MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES

Colin A. Mawson, Yuan Ding

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Radioactive waste may be defined as solid, liquid, or gaseous material of negligible economic value containing radionuclides in excess of threshold quantities. High level wastes (HLW) are produced in the first cycle of reprocessing spent nuclear material and are strongly radioactive. Intermediate level wastes (ILW) can be divided into short lived, with half lives of twenty years or less, and long lived, in which the half lives of some constituents may be thousands of years. Low level wastes (LLW) contain less than 4 GBq/ton of alpha emitters and less than 12 GBq/ton of beta and gamma emitters. Very low level waste (VLLW) contains activity concentrations less than 0.4 MBq/ton.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationEncyclopedia of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fifth Edition
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages627-641
Number of pages15
ISBN (Electronic)9781439851869
ISBN (Print)9780849398438
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2006

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Environmental Science
  • General Engineering

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