Radioactive Wastes

Abstract

Papers reviewed herein present a general overview of radioactive waste activities around the world in 2003. These include management solutions for the final disposal of low, intermediate, and high level radioactive wastes (LLW, ILW, HLW), interim storage and final disposal options for spent fuel, with a focus on environmental impacts due to the mobility of radionuclides in water (e. g., associated with reprocessing plant discharges to seawater, repository waste interactions with ground and surface water, and buried waste interactions with pore water). REPOSITORIES AND DISPOSALLong-term studies at the main interim storage sites (ISS) of the Arctic and Pacific Fleets confirmed that the conservation of the primary status during long-term storage of the used nuclear submarines (NPS) was a difficult problem (Danilyan et al., 2003). The environmental objects at each ISS contained certain amounts of fission or induced radionuclides. This study showed that afloat NPS storage did not produce any radiological hazard for the population of Russia and neighboring countries. Sailer and Kallenbach-herbert (2003) raised the issue of the interim storage in casks of spent fuel elements over prolonged periods of time. They pointed out that even on an international scale, there was little 1968 practical experience over long periods of operation, and what was available was limited to fuel elements with comparatively low burnups. They insisted that in order to avoid safety-related deviations from the specified status, a long-term monitoring program should be set up for all fuel element interim storage, which should include regular monitoring measures and a reporting phase every ten years covering all findings and results. The possibilities for final disposal of the waste components after 100 years of decay was investigated based on present and planned principles for management of radioactive waste in Germany, Sweden, France and Italy (Broden and Olsson 2003). Four different repository types intended for disposal of L/ILW or non-heat generating radioactive waste from nuclear fission facilities and other sources were considered in the study. Muraoka et al. (2003) reviewed the generation of HLW from nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities, history of nuclear waste disposal, characteristics of HLW nuclear wastes and concept for the disposal involving multibarrier system. Kwon and Choi (2003) discussed the finite element stress analysis of a spent nuclear fuel disposal canister to provide basic information for dimensioning the canister and configuration of canister components and consequently to suggest the structural analysis methodology for the disposal canister in a deep geologic repository, which was nowadays very important in the environmental waste treatment technology. Prvakova (2003) presented a probabilistic calculation for the safety assessment for Project Entsorgungsnachweis, a study about the feasibility of safe disposal of spent fuel, vitrified HLW and long-livedSwitzerland. Based on the results of sensitivity analysis, the aut...