Pollution Impact And Remedies

RADIOACTIVE WASTE

Presented By Abhishek G. Mane Roll No. 12

Certain elements that compose matter emit particles and radiations spontaneously. This phenomenon is referred to as radioactivity. It cannot be altered by application of heat, electricity or any other force and remains unchangeable. Three different kinds of rays, known as alpha, beta and gamma rays are associated with radioactivity. The alpha rays consist of particles (nuclei of helium atoms) carrying a positive charge, beta rays particles have negative charge (streams of electrons) and gamma rays are charge less electromagnetic radiation with shorter wavelengths than any X-rays. Radioactive elements decay at different rates. Rates are measured as half-lives that is, the time it takes for one half of any given quantity of a radioactive element to disintegrate. The longest half-life is that of the isotope 238U of uranium. It is 4.5 billion years. Some isotopes have half-lives of years,

Measurement

Radioactivity is measured in Becquerel (Bq) units. 1 Bq = 1 decay or disintegration per second. Curie (Ci) was used earlier and 1 Ci = 37 billion Bq (3.7 1010 disintegrations per second) or 37 Bq = 1 nano-Ci. To measure the health risk through ionization, in the US the most commonly used unit is rem or mrem (millirem). In Europe, the most commonly used measuring unit for this purpose is Sv (Sievert) or mSv (milli-Sv). Conversion of rem to Sieverts: 1 rem = 0.01 Sv = 10 mSv.

NATURAL RADIOACTIVITY

Nature has been a large producer of radioactive waste. Over the years, the surface of the Earth and the terrestrial crust happens to be an enormous reservoir of primordial radioactivity. Small amounts of radioactive materials are contained in mineral springs, sand mounds and volcanic eruptions. Essentially all substances contain radioactive elements of natural origin to some extent or the other. The second source of radioactive waste is a part of industrial mining activity where, during mineral exploration and exploitation one excavates the primordial material from the Earth that contains radioactivity, uses part of it and rejects the radioactive residues as waste.

ARTIFICIAL RADIOACTIVITY

Radioactivity was discovered about a hundred years ago. Following the Second World War and discovery of the fission process, human activity added radioactivity artificially to the natural one. Two main sources have been: The civilian nuclear programmes, including nuclear power production, medical and industrial applications of radioactive nuclides for peaceful purposes The military nuclear programme, including atmospheric and underground nuclear-weapon testing and weapon production

(a)

(b)

Common radioactive isotopescommon activitiesnuclear Radiation doses from produced during reactions

Source: Adapted from Idaho State Universitys Radiation and Risk website).

Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology, such as research and medicine. As nuclear power and arsenal grow, continuous monitoring and immobilization of the waste over several decades and centuries and deposition in safe repositories, assumes great relevance and importance. A summary of the amounts of radioactive wastes and management approaches for most developed countries are presented and reviewed periodically as part of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. Radioactive waste typically comprises a number of radioisotopes: unstable configurations of elements that decay, emitting ionizing radiation which can be harmful to humans and the environment. Those isotopes emit different types and

The majority of waste originates from the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear weapons reprocessing. However, other sources include medical and industrial wastes, as well as naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) that can be concentrated as a result of the processing or consumption of coal, oil and gas, and some minerals

Low-level radioactive waste

Volume-wise it may be larger than that of high-level radioactive waste or intermediate-level radioactive waste or transuranic waste, but the radioactivity contained in the low-level radioactive waste is significantly less and made up of isotopes having much shorter half-lives than most of the isotopes in high-level radioactive waste or intermediate-level waste or transuranic waste. Large amounts of waste contaminated with small amounts of radionuclides, such as contaminated equipment (glove boxes, air filters, shielding materials and laboratory equipment) protective clothing, cleaning rags, etc. constitute low-level radioactive waste. The level of radioactivity and half-lives of radioactive isotopes in low-level waste are relatively small. Storing the waste for a

High-level radioactive waste

High-level radioactive waste is the waste consisting of the spent fuel and the liquid effluents arising from the reprocessing of spent fuel. It consists of material from the core of a nuclear reactor or a nuclear weapon. This waste includes uranium, plutonium and other highly radioactive elements created during fission. The radioactive fission fragments decay to different stable elements via different nuclear reaction chains involving , and emissions to innocuous levels of radioactivity, and this would take about 1000 years. Most of the radioactive isotopes in high-level waste emit large amounts of radiation and have extremely long half-lives (some

Sufficiently high exposure can lead to cancer. Radioactive nuclides of elements like 137Cs or 90Sr or 131I are the most hazardous on the scale of a human beings' lifetime. Other long-life nuclides like 239Pu, 241Am, 237Np pose a long-term hazard, on the other hand, to future generations. Ionizing radiation causes deletions in chromosomes. If a developing organism such as an unborn child is irradiated, it is possible a birth defect may be induced. In humans it has been calculated that a 5 sievert dose is usually fatal, and the lifetime risk of dying from radiationinduced cancer from a single dose of 0.1 sieverts is 0.8%, increasing by the same amount for each additional 0.1 sievert

Radioactive waste management involves minimizing radioactive residues, handling waste packing safely, storage and safe disposal in addition to keeping sites of origin of radioactivity clean. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is promoting acceptance of some basic tenets by all countries for radioactive waste management. These include:

(i) Securing acceptable level of protection of human health (ii) Provision of an acceptable level of protection of environment (iii) Negligible effects beyond national boundaries (iv) Impact on future generations

Geologic disposal in deep geological formations whether under continental crust or under seabed as a means of radioactive waste disposal has been recognized since 1957, for handling long-lived waste. The deep geological sites provide a natural isolation system that is stable over hundreds of thousands of years to contain long-lived radioactive waste. Low-level radioactive waste is generally disposed in nearsurface facilities or old mines. High level radioactive waste is disposed in host rocks that are crystalline (granitic, gneiss) or argillaceous (clays)

For many years the industrialized countries of the world (e.g. USA, France, Great Britain, etc.) opted for the least expensive method for disposal of the wastes by dumping them into the oceans. Before 1982, when the United States Senate declared a moratorium on the dumping of radioactive wastes, the US dumped an estimated 112,000 drums at thirty different sites in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Russia, which currently controls sixty per cent of the world's nuclear reactors, continues to dispose of its nuclear wastes into the oceans. Although radioactive waste has known negative effects on humans and other animals, no substantial scientific proof of bad effects on the ocean and marine life has been found. Oceanic Disposal Management Inc., a British Virgin Islands company, has also proposed disposing of nuclear waste by means of Free-Fall Penetrators. Essentially, waste-filled

The floor of deep oceans is a part of a large tectonic plate situated some 5 km below the sea surface, covered by hundreds of meters of thick sedimentary soft clay. These regions are desert-like, supporting virtually no life. The Seabed Burial Proposal envisages drilling these 'mud-flats' to depths of hundreds of meters, such boreholes being spaced apart several hundreds of meters. The high-level radioactive waste contained in canisters would be lowered into these holes and stacked vertically one above the other interspersed by 20 m or more of mud pumped in. Experimental work has already established that clays have the property of holding on to several radioactive elements, including plutonium; hence, seepage of these elements into saline water is minimal. The mud-flats have very low permeability to water, hence leaching probability is rather low.

It is the single viable means of disposing radioactive waste that ensures non return of the relegated material to the biosphere, and at the same time, it affords inaccessibility to eliminated weapons material. It is considered that the safest, the most sensible, the most economical, the most stable long-term, the most environmentally benign method of radioactive waste disposal. Subduction is a process whereby one tectonic plate slides beneath another and is eventually reabsorbed into the mantle. The subductive waste disposal method forms a high-level radioactive waste repository in a subducting plate, so that the waste will be carried beneath the Earth's crust where it will be diluted and dispersed through the mantle. The rate of subduction of a plate in one of the world's slowest subduction zones is 2.1 cm annually. The slow movement of the plate would seal any vertical

Yucca Mountain is located about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, adjacent to the Nevada nuclear test site, where a number of underground nuclear explosions have been conducted. The plan is to dig a cave under Yucca Mountain with two access shafts for the delivery of the nuclear waste. There will be at least 52 emplacement tunnels 18 feet in diameter (35 miles total length) within the cave where the high-level nuclear wastes will be deposited in casks to rest for at least 10,000 years. The placement of the casks in the tunnels will be by remotecontrolled railroad-style cars running along tracks. One major problem that scientists foresee for the repository is the potential penetration of rainwater into the caves, which could dissolve radioactive materials. To prevent this scenario from occurring, the storage tunnels are expected to be lined with steel, the casks covered with plastic

Radioactive waste management has been an integral part of the entire nuclear fuel cycle in India. Over the past four decades radioactive waste management facilities have been set up at Trombay, Tarapore, Rawatbhata, Kalpakkam, Narora, Kakrapara, Hyderabad and Jaduguda, along with the growth of nuclear power and fuel-reprocessing plants. Just as per capita consumption of electricity is related to the standard of living in a country, the electricity generation by nuclear means can be regarded as a minimum measure of radioactive waste that is generated by a country and hence the related magnitude of radioactive waste management. On the scale of nuclear share of electricity generation, India ranks fourth from the bottom in about 30 countries. There has been the commissioning of the fast breeder test reactor at Kalpakkam. Interim storage for 30 years is expected, with eventual disposal in a deep geological repository in crystalline rock near Kalpakkam.

Share of nuclear electricity generation in the total electricity generation Country France Sweden Korea Japan Germany UK USA Russia Canada India Share of nuclear electricity generation 75 % 47 % 42.24 % 34.65 % 31.21 % 28.87 % 19.80 % 14.41 % 12.44 2.65 %

Data as per IAEA Report of 2000

The problems associated with radioactive waste management on a long-term are major ones that humanity has not been able to come to terms with so far. It is nearly 45 years since the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was founded. Over these years the Agency has deliberated on various issues that confront radioactive waste management and has been providing guidelines and forums for technical and non-technical debates and discussions. As time passes by, new issues crop up, which need to be discussed. Changes in concepts of long-term issues on health and safety need to be addressed dose and risk for a remote time in the future are not believable, since habits of human populations are impossible to be predicted. The value of learning by holistic studies of so-called natural analogues is getting appreciated. By studying how these systems have evolved over geological time scales, one can gain insights into future repository evolution.

Its very clear Plutonium is here to stay Not for a year Forever and a Day. In time the Rockies may tumble Yucca may crumble Theyre only made of clay But Plutonium is here to stay. - Anonymous