Skip to main content

Home/ Harwood Nuclear Chem/ Group items tagged Waste

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
erlaskaris

Environmental Impacts of Nuclear Proliferation: Remediation of Waste - 0 views

sitemaker.umich.edu/...remediation_of_waste

environmental

shared by erlaskaris on 03 Jun 14 - No Cached
    • erlaskaris
      erlaskaris on 03 Jun 14
       
      This website will be good to add as a non-biased source of information. These are the cold hard facts. This site is mostly touching upon the different ways of clean-up that are available to us, whether they be mediocre or extremely expensive. 
  • It has been noted that during the Cold War, "the Department of Energy paid scant attention to the environmental consequences of its actions," making current efforts to clean nuclear sites even more challenging (Probst 1998
  • For example, Uranium 235 has a half-life of 703,800,000 years. The half-life is the number of years required for any amount of uranium 235 to decompose by half (Probst 1998).  Typically these elements will remain hazardous for ten times their half lives;
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • There is no real way of disposing of the waste, the only option is effectively manage the waste for the thousands of years until it decays completely.  These contaminents can easily travel throughout different ecological systems and negatively affect humans (Radioactive Waste Management 2003
  • This issue of the longevity of nuclear waste is a major problem facing the United States because of the large number of nuclear waste facilities
  • The primary obstacle in disposing of nuclear waste and cleaning nuclear development facilities is the duration of halflives of the elements that compose nuclear waste.
  • extensive groundwater contamination, extensive soil contamination, buried soil or water containing harmful material or waste, and underground disposal facilities storing large volumes of hazardous, radioactive waste (Probst 1998). 
  • Cleaning these sites has proven to be costly, time consuming, and dangerous for the human workers involved.
  • Aside from the facilities already mentioned, there are an estimated "10,000 contaminant release sites" also requiring cleanup
  • The methods used to clean contaminated soil include washing, extraction and incineration. 
  • Water remediation is particularly important because contaminated water can travel quickly and pollute many potable water sources.  Cleaning up water is often expensive, difficult and dangerous, but necessary to preserve public health.
erlaskaris

Radioactive Waste Disposal: An Environmental Perspective | Radiation Protection | US EPA - 0 views

www.epa.gov/...radwaste

environmental

shared by erlaskaris on 03 Jun 14 - No Cached
    • erlaskaris
      erlaskaris on 03 Jun 14
       
      Introduction to the Nuclear Waste topic
  • Any activity that produces or uses radioactive materials generates radioactive waste. Mining, nuclear power generation, and various processes in industry, defense, medicine, and scientific research produce byproducts that include radioactive waste
  • Radioactive waste can be in gas, liquid or solid form, and its level of radioactivity can vary. The waste can remain radioactive for a few hours or several months or even hundreds of thousands of years.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Designs for new disposal facilities and disposal methods must meet environmental protection and pollution prevention standards that are more strict than were foreseen at the beginning of the atomic age.
  • Disposal of radioactive waste is a complex issue, not only because of the nature of the waste, but also because of the complicated regulatory structure for dealing with radioactive waste.
erlaskaris

Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste | Radiation Protection Program: | U... - 0 views

www.epa.gov/...402-k-94-001-snf_hlw.html

environmental

shared by erlaskaris on 12 Jun 14 - No Cached
    • erlaskaris
      erlaskaris on 12 Jun 14
       
      This page talks about the literal process of nuclear waste and energy. 
  • In addition to being used to generate commercial electricity, nuclear reactors are used in government-sponsored research and development programs, universities and industry; in science and engineering experimental programs; at nuclear weapons production facilities; and by the U.S. Navy and military services. The operation of nuclear reactors results in spent reactor fuel. The reprocessing of that spent fuel produces high-level radioactive waste (HLW).
  • The fuel for most nuclear reactors consists of pellets of ceramic uranium dioxide that are sealed in hundreds of metal rods
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • As the nuclear reactor operates, uranium atoms fission (split apart) and release energy. When most of the usable uranium has fissioned, the "spent" fuel assembly is removed from the reactor.
  • Until a disposal or long-term storage facility is operational, most spent fuel is stored in water pools at the reactor site where it was produced.
Chelsea Turley

Office of Nuclear Energy | Department of Energy - 0 views

www.energy.gov/...office-nuclear-energy

Energy Waste Reactors

shared by Chelsea Turley on 24 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Chelsea Turley on 24 Apr 14
     
    Various information regarding nuclear energy including articles about nuclear waste disposal and various nuclear reactors
erlaskaris

http://www.iaea.org/OurWork/ST/NE/NEFW/_nefw-documents/RadioactiveWaste.pdf - 0 views

www.iaea.org/...RadioactiveWaste.pdf

environmental

shared by erlaskaris on 11 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Highlighter
    • erlaskaris
      erlaskaris on 11 Jun 14
       
      This is my primary source page. It is a journal article all about the basics of radioactive waste.
1 - 8 of 8
Showing 20▼ items per page