This document discusses various methods for disposing of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. It describes common waste disposal techniques like decay in storage, vitrification, geological disposal in deep underground repositories, and reprocessing waste materials. The document concludes that proper disposal of nuclear waste remains a challenge and that most waste is currently stored using steel cylinders or placed in deep geologic formations to isolate it from the biosphere.

1. RADIOACTIVE WASTE
DISPOSAL METHODS
MSc. Pt 1 Environmental Science
K. J. Somaiya College of Sci and Comm.
Dhananjay Patil
Bruno Fernandes
Milind Joshi
Chirag Patel

2. Content
1. Motivation
2. Learning objective
3. Introduction
4. Methods of waste disposal
5. Conclusion
6. Facts
7. Take away message
8. References

3. Motivation
 The current trends say that nuclear power is a huge source of energy. On the
contrary the byproducts obtained after production of energy are hazardous and
have a very great impact on the environment as well as on human health.
 The well known incident of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and also the Fukushima
disaster is deeply rooted in the minds of every individual and the effects are
faced by the people till date.

4. Learning objective
 Since nuclear power being used on a large scale today our main objective is to
learn and understand the harmful after effects of these nuclear toxicants and
understand the way in which their disposal takes place without causing much
harm to the environment.
 Advantages and disadvantages of radioactive materials.

5. Introduction
 Composed of radionuclides.
 Classification
 Low, Medium, and High-level waste
 High-level waste produced in nuclear reactors
 Consists of
Fission products (short-half lives)
Actinides (long-half lives)
 Examples

6. Methods of waste
disposal
1. Decay in Storage (DIS)
2. Dump to Sanitary Sewer
3. Dispose as if not radioactive
4. Vitrification
5. Geological disposal
6. Reprocessing
7. Transmutation
8. Space disposal
9. Deep boreholes

7. Decay in Storage (DIS)
 Store waste in the laboratory if the half-life is no more than 120 days.
 “DIS” Isotopes must be held for decay for at least 10 half-lives.
 Survey monitoring of material must read close to background.
 All radioactive labeling must be defaced.
 Document in log

8. Dump to Sanitary Sewer
 Must be water soluble or readily dispersible biological material in water.
 Concentration per month is limited by the regulations, check with the
Radiation Safety Officer.
 May obtain permission from the Radiation Safety Office prior to dumping -
Only way to know if other people are dumping.

9. Dump to Sanitary Sewer
Contd.
 Annual Limit per Facility
H-3 - 5 curies
C-14 - 1 curie
 All other radionuclides combined - 1 curie

10. Dispose as if not Radioactive
 Scintillation medium containing no more than 0.05 microcuries per ml of H-3, or
C-14 may be discarded as if it was not radioactive. If chemical solvent is
disposed of properly the radioactivity will not pose a problem.
 A record shall be kept of each such disposal for the life of the license; it may be
sent to the RSO

11. Vitrification
 Radioactive waste to glass
 Low solubility
 Immobilization of waste for thousands of years.
 Widely used for storage purpose.

12. Vitrification

13. Geological
Disposal
 Burrowing nuclear waste into the ground
to the point where it is out of human reach
 Large variety of geological environments
suitable for disposal
 Depth of burial is very high
 Waste can be recovered
 Most widely used method
 Practically feasible with current
technology

14. Reprocessing
 Long term method
 Separating useful components from non useful
 Fissionable material out from irradiated nuclear fuel

16. Transmutation
 Long term disposal.
 Converting a chemical into non harmful one.
 Example: Cl to Ar, K to Ar
 Outside stimulus like proton hitting reaction materials
 Natural transmutation

17. Space Disposal
 Near infinite storage space
 Completely removes waste from biosphere Technical risks and problems
 High risk of space vehicle failure
 Relatively limited volume per launch
 High energy cost of space launch o The current cost to launch an object into orbit around
the earth is about $20,000 per kilogram.
 Beamed energy technology (BEP)

18. Deep boreholes
 Kilometers deep rather than hundreds of
meters.
 Provide Further isolation from ground
water.
 More potential borehole locations around
the globe.
 Can be created in many cases close to
power plants.

19. Conclusion
 Proper disposal of nuclear waste is still a challenging issue that constrains the growth of
nuclear power. The most currently-used method for nuclear waste disposal is storage,
either using steel cylinders as radioactive shield or using deep and stable geologic
formations.

20. References
1. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). (n.d.) Radioactive waste management
[online]. Available from: http://www.barc.gov.in/ [Accessed 10th October 2014].
2. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (1989) NEA Issue
Brief: An analysis of principal nuclear issues [online]. Available from https://www.oecd-nea.
org [Accessed 9th October 2014].
3. Th. Briggs, P. L. Kunsch and B. Mareschal. (1990) "Nuclear Waste Management: An
Application of the Multicriteria PROMETHEE Methods“ Eur. J. Oper. Res. 44, 1
4. World Nuclear Association. (2014) Radioactive Waste Management [online]. Available
from: http://www.world-nuclear.org [Accessed 9th October 2014].
5. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.(n.d.) “Radioactive waste." Available from:
http://www.nrc.gov/waste.html. [Accessed 9th October 2014].

21. Facts
 It still contains 95% of its energy. That's like taking a couple tablespoons out of a liter of
pop and throwing the rest away if we don't make use of it!
 Nuclear fuel is around 20,00,000 times more energy dense than coal, oil, and biomass.
This means the quantity of nuclear waste is super tiny for the super huge amount of
energy it produces. 20,00,000 times is like the difference between the diameter of the
moon compared to the height of an adult person
 It can be recycled, and actually produces energy while being recycled, instead of
requiring energy to recycle!
 Even including the worst accidents in worldwide nuclear history, nuclear has the best
safety record (deaths/yr) of any type of energy source, including wind, solar, natural gas,
and coal. There have been no deaths in the history of U.S. commercial nuclear power
due to exposure to nuclear waste.

22. Take away message
 Money and radioactivity go hand in hand, both have a large half life and both of
them when used in excess harms the nature

23. Thank You!