Analysis of the State of Normative Regulation in the Management of Low-Level Wastes

Abstract

It is shown on the basis of an analysis of regulatory-legal documents that the assumptions characterizing very low-level wastes contain semantic contradictions and critical discrepancies of a classifi cation nature regarding wastes containing natural radionuclides and are not consistent with the absolute values of the bounding indices -the dose rates and specifi c activity. The presence of these uncertainties and inconsistencies in the regulatory documentation makes reaching the primary objective of introducing very low-level wastes as a category -reduction of the cost of managing wastes by lowering the requirements for their isolation -problematic. Some variants of the elimination of normalization shortfalls are proposed.The category 'very low-level wastes', which has been harmonized on an international level, was introduced in our country in 2010 in order to lower the requirements of isolation of these wastes and thereby lower the cost of disposal [1,2]. However, the expectations associated with the possibility of cost optimization were not justified, since the requirements and disposal tariffs for such wastes are the same as for low-level wastes [3,4]. This situation does not suit the operating organizations, budget-financing managers, or private investors and can cast doubts on the meaningfulness of the actions taken by regulators. For this reason, there are grounds for expecting changes to be made in the corresponding regulatory-legal acts for which an analysis of the definitions and quantitative indicators of very low-level wastes, the results of which are presented below, could be helpful.