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Hazardous Waste : Radioactive Materials

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Hazardous Wastes can be quite dangerous and harmful to our environment and us if they are not dealt with, treated and disposed of in the correct manner. The correct procedures must be followed thus ensuring that no laws or guidelines are broken when treating any hazardous wastes. The following report will investigate the techniques for dealing with “Radioactive Materials” such as Plutonium, Cobalt-60 and uranium hexafluoride, as well as discussing the advantages and disadvantages of one of the methods used to treat these wastes. Where possible in the report a case study will be referred to and discussed to provide a clearer understanding on the methods that are applied when it comes to the treating of these hazardous wastes.…show more content…
Evidently this means that we would need to isolate or dilute the waste so that any radionuclides that are returned to the biosphere are judged harmless. This end goal is achieved when all wastes are contained and managed; in some instances they may even need permanent burial. (Ref: Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), Radioactive Wastes in the UK: A Summary of the 2010 Inventory, (February 2011) 2.2 Types/Classes of Radioactive Wastes: Radioactive wastes must be identified correctly, and this can be quite difficult when there are many types/classes of radioactive wastes. Identification must be accurate when deciding which processes must be taken to treat and/or dispose of particular wastes. Below is a list of the various types of radioactive wastes; • Exempt waste & very low level waste: Comprises of radioactive materials which are not considered harmful to people or the surrounding environment. Mainly it is comprised of demolished building (bricks, plaster, metal, concrete etc.) • Low-level waste: Low-level waste mainly comes from places such as hospitals and manufacturing, the nuclear fuel cycle can produce some LLW as well. Some examples are; rags, filters, paper, tools etc. All of these may contain short-term radioactivity. • Intermediate-level waste: ILW
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