.S. nuclear power plants store spent nuclear
fuel in “spent fuel pools.”

17. International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA)
• Under the terms of Article III of its Statute, the
IAEA is authorized to establish or adopt
standards of safety for protection of health and
minimization of danger to life and property,
and to provide for the application of these
standards.

19. Recent trends....
• Scientists offer new technology to absorb
liquid radioactive waste.
• Scientists at the Academy of Sciences’ Kola
Scientific Center offer new nanomaterials to
purify liquid radioactive waste.
• By using the natural analogues, scientists have
succeeded in getting analogues of natural
minerals from available resources and
industrial waste