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Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons reprocessing. The storage and disposal of radioactive waste is regulated by government agencies in order to protect human health and the environment.
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987, is a proposed deep geological repository storage facility within Yucca Mountain for spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste in the United States. The site is on federal land adjacent to the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada, about 80 mi (130 km) northwest of the Las Vegas Valley.
KBS-3 is a technology for disposal of high-level radioactive waste developed in Sweden by Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB) by appointment from Statens Strålskyddsinstitut. The technology was developed by studying different natural storage facilities such as the natural reactor in Oklo, Gabon and the uranium mine in Cigar Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. The general theory is that radioactive rock in these sites has been present for thousands of years, and has not affected the health and well-being of human populations. KBS-3 is also to be used in Finland at the Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository, being built by Posiva.
The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is an intergovernmental agency that is organized under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Originally formed on 1 February 1958 with the name European Nuclear Energy Agency (ENEA)—the United States participated as an Associate Member—the name was changed on 20 April 1972 to its current name after Japan became a member.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, in New Mexico, US, is the world's third deep geological repository licensed to store transuranic radioactive waste for 10,000 years. The storage rooms at the WIPP are 2,150 feet underground in a salt formation of the Delaware Basin. The waste is from the research and production of United States nuclear weapons only. The plant started operation in 1999, and the project is estimated to cost $19 billion in total.
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 is a United States federal law which established a comprehensive national program for the safe, permanent disposal of highly radioactive wastes.
A deep geological repository is a way of storing hazardous or radioactive waste within a stable geologic environment, typically 200–1,000 m below the surface of the earth. It entails a combination of waste form, waste package, engineered seals and geology that is suited to provide a high level of long-term isolation and containment without future maintenance. This is intended to prevent radioactive dangers. A number of mercury, cyanide and arsenic waste repositories are operating worldwide including Canada and Germany. Radioactive waste storage sites are under construction with the Onkalo in Finland being the most advanced.
OKG AB is a Swedish corporation who owns and operates the Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant. It is majority owned by Sydkraft.
The Clab, also known as Centralt mellanlager för använt kärnbränsle is an interim radioactive waste repository located at Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant about 25 km north of Oskarshamn. Clab used to be owned by Oskarshamnsverkets Kraftgrupp AB (OKG) but is now owned by Svensk Kärnbränslehantering Aktiebolag (SKB). It was opened in 1985 for the storage of spent nuclear fuel from all Swedish nuclear power plants. The fuel is stored for 30 to 40 years, in preparation for final storage.
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency is a Japanese atomic energy company. While it inherited the activities of both JNC and JAERI, it also inherited the nickname of JAERI, "Genken" 原研, an abbreviated word for "nuclear research".
High-level radioactive waste management addresses the handling of radioactive materials generated from nuclear power production and nuclear weapons manufacture. Radioactive waste contains both short-lived and long-lived radionuclides, as well as non-radioactive nuclides. In 2002, the United States stored approximately 47,000 tonnes of high-level radioactive waste.
The Deep Geologic Repository Project (DGR) was a proposal by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) in 2002 for the site preparation, construction, operation, decommissioning and abandonment of a deep geological radioactive waste disposal facility for low and intermediate-level radioactive waste (L&ILW). In 2005, the municipality of Kincardine, Ontario volunteered to host the facility located on the Bruce nuclear generating station adjacent to OPG's Western Waste Management Facility (WWMF). The facility would have managed L&ILW produced from the continued operation of OPG-owned nuclear generating stations at the Bruce, Pickering Nuclear Generating Station and Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in Ontario. In May 2020, after 15 years of environmental assessment, OPG withdrew its application for a construction license on Saugeen Ojibway Nation Territory.
Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory (Äspölaboratoriet) is a research site located outside Oskarshamn in Kalmar County, Sweden. The laboratory is located in the Misterhult archipelago, near the Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant .
Hydraulic fracturing is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "fracking fluid" into a wellbore to create cracks in the deep rock formations through which natural gas, petroleum, and brine will flow more freely. When the hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, small grains of hydraulic fracturing proppants hold the fractures open.
The Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository is a deep geological repository for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. It is near the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in the municipality of Eurajoki, on the west coast of Finland. It will be the world's first long-term disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel. It is being constructed by Posiva, and is based on the KBS-3 method of nuclear waste burial developed in Sweden by Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB). The facility will be operational by 2026, and decommissioned by 2100.
Radioactive sources are used for logging formation parameters. Radioactive tracers, along with the other substances in hydraulic-fracturing fluid, are sometimes used to determine the injection profile and location of fractures created by hydraulic fracturing.
The Wolseong Low- and Intermediate-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Center (WLDC) is a facility used to safely house low- to intermediate-level radioactive waste (LILW) at Gyeongju in South Korea. The facility features a silo-type design, and its first stage allowed for up to 100,000 barrels of storage, which increased to a total capacity of 800,000 upon completion of the final stage.
A Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future was appointed by US President Barack Obama to look into future options for existing and future nuclear waste, following the ending of work on the incomplete Yucca Mountain Repository. In 2012, there were 70 nuclear power plant sites where 65,000 short tons of spent fuel is stored in the US. Each year, more than 2,000 short tons (1,800 t) are added to this total. Nine US states have "explicit moratoria on new nuclear power until a storage solution emerges". A deep geological repository seems to be the favored approach to storing nuclear waste.
Jan-Olov Liljenzin (1936-2019) was a Swedish chemist and professor in nuclear chemistry.
The Underground Research Laboratory was a test site for deep geological repository of nuclear waste operated by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's (AECL's) Whiteshell Laboratories near Lac du Bonnet in Manitoba, Canada. The site was built inside a large granite batholith, typical of the Canadian Shield. The site was selected in 1980, construction began in 1982 and it opened in 1985. No radioactive material was stored at the site, it was used purely for measurements of water exchange, rock movement, and other issues that would affect the safety of such materials. The site was also used by a variety of international users. As part of the wider wind-down of AECL activities, the decision was made to close the URL in 2003. Cleanup work began in 2006 and completed in 2010. The site continues to host a single international experiment measuring water leakage through a massive clay plug.
References
- ↑ Tatomir, A., McDermott, C., Bensabat, J., Class, H., Edlmann, K., Taherdangkoo, R., & Sauter, M. (2018) https://www.adv-geosci.net/45/185/2018/. Conceptual model development using a generic Features, Events, and Processes (FEP) database for assessing the potential impact of hydraulic fracturing on groundwater aquifers, Advances in Geosciences, v.45, p185-192.
- ↑ Mazurek, M.; Pearson F.J.; Volckaert G.; Bock H. (2003). Features, Events and Processes evaluation catalogue for argillaceous media (PDF). Nuclear Energy Agency, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (NEA, OECD). OECD 2003 Report NEA4437.
- ↑ NEA, OECD (2007). "RWM Nuclear Energy Agency". Nuclear Energy Agency, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (NEA, OECD). Archived from the original on 2005-10-23. Retrieved 2005-10-18.
- ↑ Skagius, Kristina; Ström, Anders; Wiborgh, Marie (1995). The use of interaction matrices for identification, structuring and ranking of FEPs in a repository system. Application on the farfield of a deep geological repository for spent fuel. SKB TR 95-22. Archived from the original on 2007-10-17. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
- ↑ SKB R-04-32: Interim FEP report for the safety assessment SR-Can. Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB. 2004.
- ↑ SKB TR-06-20: FEP report for the safety assessment SR-Can. Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB. 2006.
