Radioactive waste From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Radioactive waste is a waste product containing radioactive material. It is usually the product of a nuclear process such as nuclear fission , though industries not directly connected to the nuclear power industry may also produce radioactive waste. Radioactivity diminishes over time , so in principle the waste needs to be isolated for a period of time until it no longer poses a hazard . This can mean hours to years for some common medical or industrial radioactive wastes, or thousands of years for high-level wastes from nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons reprocessing. The majority of radioactive waste is "low-level waste ", meaning it has low levels of radioactivity per mass or volume . The main approaches to managing radioactive waste to date have been segregation and storage for short-lived wastes, near-surface disposal for low and some intermediate level wastes, and deep burial or transmutation for the long-lived, high-level wastes. A summary of the amounts of radioactive wastes and management approaches for most developed countries are presented and reviewed periodically as part of the IAEA Joint Convention on Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. [1] Types of radioactive waste Removal of very low-level waste Although not significantly radioactive, uranium mill tailings are waste. They are byproduct material from the rough processing of uranium-bearing ore. They are sometimes referred to as 11(e)2 wastes, from the section of the U.S. Atomic
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Radioactive wasteFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Radioactive waste is a waste product containing radioactive material. It is usually the product of a nuclear
process such as nuclear fission, though industries not directly connected to the nuclear power industry may
also produce radioactive waste.
Radioactivity diminishes over time, so in principle the waste needs to be isolated for a period of time until it
no longer poses a hazard. This can mean hours to years for some common medical or industrial
radioactive wastes, or thousands of years for high-level wastes from nuclear power plants and nuclear
weapons reprocessing.
The majority of radioactive waste is "low-level waste", meaning it has low levels of radioactivity
per mass or volume.
The main approaches to managing radioactive waste to date have been segregation and storage for short-
lived wastes, near-surface disposal for low and some intermediate level wastes, and deep burial or
transmutation for the long-lived, high-level wastes.
A summary of the amounts of radioactive wastes and management approaches for most developed
countries are presented and reviewed periodically as part of the IAEA Joint Convention on Safety of Spent
Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management.[1]
Types of radioactive waste
Removal of very low-level waste
Although not significantly radioactive, uranium mill tailings are waste. They are byproduct material from the
rough processing of uranium-bearing ore. They are sometimes referred to as 11(e)2 wastes, from the
section of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act that defines them. Uranium mill tailings typically also contain
chemically hazardous heavy metals such as lead and arsenic. Vast mounds of uranium mill tailings are left
at many old mining sites, especially in Colorado, New Mexico, andUtah.
Low level waste (LLW) is generated from hospitals and industry, as well as the nuclear fuel cycle. It
comprises paper, rags, tools, clothing, filters, etc., which contain small amounts of mostly short-lived
Under US law, transuranic waste is further categorized into "contact-handled" (CH) and "remote-handled"
(RH) on the basis of radiation dose measured at the surface of the waste container. CH TRUW has a
surface dose rate not greater than 200 mrem per hour (2 mSv/h), whereas RH TRUW has a surface dose
rate of 200 mrem per hour (2 mSv/h) or greater. CH TRUW does not have the very high radioactivity of
high level waste, nor its high heat generation, but RH TRUW can be highly radioactive, with surface dose
rates up to 1000000 mrem per hour (10000 mSv/h). The US currently permanently disposes of TRUW
generated from nuclear power plants and military facilities at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.[19]
[edit]Management of waste
Modern medium to high level transport container for nuclear waste.
See also: High-level radioactive waste management, List of nuclear waste treatment
technologies, and Environmental effects of nuclear power
Of particular concern in nuclear waste management are two long-lived fission products, Tc-99 (half-life
220,000 years) and I-129 (half-life 17 million years), which dominate spent fuel radioactivity after a few
thousand years. The most troublesome transuranic elements in spent fuel are Np-237 (half-life two million
years) and Pu-239 (half life 24,000 years).[20] Nuclear waste requires sophisticated treatment and
management to successfully isolate it from interacting with thebiosphere. This usually necessitates
treatment, followed by a long-term management strategy involving storage, disposal or transformation of
the waste into a non-toxic form.[21] Governments around the world are considering a range of waste
management and disposal options, though there has been limited progress toward long-term waste
management solutions.[22]
Here is your hazardous waste
A hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environmentThere are four factors that determine whether or not a substance is hazardous:
U.S. environmental laws (see Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) additionally describe a "hazardous waste" as a waste (usually a solid waste) that has the potential to:
cause, or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality (death) or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible illness; or
pose a substantial (present or potential) hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of, or otherwise managed.
These wastes may be found in different physical states such as gaseous, liquids, or solids. Furthermore, a hazardous waste is a special type of waste because it cannot be disposed of by common means like other by-products of our everyday lives. Depending on the physical state of the waste, treatment and solidification processes might be available. In other cases, however, there is not much that can be done to prevent harm.
In addition to releasing gases and particles into the atmosphere, humans produce waste that is dumped on the environment. Often, this waste is hazardous and dangerous to both nature and human life.
The levels of dangerous wastes continue to grow. Industries and individuals continue to be largely unaware of this major environmental problem. As a result, many people and industries are failing to prevent the creation of hazardous waste or to limit the negative effects it produces. Individuals often throw out goods without realizing that they are headed for a landfill and could be dangerous for the environment. No matter where people put these hazardous waste materials, there is always a chance that they could find their way into the ground, and eventually into our bodies. Corporations usually want to avoid the costs associated with having to limit creation of hazardous waste. Consequently, they build landfills on site and fill them with waste, or sometimes pay to have their waste removed. Often, hazardous materials are transported to areas that accept money to take the waste. It may prove very difficult to reduce hazardous waste in the future. Unlike many other environmental problems, waste creation is something people do not often think about.
In the future, people may have to reduce not only their generation of hazardous waste, but also their consumption of many products that end up in landfills.
Hazardous waste is produced both on a huge scale by major industries and on a relatively tiny scale by individuals. No matter where it comes from, waste can be dangerous.
One of the main causes of the abundance of hazardous waste is that people do not realize how large a problem it is. Because it can be simply removed and sent to a landfill, it is often assumed that the problem ends there. Industries have often displayed an unwillingness to find ways to deal with hazardous waste because of the expenses associated with it.
Many industries and governments create crude landfills to store waste, and often just dump waste chemicals into nearby bodies of water. Chemicals used for industrial processes often create dangerous forms of waste. The amount of these chemicals has risen heavily in the past, as more areas of the world industrialize and new products are produced. Over 80,000 different chemicals are used in industries worldwide. Often, it is difficult and expensive to get rid of these chemicals and to store them in a way that does not endanger human life or the environment. Obviously, not all of these chemicals are dangerous, but many are and they do create serious problems.
Around the world, hundreds of millions of tons of hazardous waste are produced annually. Rather than cleaning up or storing waste more carefully, one method of reducing the hazardous waste problem may be to simply stop producing so much of it.
As with air pollution and many other environmental problems, hazardous waste can be controlled through input and output controls. The government can increase regulations on the disposal of hazardous waste to ensure that problems do not occur. It could also limit the amount of waste industries are allowed to produce, or provide incentives to create less waste. After hazardous waste has been created, there are several actions that can be taken. Industries can break down chemical compounds into less dangerous forms, or store waste in ways that protect the environment from being exposed to the waste. Not only major industries but individuals as well must form part of the solution. They can choose not to buy those products which require the production of hazardous waste, attempt to influence policymakers, and produce less hazardous waste themselves. Many scientists think that waste production can be cut. Experts say that waste can be reduced by at least one-third using existing technologies and methods.
Some countries, including many in
Europe, are working to reduce waste levels. A great deal of success is being achieved in eliminating this serious problem.
massive migration of people to industrial towns & cities from rural
areas during the 18th century. There was a consequent increase in
industrial & domestic wastes posing threat to human health & environment.
Archeologists found that early solid waste management consisted of digging pits & throwing garbage into them. When human cities began to be more concentrated, solid waste management became a serious issue. Houses that did not have room to bury their garbage would throw it into the streets, making a stroll to the corner store an unpleasant prospect. In response, many cities started to set up municipal garbage collection, in the form of rag & bone men who would buy useful garbage from people & recycle it, or waste collection teams which would dispose of unusable garbage.
Need For Solid Waste MangementThere is a need for solid waste management as it causes many
problems.Some of them are:
Garbages have bad smells & releases toxic fumes which effects
the surrounding vegetation.
It makes the place untidy.
It is aplace of infectious scavengers
These all result in health problems & environmental pollution
Waste has played a tremendous role in history.Some of the diseases
caused due to improper h&ling of waste management are listed
below:
The Bubonic Plague, cholera & typhoid fever were some diseases that
altered the populations of Europe & influenced monarchies. They
were perpetuated by filth that harbored rats, & contaminated
Incineration is the process of destroying waste material by burning it. Incineration is carried out both on a small scale by individuals, and on a large scale by industry. It is recognised as a practical method of disposing of hazardous waste materials (such as bio-medical waste). This method is useful for disposal of residue of both solid waste management and solid residue from waste water management.This process reduces the volumes of solid waste to 20% to 30% of the original volume. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes described as "thermal treatment". Incinerators convert waste materials into heat, gas, steam and ash.
safe disposal of incinerator waste was a major problem. In the mid-1990s, experiments in France and Germany used electric plasma torches to melt incinerator waste into inert glassy pebbles, valuable in concrete production. Incinerator ash has also been chemically separated into lye
and other useful chemicals.
Though still widely used in many areas especially in developing countries, incineration as a waste management tool is becoming controversial for several reasons.
it may be a poor use of many waste materials because it destroys not only the raw material, but also all of the energy, water, and other natural resources used to produce it. Some energy can be reclaimed as electricity by using the combustion to create steam to drive an electrical generator, but even the best incinerator can only recover a fraction of the caloric value of fuel materials.
incineration creates toxic gas and ash, which can harm local populations and pollute groundwater. Modern, well-run incinerators take elaborate measures to reduce the amount of toxic products
released in exhaust gas. But concern has increased in recent years about the levels of dioxins that are released when burning mixed waste.
Combustion in an incinerator is not always perfect and there have been concerns about micro-pollutants in gaseous emissions from incinerator stacks.
Particular concern has focused on some very persistent organics such as dioxins, furans, PAHs,... which may be created within the incinerator and afterwards in the incinerator plume which may have serious environmental consequences in the area immediately around the incinerator.
Recycling
Recycling refers to the widespread collection and reuse of everyday
waste materials such as empty beverage containers. These are
collected and sorted into common types so that the raw materials from
which the items are made can be reprocessed into new products.
Material for recycling may be collected separately from general waste
using dedicated bins and collection vehicles, or sorted directly from
mixed waste streams.
The most common consumer products recycled include aluminum such
as beverage cans, copper such as wire, steel food and aerosol cans, old
steel furnishings or equipment , glass bottles and jars, paperboard cartons,
newspapers, magazines and light paper, and corrugated fiberboard boxes.
maximising efficiencies. The intention of biological processing in
waste management is to control and accelerate the natural process of
decomposition of organic matter.
Methods of biological decomposition are differentiated as being aerobic
or anaerobic methods, though hybrids of the two methods also exist.
Anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of Municipal Solid Waste
has been found to be in a number of LCA analysis studies to be more
environmentally effective, than landfill or incineration. The resulting
biogas though must be used for electricity and heat preferably on or
close to the site of production and can be used with a little upgrading
in gas combustion engines or turbines. With further upgrading to
synthetic natural gas it can be injected into the natural gas network or
further refined to hydrogen for use in stationary cogeneration fuel
cells. Its use in fuel cells eliminates the pollution from products
of .An example of waste management through composting is the
Green Bin Program in Toronto, Canada, where household organic waste
are collected in a dedicated container and then composted.
himaani
Composting and Digestion aditiWaste materials that are organic in nature, such as food scraps and paper products, are increasingly being recycled. These materials are put through a composting or artificial digestion process to decompose the
organic matter and kill pathogens. The organic material is then recycled as mulch or compost for agricultural or landscaping purposes.
There are a large variety of composting methods and technologies, varying in complexity from simple window composting of shredded plant material, to automated enclosed-vessel digestion of mixed domestic waste. Composting methods can be broadly categorised into aerobic or anaerobic methods, although hybrids of the two methods also exist.
The famous Composting and Digestion Programs
The Green Bin Program, a form of organic recycling used in Markham,
Ontario, Canada, makes use of anaerobic digestion to reduce the
amount of garbage shipped to Michigan, in the United States.
The City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada has adopted large-scale
composting to deal with its urban waste. Its composting facility
is the largest of its type in the world, representing 35% of
Canada's centralized composting capacity. The $100-million co-
composter allows Edmonton to recycle 65% of its residential
waste. The co-composter iself is 38,690 square metres in size,
equivalent to 8 football fields. It's designed to process 200,000
tonnes of residential solid waste per year and 22,500 dry tonnes
of biosolids, turning them into 80,000 tonnes of compost
A relatively recent idea in waste management has been to treat the waste material as a resource to be exploited, instead of simply a challenge to be managed and disposed of. There are a number of different methods by which resources may be extracted from waste: the materials may be extracted and recycled, or the calorific content of the waste may be converted to electricity.
The process of extracting resources or value from waste is variously referred to as secondary resource recovery, recycling, and other terms. The practice of treating waste materials as a resource is becoming more common, especially in metropolitan areas where space for new landfills is becoming scarcer. There is also a growing acknowledgement that simply disposing of waste materials is unsustainable in the long term, as there is a finite supply of most raw materials.
There are a number of methods of recovering resources from waste
materials, with new technologies and methods being developed
continuously
Technologies
Traditionally the waste management industry has been slow to adopt new technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification tags(RFID tags), GPS and integrated software packages which enable better
quality data to be collected without the use of estimation or manual data entry.
Technologies like RFID tags are now being used to collect data on presentation rates for curb-side pick-ups which is useful when examining the usage of recycling bins or similar.
Benefits of GPS tracking is particularly evident when considering the efficiency of ad hoc pick-ups (like skip bins or dumpsters) where the collection is done on a consumer request basis.
Integrated software packages are useful in aggregating this data for use in optimisation of operations for waste collection operations.
Rear vision cameras are commonly used for OH&S reasons and video recording devices are becoming more widely used, particularly concerning residential services and contaminations of the waste stream.
Solid Waste handling and transportSolid Waste collection methods vary widely among different countries and regions. Domestic waste collection services are often provided by local government authorities, or by private companies in the industry. Some areas, especially those in less developed countries, do not have a formal waste-collection system. Examples of waste handling systems include:
In Australia & Canada, curbside collection is the method of disposal of waste. Every urban domestic household is provided with three bins: one for recyclables, another for general waste and another for garden materials - this bin is provided by the municipality if requested. Also, many households have compost bins which is not provided by the municipality. To encourage
recycling, municipalities provide large recycle bins, which are larger than general waste bins. Municipal, commercial and industrial, construction and demolition waste is dumped at landfills and some is recycled. Household waste is segregated: recyclables sorted and made into new products, and general waste is dumped in landfill areas. Some landfill gas is captured for fuel or electricity generation. Households and industries are not charged for the volume of waste they produce.
In Europe and a few other places around the world, a few communities use a proprietary collection system known as Envac, which conveys refuse via underground conduits using a vacuum system. Other vacuum-based solutions include the MetroTaifun single-line and ring-line systems.
In Taipei, the city government charges its households and industries for the volume of rubbish they produce. Waste will only be collected by the city council if waste is disposed in government issued rubbish bags. This policy has successfully reduced the amount of waste the city produces and increased the recycling rate.
In Israel, the Arrow Ecology company has developed the ArrowBio
system, which takes trash directly from collection trucks and separates organic and inorganic materials through gravitational settling, screening, and hydro-mechanical shredding. The system is capable of sorting huge volumes of solid waste, salvaging recyclables, and turning the rest into biogas and rich agricultural compost. The system is used in California, Australia, Greece, Mexico, the United Kingdom and in Israel.
Solid Waste management conceptsThere are a number of concepts about solid waste management which vary in their usage between countries or regions. Some of the most general, widely used concepts include:
Waste hierarchy - The waste hierarchy refers to the "3 Rs" reduce, reuse and recycle, which classify waste management strategies according to their desirability in terms of waste minimization. The waste hierarchy remains the cornerstone of most waste minimization strategies. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste.
Extended producer responsibility - Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a strategy designed to promote the integration of all costs associated with products throughout their life cycle into the market price of the product. Extended producer responsibility is meant to impose accountability over the entire lifecycle of products and packaging introduced to the market. This means that firms which manufacture, import and/or sell products are required to be responsible for the products after their useful life as well as during manufacture.
Polluter pays principle - the Polluter Pays Principle is a principle where the polluting party pays for the impact caused to the environment. With respect to waste management, this generally refers to the requirement for a waste generator to pay for appropriate disposal of the waste.
List of waste disposal incidentsThis is a list of notable waste disposal incidents.
Incident Description Date LocationAcerinox accident radioactive contamination 1998 SpainAgriculture Street Landfill United StatesAtari video game burial 1983 United StatesBajzë Rail Station chemical contamination 1991 Albania
Gold mine at Kingston, Queensland toxic waste Australia
Lake Karachayradioactive waste dump site
Russia
Love Canal toxic waste dump United StatesMartin County sludge spill water pollution 2000 United StatesMayapuri radioactive contamination 1986 India
Minamata Bay mercury poisoningcause of Minamata disease
1932-68
Japan
Mobro 4000 garbage barge 1987 United StatesMunisportRadioactive waste dumping by the 'Ndrangheta
radioactive waste Italy
Saint John, New Brunswick harbour cleanup
sewerage Canada
Seveso disaster toxic pollutant 1976 Italy
Spodden Valley asbestos controversy 2004United Kingdom
Sydney Tar Ponds hazardous waste Canada
Syringe Tide1987-88
United States
Techa River radioactive contamination RussiaTeckomatorp 1970s SwedenTimes Beach, Missouri dioxin scare 1983 United StatesTonoshō, Kagawa industrial waste dump JapanTui mine tailings dam New Zealand
Archaeological studies show that a clan of Native Americans in what is now Colorado produced an average of 5.3 pounds of waste a day.[citation needed]
2 500 BCAthens Greece
First municipal dump in the Western world. Regulations require waste to be dumped at least a mile from the city limits.[citation needed]
3New Testament of Bible
Jerusalem Palestine
The valley of Gehenna (also called Sheol) is a dump outside of the city that periodically burns. It becomes synonymous with "hell": "Though I descent into Sheol, thou art there."
4 1388 EnglandEnglish Parliament bars waste disposal in public waterways and ditches.
5 1400 Paris FranceWaste piles so high outside of Paris gates that it interferes with city defense.
6 1690 PhiladelphiaRittenhouse Mill, Philadelphia produces paper from recycled fibers originating from waste paper and rags.
7 1820'sLondon, England
Almost 100% of the waste collected by "dust-men" is recycled/recovered/reused through manual separation and sieving in "dust-yards", the main product being the fine fraction of coal-ash, remaining after coal burning in households ("dust").[4] The system had many similarities to informal sector recycling, prevailing in today's environmentally developing countries.
8 1842 England
Edwin Chadwick's Report of an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain linked disease to filthy environmental conditions. The "age of sanitation" begins.
9 1874Nottingham England
A new technology called "The Destructor", patented by Albert Fryer and built by Manlove, Alliott & Co. Ltd., provides the first systematic incineration of refuse in Nottingham, England. Until this time, much of the burning had been incidental, a result of methane production.
101885 Governor's Island New
First waste incinerator is built in United States.
Washington, D.C., reports that the country is running out of appropriate places for refuse.
121896 United StatesWaste reduction plants for compressing organic wastes arrives in US. Later closed because of noxious emissions.
131898 New York New York opens first waste sorting plant for recycling.
14Turn of the 20th century
Waste problem seen as one of the greatest problems facing local authorities.
151900
[[Intensive pig farming] is developed to consume fresh or cooked waste. Later, in the mid-1950s, an outbreak of vesicular exanthema of swine virus results in the destruction of thousands of pigs that had eaten raw waste. A law is passed requiring waste to be cooked before feeding it to swine.
151916New York City
New York City citizens produce 4.6 pounds of refuse per day.
171914 United StatesApproximately 300 incinerators operating in the US for burning waste.
181920'sLandfills become a popular way to reclaim swamp land while getting rid of trash.
191954Olympia, Washington
The city of Olympia, Washington, pays for return of aluminum cans.
201965 United States First US federal solid waste management laws enacted.211968 Companies begin to buy back recyclable containers.
221970 United StatesFirst Earth Day celebrated. Environmental Protection Agency created.
231976 United States
As a result of the 1974 oil embargo and discovery (or recognition) of Love Canal, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is created to emphasizing recycling and waste management.
241979 United States EPA issue criteria for the prohibition of open dumping.
try to adjust the table in 1 page by deleting some of the rows.
Avoidance and reduction methods by ordinary man
An oridinary man: An important method of Solid waste management is the prevention of waste material
being created, also known as waste reduction. Methods of avoidance include reuse of second-hand products, repairing broken items instead of buying new, designing products to be refillable or reusable, encouraging consumers to avoid using disposable products
such as disposable cutlery, removing any food/liquid remains from cans, packaging, and designing products that use less material to achieve the same purpose,for example, lightweighting of beverage cans.
Kitchen is a good place of organic solid waste and this can be made into compost & used for gardens
Reuse containers to store food in ur refrigirator instead of using Al foil/plastic. Keep rags in the kitchen to wipe spills instead of using paper towel evertime. While shopping change ur attitude.This makes loot of differnce in the environment. Use paper bags which are biodegradable. Use recharchable batteries than disposable batteries. Students can use slates/blackboards at home for practice & revision instead of papers. Shiny gift wrappers are not eco friendly. There for paint papers & decorate them as it is
biodegradable. Use cloth handkerchief instead of disposable tissues Avoid using paper plates,tissues etc in parties Instead of sending greeting caeds send e-mail. Don’t buest too much of crackers during any ocassion as it causes pollution & produces
more wastes. Flowers used for decorations and poojas can be used as compost. Segregate the wastes Reuse plastic bottels as pencil stand. Donate all furnitures and clothes instead of just throwing it away. Reduce the use of Poly bags Use natural ayuevedic medicines than chemical medicines.