Hazardous Waste : Radioactive Materials

Identified wastes in the current processes using the seven wastes as a guide to what should be looked for. The question was asked, “Why did this waste occur?” and, “What can be done to prevent it?”.

While reading Richard A. Muller Nuclear Waste a professor of physics from the University of California. I really enjoyed the reading and learning how nuclear waste “is one of the biggest technical issues that any president is likely to face”. In this chapter he also spoke of Plutonium which is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with symbol Pu and atomic number 94. Richard also went on to say that there is a “safe” nuclear waste disposal located in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. In order to keep the waste disposal safe, it is buried in a storage room in which is 1000 feet below the surface.

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill is a short novel about domestic abuse and the struggles of restrained family life. The narrator, who has no name, tells the story from her perspective as the daughter of a mother who is being abused by a man who replaced her late husband. While the narrator is suspicious, her mother is hiding her pain and abusive relationship with the Crane throughout the story. The passage that I chose above is from Chapter 14, page 88, in which the narrator finally discovers the horrifying truth about her mother’s abuser for herself and acts as the story’s climax. The reason it stood out to me in particular was the descriptive writing telling of the Crane’s appearance and the apparent shock of the narrator.

2. Nuclear Waste Disposal – Again a massive problem as the spent Nuclear Rods of Nuclear Reactors are prohibitively costly and difficult to dispose of. Spent nuclear fuel is initially very highly radioactive and so must be handled with great care and forethought. (10'000 years according to United States Environmental Protection Agency standards).There is no foolproof way to dispose nuclear waste fuel after it is used in the Nuclear Reactors. The area around Nuclear Waste Sites can be dangerous to humans for hundreds of year as complex nuclear elements have half lives running into many years. The United States had accumulated more than 50,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors. Permanent storage underground in U.S. had been proposed at the Yucca but that project has now been effectively cancelled. There is presently no adequate safe long-term storage for radioactive and chemical waste

Nuclear Waste The essay “Nuclear Waste” by Ricard A. Muller talks about the controversial matter of the disposure of radioactive waste. Despite the overwhelming concerns of citizens, Richard Muller believes the dangers associated with the transportation and deposit of nuclear waste is not as paramount as the issue may seem. The concepts that seems most alarming to the public are the number of year it takes for the radioactivity of the waste to subside and where it will be stored in the mean time that will not affect their safety. As Muller explains, ”Even after 100,000 years the radiation will still be above 10% of the level it had when it left the reactor.

There are two major categories of nuclear waste. High-level waste (HLW) and low-level waste (LLW). HLW has high amounts of radioactive materials in a small volume, and it also contains radionuclides with long half-lives .HLW is mainly composed of spent fuel and waste generated by military applications; on the other hand, LLW is generated from mining and excavation activities. [2].

Nuclear waste is a by-product of the uranium enrichment process and the operation of nuclear power plants. One of the most common radioactive isotopes found in nuclear waste is plutonium-239, which is capable of causing cancer-related fatalities for millions of people in very small amounts. Other isotopes include iodine-129, cesium-137, and uranium-238, all of which are highly radioactive and have half-lives in the tens of

Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2001The three bins shown in Fig 12 are used to dispose of the recyclables and organics in common. In the airport construction, there is a central waste area at which the waste (including recyclables and organics) is stored. Stockpiles and bins are used for storing, which are labelled and monitored. The typical 3 Bin garbage system is located throughout the community elsewhere. The first type is yellow bin, which is used for collecting recyclables. And the second one is a green bin for green waste. The last one is red bin.

Iodine-131 is radioactive iodine with an eight day half-life, resulting in a large amount of absorption in the thyroid gland (Alcalay, 2011). Cesium-137 is similar to potassium with a 30 year half-life which concentrates in muscle, and is found in contaminated soil and food grown in these areas (Alcalay, 2011). Strontium-90 is similar to calcium, with a 28 year half-life which concentrates in bone, soil and ground water (Alcalay, 2011). Plutonium-239 is deemed as one of the greatest toxins found on earth with a half-life of 24,000 years (Alcalay, 2011). If strontium-90 is absorbed it is known to cause cancer and now it is, unfortunately, in the soil and ground water of the Marshall Islands (Alcalay,

The particular case study in review was an incident involving a waste Mercury reclaiming facility which contaminated the surrounding area to include a body of water. Any form of hazardous material contamination to the environment is a serious issue that should be taken with immediate serious reactions. Anytime a hazardous material is handled, moreover one that has been expended from its primary use should come with the automatic question of how proper disposal must be conducted. There is generally zero excuse for openly dumping a non-natural substance, let alone a waste product into nature. Operations dealing with hazardous chemicals need to use common sense and good housekeeping despite any delay in production or efficiency when results can have detrimental impacts to the environment furthermore the good standings of their operation.

The definition of low-level waste is negative. Meaning, commercial radioactive wastes that do not fall under the category for high-level wastes, or uranium and thorium milling wastes, are classified as low-level radioactive waste (NRC 2015c). The low-level wastes can

The current management strategies are based around ensuring that no significant environmental damage will occur over tens of thousands of years after the wastes have been disposed off. The three current principles for radioactive waste

Radioactive waste. What is it? Radioactive waste is what the name says it is; radioactive and waste. Basically, it is anything that has been exposed to a radioactive nuclear substance and is not in use of anyone anymore so it is declared as trash. Also bear in mind that any definitions or information varies in different countries. Now, there are many different types of waste, ranging from the least amount of hazard to the greatest amount of hazard. The ones with the least amount of radioactivity tend to have shorter lives. They decay in less than 30 years and are called, “short-lived”. The ones with a greater amount of radioactivity perish in more than 30 years and are called, “long-lived”. Let’s break these types of wastes into three parts. Low-level waste (LLW), Intermediate-level waste (ILW), and High-level waste (HLW).

When a waste cause threat to human health, it is considered as hazardous (RCRA, 1978). According to RCRA of USA all the wastes are solid

Congress passed The Solid Waste Disposal Act in 1965. The Agency of Environmental Safety considered this Act as the primary effort made by federal authority for efficient waste clearance technology. This act controls the dumping material; manage storage and management of solid, both and non-precarious and precarious wastage. It highlights the processes that are environmentally liable to dispose waste at the commercial, municipal, industrial and household levels (Tchobanoglous & Vergara, 2010). This was considered as primary initiative of a chain of systems focusing on resource management and air cleaning (Gerlak, 2005). There have been several major adjustments made to the Act with the reference to Resource Recovery and Conservation Act (1976). The involvement of federal