In response to the accelerated cleanup goals of the Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratory (Sandia) has developed and utilized a number of simulation models to represent the processing, transportation, and disposal of radioactive waste. Sandia, in conjunction with Simulation Dynamics, has developed a Supply Chain model of the cradle to grave management of radioactive waste. Sandia has...

Strategies for sampling shallow soils at hazardous waste sites are employed primarily to evaluate levels and distributions of contamination. The ensuing analyses of potential public health impacts are therefore dependent on the sampling design rather than having the sampling design based on the data needs for evaluating potential public health impacts of shallow soil contamination. We define a ...

Canister integrity and radionuclides retention is of prime importance for assessing the long term safety of nuclear waste stored in engineered geologic depositories. A comparative investigation of the interaction of uranyl ion with three different mineral surfaces has thus been undertaken in order to point out the influence of surface composition on the adsorption mechanism(s). Periodic DFT cal...

experiments, for aqueous Cr(VI) solutions having low buffering capacities, over the Cr(VI) concentration range of 5 – 40 mg/L. The results showed that the initial Cr(VI) concentration significantly affects the reduction capacity of scrap iron. Maximum reduction capacity of scrap iron was observed at the beginning of the column experiments; the lower the Cr(VI) concentration, the greater the exp...

Following the ban on deep sea disposal of radioactive wastes in 1983 the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in the United Kingdom (UK) has stored plutonium (Pu) and uranium (U) contaminated wastes on site in 200 l steel drums or as wrapped packages containing filters or other materials. This was because of difficulty in demonstrating compliance with the with the 100 Bq/g Pu alpha activity limit...

After closure of a waste disposal cell in a repository for radioactive waste, resaturation is likely to cause the release of soluble species contained in cement and bituminous matrices, such as ionic species (nitrates, sulfates, calcium and alkaline ions, etc.), organic matter (mainly organic acids), or gases (from steel containers and reinforced concrete structures as well as from radiolysis w...

There are 103 commercial nuclear power stations currently operating in the United States, generating a total of about 2 000 t of spent fuel each year. Over 40 000 t of spent fuel have accumulated since these plants began operation, with the fuel being stored first in at-reactor spent fuel storage pools and later in independent spent fuel storage installations and dry cask storage facilities. Th...

The recent quest for primary votes in the state of Nevada led to renewed headlines about radioactive waste disposal at Yucca Mountain. The image of intense debate among the candidates over this issue—in the context of an ongoing war and the threat of terrorism, of a housing collapse, of a potentially declining economy, and of a looming crisis in funding medical care—prompted me to ruminate yet ...

Proton and heavy ion accelerators of the medial energy are very important in science and technology. First of all in the medicine, in the field of elimination of nuclear waste, for the creation safe subscritical reactors and so on. Their usage will help to cure cancer, to develop safety nuclear energetic, to protect environment and so on. Unfortunately large size of the accelerators that could ...