The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston is a large academic medical center with about 12,700 employees, 350 radioisotope research labs and 200 permitted radioactive materials users. Consequently, UTMB generates a fairly large amount of radioactive waste. The majority of this waste contains short-lived radionuclides, such as 32P, 33P, and 35S, which are held for decay and then...

Fine-grained sedimentary rocks (shale and mudstone) play important roles in global CO2 abatement efforts through their uses in carbon capture and storage (CCS), radioactive waste storage, and shale gas extraction. These different technologies, however, rely on seemingly conflicting premises regarding the sealing properties of shale and mudstone, suggesting that those rocks that lend themselves ...

Nuclear power provides a significant portion of our current energy demand and is likely to become more wide spread with growing world population. However, the radioactive waste generated in these power plants must be stored for around 60 years in underwater storage pools before permanent disposal. These underwater storage environments must be carefully monitored and controlled to avoid an envir...

985 The Hanford Site in south-central Washington State produced plutonium for the USDOE weapons program from 1943 to 1989. Plutonium (Pu) production involved the fi ssion of uranium fuels using nine nuclear reactors along the Columbia River, followed by the extraction and concentration of trace product Pu through chemically intensive processing regimes performed in the central portion of the si...

The solid waste residues from olive oil mills constitute an environmental threat if disposed of in the natural environment, as it is common practice in many areas. This review summarizes the efforts of the scientific and technical community to develop appropriate technologies for the valorization of these wastes. The majority of the research towards this purpose focuses on the recovery of high-...

1. NATIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR MANAGEMENT AND REGULATION OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND DECOMMISSIONING 1.1 National framework 1.1.1 Overview of national policy The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) of the Korean government developed the “National Radioactive Waste Management Policy” at the 249 th meeting held on September 30, 1998. The policy stipulates that the site selection process for radioactive waste ...

Maisiagala RADON type radioactive waste storage facility was commissioned in 1963 in a marshy, ecologically sensitive locality, where soluble radionuclides easily can penetrate and migrate with groundwater. To assure the requirements of radiation safety, the analysis of radionuclide leakage from the radioactive waste storage facility is performed continuously. H (tritium, T1/2=12.33 years) is o...

he topic of radioactive waste generates debate, both publicly and scientifically. Like chemical and other hazardous waste, radioactive waste needs to be dealt with to ensure its safety and its security. Proper management and disposal of most forms of radioactive waste is technically straightforward. A robust safety regime has been developed internationally for managing and disposing of radioact...

world, and the anticipated decommissioning of facilities will generate many more drums. Currently, in compliance with federal regulations, waste storage facilities at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites are inspected manually for degradation and to verify inventories. An Intelligent Mobile Sensing System (IMSS) has been developed for the automated inspection of radioactive and hazardous waste...

Access to a granitic rock mass in an iron ore mine in Sweden provided a unique opportunity for underground experiments related to the geologic disposal of radioactive waste. These field tests demonstrated the importance of hydrogeology and the difficulties in predicting the thermomechanical behavior of fractured granitic rocks. To characterize a site fully, measurements made from the surface mu...