3 FOREWORD The separation of actinide elements from various waste materials is a significant problem facing developed countries. The issue arises primarily because of the potential long-term hazard of many of the actinides, but is also due to the regulatory requirements associated with actinide waste disposal, which are different from those associated with other radioactive wastes. The differen...

The Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State is the location of the largest nuclear waste storage area in the United States. Since plutonium production facilities at Hanford were shut down in 1987,cleaning up the leftover waste at the Hanford Site has become one of the largest environmental cleanup projects in history. Legal, political, technical, and social aspects of the cleanup contribu...

Using selective laser extraction technique combined with sensitive ion-counting mass spectrometry, we have analyzed the isotopic structure of fission noble gases in U-free La-Ce-Sr-Ca aluminous hydroxy phosphate associated with the 2 billion yr old Oklo natural nuclear reactor. In addition to elevated abundances of fission-produced Zr, Ce, and Sr, we discovered high (up to 0.03 cm(3) STP/g) con...

In France as well as in other countries, some facilities that hosted nuclear researches must be demolished because safety standards have changed. In that context, radioactive waste management is a challenging task faced by existing nuclear power countries. Therefore, characterization is essential to classify wastes and to reduce costs. In many facilities, after the removal of glove boxes, fume ...

Although the so-called Cold War may now be a thing of the past, the health ramifications of the nuclear arms buildup during the Cold War are far from being over. During the years 1945-1962, the Atomic Energy Commission carried out about 235 atmospheric nuclear tests. Many of the above-ground nuclear weapons tests, including more than 100 between 1951 and 1958, were carried out at the Nevada tes...

Leather industry, one of the polluting industries because of generation of huge amount of liquid and solid wastes, also emits obnoxious smell because of degradation of proteinous material of skin and generation of gases such as NH3, H2S and CO2. Solid wastes are raw trimmings, fleshings, chrome shavings, buffing dusts and keratin wastes. Accumulation of these wastes lead to sludge problem and c...