Toxic Waste Disposal

With power, comes great responsibility, The discovery of nuclear power is

one of mankinds greatest leap in technology, but the problems risen by it also
demonstrate our inabilities to deal with our advances, and if we do not solve the
problems, we will eventually suffer from the side effects of using nuclear power.
Nuclear power provides a great amount of energy, is environmental friendly in
terms of CO2 emission and wont run out for at least another 200 years
7
. The
main source of radioactive waste nowadays comes from nuclear plants which
generates electricity by the application of nuclear fission; however, fission
reactions create byproducts unlike fusion reaction which is completely
renewable. The byproducts of nuclear energy are extremely toxic, can
contaminate the environment and cause serious health issues to humans. Hence,
finding the proper way of disposal of toxic waste is crucial for the future of
nuclear power but the solution to this problem is yet to be found even though
scientists and engineers have been working on it for years.
During the cold war, the radioactive waste problem was briefly recognized and
a great amount of radioactive waste was created in the press of create nuclear
warheads. Because of the lack of knowledge of the consequences, a huge amount
of radioactive waste was stored for future disposal.
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In addition to the
radioactive waste generated by nuclear plants nowadays, an even greater
amount of radioactive waste is waiting to be disposed. However, there are a lot
of difficulties regarding the disposal of radioactive waste. Politically, nobodies
want radioactive waste to be stored near them, which makes siting difficult.
Technologically, handling radioactive waste is still a major problem. Even though
the waste is stored safely now, it is reaching the capacity limits and we must deal
with it and find a proper way of disposal to avoid the disaster it may develop into.
The current main strategy to dispose radioactive waste is to isolate the waste
from civilization by placing it underground so the waste will eventually decay to
normal back ground level, however, this may take millions of years. Most nuclear
waste originates from the neutron irradiation of uranium fuels or targets in
civilian and defense reactors. The waste is then encapsulated in multi-metal-
barrier waste packages for disposal in a geological repository. However, it is
predicted that the waste packages will corrode and release radionuclides to the
surrounding within a few thousands years.
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The technology for safe disposal
facilities is one of the biggest technological concerns
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which requires continuous
work from scientists and engineers to solve this problem. Yucca Mountain is a
nuclear waste repository in the U.S., and one of its concerns is that if the
radionuclides released from spent fuel containers leach into groundwater, the
whole region of U.S. may become uninhabitable. However, monitored storage is a
proven technology so theres no immediate safety issue and in Yucca Mountain,
there is a groundwater protection standard
3
. Yet, in long term, we do not know
how the radioactive substances will behave in thousands of years and we cannot
predict the behavior. In order to leave future generations a maximum range of
options rather than a sealed repository
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, we must find a way to safe disposal
radioactive waste so our future generations wont be affected and suffer from the
consequences of our actions.
Vitrification is the most common way to handle radioactive waste that requires
long-term storage. Because the waste has to be stored for a long time before it
decays back to normal background level, it must be stabilized into a form which
will neither react nor degrade for an extended period of time.
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The radioactive
waste is concentrated to long-lived radionuclides, which is then washed to
remove excess aluminum and salts. It is then combined and melted with finely
grounded glass at about 1150
o
C, poured into stainless steel canisters
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and
packaged to provide additional barriers to protect the environment from being
contaminated.

The main reason to vitrification is to turn the waste in a relatively
insoluble, compact solid so it would be easier to store and handle. Also, due to
the low solubility, the chance of groundwater contamination is reduced greatly.
The most common form of vitrified waste is borosilicate glass because it is a
fairly robust waste form. In addition, it is chemically durable, resistant to
radiolysis, relatively insensitive to fluctuations in waste composition and easy to
process remotely. After the radioactive waste is incorporated into glass, it is
then stored in deep underground repository and monitored for many years.
For medium active waste in the nuclear industry, it is common to treat it with
ion exchange in another word, concentrating the radioactivity into a small
volume by using ferric hydroxide floc to remove radioactive metals from
aqueous solution. After that, the radioactive metals can be made into solid form
by mixing with cement. The solid form is then stored for it to decay
4.

Synroc is an emerging technology for immobilizing various forms of
intermediate- and high-level radioactive waste for disposal.
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(which is currently
under development for US military waste)
4
. The concept behind this technology
is similar to that behind vitrification to stabilize the waste into a form which
will neither react nor degrade for a long period of time. Moreover, using syrnoc
has a few advantages over borosilicate glass. Instead of just bonding the
radioactive waste into the glass matrix, synroc incorporates the radioactive
waste into its crystal structures so the waste can be stored for a long period of
time. Also different type of synroc waste forms can be developed for the
immobilization of different types of waste
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, while borosilicate glass may not be
suitable for all types of waste. For example, plutonium does not bind strongly to
the matrix of borosilicate glass,
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but the newly developed form of synroc can
immobilize plutonium.
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Even though synroc is still under development-phase, it
will become a more common method of nuclear waste storage because it
minimizes leaching better.
The modern technologies are capable of handling radioactive waste and there
are no immediate safety issues, but this is only a short-term solution as they are
only postponing, not solving the problem. In order to leave our future
generations an unpolluted environment, the radioactive waste must be disposed
properly and we should leave no trace behind. The most straight-forward
solution for the future is to develop a technology that can neutralize radiation.
Though it may seem absurd as it is proved scientifically impossible, I believe
that it will be invented one day.. In addition, there are some scientists working
on developing such technologies already. Tom Bearden is a physicist who came
up with a theory that it is possible to neutralize radiation by broadcasting the
exact same vibrational frequency of depleted uranium
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. Though the theory is
not proven yet, I believe that this technology will be developed in the future. Just
like 50 years ago, who would have predicted that we would have smartphones
that can carry out multiple tasks?





















References:
1. Crowley, Kevin. "Nuclear Waste Disposal: The Technical Challenges." 06
1997: 31-39. Web. 21 Jul. 2013.
2. McCombie, Charles. "Nuclear Waste Management Worldwide." 06 1997: 56-
62. Web. 21 Jul. 2013.
<http://scitation.aip.org/getpdf/servlet/GetPDFServlet?filetype=pdf&id=PHT
OAD000050000006000056000001
3. Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository>
4. Radioactive Waste Wikipedia
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste>
5. Thompson, Linda. Vitrification of Nuclear Waste. Diss. Stanford, 2010. Web.
<http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2010/ph240/thompson2/>.
6. Department of Energy, Office of Waste Management, High-Level Waste
Borosilicate Glass. A Compendium of Corrosion, Characteristics (3 vols.),
Washington, DC (1994).
7. Fetter, Steve. "How long will the world's uranium supplies last?." 26 Jan 2009:
n. page. Web. 21 Jul. 2013.
<http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-long-will-global-
uranium-deposits-last>.
8. "Synroc Wasteform." . World Nuclear Association, n.d. Web. 22 Jul 2013.
<http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Nuclear-Fuel-Cycle/Nuclear-
Wastes/Synroc/
9. Synroc Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synroc>
10. Jayhan, Phil. "How to Neutralize Radiation by Tom Bearden." 23 Jun 2005.
N.p., Online Posting toLet's Roll. Web. 22 Jul. 2013.
<http://letsrollforums.com/neutralize-radiation-tom-bearden-
t6730.html?s=713866c3501fd7feef67e0edb52c89f2&>.