THE PRINCIPLE
OF RADIOACTIVE INNATE MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, research
and development in the field of nuclear science and technology have led to wide
scale application in research medicine, industry and in the generation of
electricity by nuclear fission. I common
with certain other human activities these, practice generate waste that requires
management to ensure protection of human health and the environment now in the
future, without imposing undue burdens on future generations. Radioactive waste may also
result from the processing of raw materials that contain naturally occurring
radio nuclides. To achieve the objectives of safe radioactive waste management
requires an effective systematic approach within a legal frame work within each
country in which the role and responsibilities of each relevant parties are
defined.
Radioactive waste occurs in a variety of forms
with very different physical and chemical characteristics, such as the
concentrations and half- lives of the radio nuclides.
These
wastes may occur;
1) In gaseous form, such as ventilation exhausts from
facilities handling radioactive materials.
2) In liquid form, ranging from scintillation trash
and glass ware from hospital, medical research facilities to high level liquid
waste from reprocessing of spent fuel or
3) In solid form, ranging from contaminated trash and
glass ware from hospital, medical research facilities and radiopharmaceutical
laboratories to verified reprocessing waste or spent fuel from nuclear power
plants when it considered a waste
Such waste may range from slightly
radioactive, such as in those generated in medical diagnostic procedures, to
the highly radioactive, such as those in vitrified reprocessing waste or in
spent radiation sources used in radiography or other applications. Radioactive
waste may be very small in volume such as a spent sealed radiation source, or
very large and diffuse, such as tailings from mining and milling of uranium
ores and environmental restoration. Basic principles for radioactive waste
management have been develop even though there are large differences in the
origin and characteristics of radioactive waste, for example, concentration,
volume, half life and radio toxicity, the principles are generally applicable,
their implementation will vary depending on the type of radioactive waste and
their associated facilities.
Radioactive waste, as a source of
ionizing radiation, has long been recognized as a potential hazard to human
health, national regulations and internationally recommended standards and
guidelines dealing radiation protections and radioactive waste management have
been developed based on a substantial body of scientific knowledge, it has been
a feature of radioactive waste management that special attention has been given
to the protection of futures generation may include potential radiation
exposure, economic consequences and the possible need for surveillance or
maintenance.
Radioactive waste may also contain
chemically or biologically hazardous substances and it is important that hazard
associated with three substance are adequately considered in radioactive waste
management fundamentally safety approaches for the management of radioactive
waste are based on international experience. In its radioactive waste safety
standards [RADWASS] series of publications, the LAEA integrates this experience
in to a coherent set of fundamental principles, standards, guides and practices
for achieving safe radioactive waste management.
The following present radioactive waste management
principles that apply to radioactive materials, as defined to be radioactive
waste by the appropriate national authorities, and to the facilities used for
the management of the waste from generation through disposal.
These principles apply to all aspect of
radioactive waste management except
where an activity is the specific subject of an LAEA document
outside the RADWASS series or an international instrument, for example the
transportation of materials and imports of nuclear materials. The principle
also apply in the management of radioactive waste containing, for example,
chemically or biologically hazardous substances, even though other specific
requirement may also be applicable.
OBJECTIVES OF
RADIO ACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
The
objective of radioactive waste management is to deal with radioactive waste in
manner that protect human health and environment now and in the future
generations.
FUNDAMENTAL
PRINCIPLE OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
Responsible
radioactive active waste management requires the implementation of measures
that will afford protection human health and the environment since improperly
managed radioactive waste could result in adverse effect to human health or the
environment now in the future. The timely creation of an effective national
legal framework and an associate organizational infrastructure provides a bases
for appropriate management of radioactive waste. The individual steps in
radioactive waste management as outlined in the annex may be dependants on each
other, and thus require co-ordination. Taking this interdependence in to
account will help to ensure safety in all radioactive waste management steps.
Observant of radioactive waste management will
ensure that above considerations are addressed, and thus contribute to
achieving the objective of radioactive waste management. The principle of
radioactive waste management are
presented as follows ;
Principle 1; protection of human health
Radioactive
waste shall be managed in such a way as to provides an acceptable level of
protection of human health
Principle 2; protection of the environment
Radioactive
waste shall be manage in such a way as
to provide an acceptable level of protection of the environment.
Principle 3; protection beyond national borders
Radioactive
waste shall be manage in such a way to ensure that possible effects on human
health and environment beyond national border is taking in to account.
Principle 4; protection of future generations
radioactive
waste shall be manage in such a way that predicted impacts on the health of future generations will not be
greater than relevant levels of impact that
are acceptable today.
Principle 5; Burden on future generations
Radioactive active waste shall manage in such
a way that will not impose undue burdens on future generation.
Principle 6; National legal framework
Radioactive
waste shall be manage within an appropriate
national legal framework including clear allocation of responsibilities
and provision for independent regulatory functions.
Principle 7; Control
of radioactive waste generation.
Generation
of radioactive waste shall be kept to the minimum practicable.
Principle 8; Radioactive waste generation and management
inter dependencies.
Interdependencies among all steps in radioactive
waste generation and management shall be appropriately taking in account.
Principle 9; Safety
of facilities.
The
safety of facilities for radioactive waste management shall be appropriately
assured during their life time. The waste should be characterized in other to
determine its physical, chemical and radiology properties, and to facilitates
record keeping and acceptance of radioactive waste from step to another.
Characterization may be applied, for example, in order to segregate radioactive
materials for exemption or for reuse or
according to disposal method or to assure compliance of waste package with
requirement for storage and disposal. It should also be noted that
transportation may be necessary between the radioactive waste management steps.
Effective radioactive waste management should take
the implication of transportation in to account.
Storage
of radioactive waste involves maintaining the radioactive waste such that
isolation, environmental protection and monitoring are provided and action
involving, for example, treatment, conditioning and disposal are facilitated.
In some cases, storage may be practice for primary technical considerations,
such as storage of radioactive waste containing
mainly short lived radio nuclides for decay
and subsequent release within authorized
limits or storage of high level radioactive waste for thermal
consideration prior to geological disposal. In other cases, storage may be
practiced for reasons of economics or policy.
Pre
treatment of waste is the initial step in waste management that occurs after
waste generation. It consist of, for example, collection, segregation, chemical
adjustment and decontamination and may include a period of interim storage.
This initial step is extremely important because it provides in many cases the best opportunity ton segregate
waste streams, for example, for recycling within the process or for disposal as
ordinary non-radioactive waste when the quantities of radioactive materials
they contain area exempted from regulatory controls. It also provides the
opportunity to segregate radioactive waste, for example, for near surface or
geological disposal.
Treatment of radioactive waste includes
those operations intended to improve safety or economy by changing the characteristics
of the radioactive waste. The basic treatment concept are volume reduction
radio nuclides removal and change of compositions. Such operations are;
Incineration
of combustible waste or compaction of dry waste [volume reduction]; evaporation,
filtration or ion exchange of liquid waste streams [radio nuclide removal]; and
precipitation flocculation of chemical species [change of composition].Often
several of these process are in combination to provide effective
decontamination of a liquid waste stream.
This may lead to several types of
secondary radioactive waste to be manage [contaminated filters, spent resins
sludges].
Conditioning of radioactive waste
involves those operation that transform radioactive waste in to a form suitable
for handling; transportation, storage and disposal. The operation may include
immobilization of radioactive waste, placing the waste in to containers and
providing additional packaging. Common immobilization methods include
solidification of low and intermediate level liquid radioactive waste, for
example in cement or bitumen, and verification of high level liquid radioactive
waste in a glass matrix. Immobilized waste, in turn, may be packaged in
containers ranging from common 200 liter steel drums to highly engineered
thick-walled containers ranging from on the nature of the radio nuclides and
their concentration. In many instances, treatment and conditioning take place
in close conjunction with one another.
Disposal
is the final step in radioactive waste management system. It consist mainly of
the placement of radioactive waste in a disposal facility with reasonable
assurance for safety, without the intention of retrieval and without reliance
on long term surveillance and maintenance. This safety is mainly achieved by concentration
and containment which involves the isolation of suitable conditioned
radioactive waste in a disposal facility. Isolation is attained by placing
barriers around the radioactive waste in order to restrict the released of
radio nuclides in the environment. The barriers can be either natural or
engineered.
A system of multiple barriers give greater
assurance of isolation and helps ensure
that any release of radio nuclides to the environment will occur at an
acceptably low rate.
Barriers can either provides absolute containment
for a period of time, such as the metal wall of a container, or may retard the
release of radioactive materials to the environment, such as a back fill or
host rock with high sorption capability. during the period when the radioactive
waste in contained by the system of barriers, the radio nuclides in the waste
will decay. The barrier system is designed according to the disposal option
chosen and the radioactive waste forms involved.
Although it is planned to disposed of most types
of radioactive waste by concentration and containment disposal also comprise
the discharge of effluents [e.g liquid and gaseous waste] in to the environment
within authorized limits, with subsequent depression, for all practical
purposes this is an irreversible action and is considered suitable only for
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limited
amounts of specific radioactive waste.
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WASTE
AND MARERIALS
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BASIC STEPS IN RADIOACTIVE WASTE
MANAGEMENT
storage and transportation of waste materials may
take place between and within the basic
radioactive waste management steps. The applicability of these steps will vary
depending on the types radioactive waste.
Ann
overview of findings from the literature on engaging the public in decision
making processes specific radioactive waste management, exploration approaches,
lesson and principles unidentified from the field. This is followed by an
investigation of the process involved in the broader field of public in use in Scotland.
Engaging the public in radioactive waste management
Overview Recent [Ferguson And Malina,
1999; Hunt And Wynne 2000] related to consultation and involvement in issues
around radioactive waste has highlighted the important of engaging with the
public at an early stage and the need for clear concise information provided in
a format appropriate to the audience. There
is now considerable international experience in engaging with public to develop
radioactive waste management policy. The MWRS consultation document gives a
useful overview of processes undertaking in other countries [DEFRA,2001], While
on independent analysis of the different policies identifies the following
lessons [HUNT ET AL, 2001;23]; innovation in method of dialogue and procedures
for engaging public and stockholder involvement in determining the guiding
principles is increasingly seen as essential to legitimizing the process the
opportunity to deal with societal issues around radioactive waste management
solution is essential longer time scale for public engagement area now
recognized as inevitable and necessary environment impact assessment [EIA]
procedures are based on sound principles. In countries where EAI have drawn
upon wider societal values in the dialogue appear to have made more consistent
progress [Finland and Sweden are
cited as example] sites selection has to be part of a comprehensive package of
action tailored to the communities in questions.
Stake holders, including the public have
brought valuable information, idea and opinions to the decision making process.
These can be categorized under 3haedings namely informing consulting and
involving stockholder [including the public] in discussion about national
policy development and in decision-making about sitting arrangements, the
experience of different national and local approaches demonstrate the varying
criteria that distinct engagement processes require. The public is involvement
experience of recent years has increased awareness of when and why the public
is most likely to become engaged. These are issues considered as close to home
of national relevance and involving a high enough degree of risk or resonance
at the local level [Edward 2001, Hunt et al, 2001] the research also found that
easy access to credible expert helped participants too become engaged, and that
agency staff themselves required training in participant techniques. It was
also suggested that care should be taken to ensure that the media understand
partnership efforts and explain them to the community.
Experience in developing strategies for
radioactive waste management is being used to develop the step wise decision
making approach which has been developed over the last few years with important
considerations identified for the process of engagement [OECD,2002] This identified
3 decision making firstly decision making should facilitate social learning
processes, by promoting interaction between various stockholders and expert,
secondly constructive and high quality communication should be facilitated
between individuals with different knowledge beliefs, interest, values and
world-view and thirdly decision making should be interactive and should provide
for adaptation to contextual changes this suggest some important implications
for then most effective way of engaging with the public in managing radioactive
waste safety .
Literature on engaging with the public across a
range of decision making processes provides the basis of this section of the
literature review.
OCNCLUTION;
A continuing rise in the rate of waste production
is no longer acceptable-radioactive waste affects the health of millions of
people and poisons large areas of our planet. In many places people live
surrounded by radio nuclides. It is essential that governments and corporation
face up to waste, using what we know about reduction, recycling and reuse, but
also developing new technologies that eliminate waste
RFERRENCES
DEFERA 2001
EDWARD 2001
FERGUSON AND MALINA 1999
HUNT AND WYNNE 2000
HUNT ET AL 2001
OECD
2002
ISIAKU NA [2014], HAZARDS AND RADIOACTIVE WASTE
MANAGEGMENT
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