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Energy and Environment
Published in T.M. Aggarwal, Environmental Control in Thermal Power Plants, 2021
High-level radioactive waste management concerns management and disposal of highly radioactive materials created during production of nuclear power. The technical issues in accomplishing this are daunting, due to the extremely long periods radioactive wastes remain deadly to living organisms. Of particular concern are two long-lived fission products, Technetium-99 (half-life 220,000 years) and Iodine-129 (half-life 15.7 million years), which dominate spent nuclear fuel radioactivity after a few thousand years. The most troublesome transuranic elements in spent fuel are Neptunium-237 (half-life two million years) and Plutonium-239 (half-life 24,000 years). Consequently, high-level radioactive waste requires sophisticated treatment and management to successfully isolate it from the biosphere. This usually necessitates treatment, followed by a long-term management strategy involving permanent storage, disposal or transformation of the waste into a non-toxic form.
Introduction to Zero Waste
Published in Ashok K. Rathoure, Zero Waste, 2019
Radioactive wastes from the nuclear power plant and weapons industries are a matter of great concern. The waste from the spent nuclear fuel comprises unconverted uranium, plutonium and other radioactive elements. The waste remains radioactive for thousands of years. There is no safe and proper method for enduring disposal of nuclear wastes (Jain, 2019).
Nuclear Energy
Published in Gregory T. Haugan, The New Triple Constraints for Sustainable Projects, Programs, and Portfolios, 2016
Long-term management of spent nuclear fuel is a current unresolved security problem, but spent fuel stored at reactor sites is expected to be moved eventually to central storage, permanent disposal, or reprocessing facilities.* Large-scale transportation campaigns would increase public attention to NRC transportation security requirements and related security issues. The author spent some time working in the hazardous material transportation office of the Department of Transportation (DOT) and was amazed at the level of fear the media was able to arouse in the public over the transportation of hazardous materials. There is a significant innate or preternatural fear of nuclear radiation that is easily aroused.
Spatiotemporal Analyses of News Media Coverage on “Nuclear Waste”: A Natural Language Processing Approach
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2023
Matthew D. Sweitzer, Thushara Gunda
Nuclear energy is one of the leading sources of low-carbon electricity across the world. It provided up to 10% of the global electricity supply in 2018.[1] Within the United States, the existing nuclear power fleet generates approximately 20% of the nation’s annual electricity.[2] Nuclear energy is also emerging as a key player for nations’ climate goals, with some estimating the need to double power generation by 2050.[3] In the United States, nearly all of the nation’s commercial spent nuclear fuel is currently stored at the reactor sites where it was generated, either submerged in pools of water (wet storage)[4] or in shielded casks (dry storage).[5] For the foreseeable future, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that the spent fuel can continue to be safely stored in licensed facilities.
Technical and non-technical challenges for the Lungmen nuclear power plant project in Taiwan
Published in Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, 2020
Tai-Yi Liu, Po-Han Chen, Nelson N. S. Chou, Ting-Ya Hsieh
By 2016, several nuclear facilities had been decommissioned. As of 2016, at least 150 nuclear reactors have been shut down or are in early or intermediate stages such as cold shutdown, de-fueling, and internal demolition. However, only seventeen have been restored to the original ‘greenfield’ status. Some of these nuclear power plant zones are still utilized for the storage of spent nuclear fuel in the form of dry casks, which are embedded in steel cages with concrete filling (WNA 2020b; OECD 2007). In general, the demolition of the safe enclosure of nuclear power plants is expected to take 25–40 years (USNRC 2019).
Designs of Corrosion Modules for Long-Term Corrosion Tests of Canister Materials in Aerobic and Anaerobic Underground Water
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2023
Junhyuk Jang, Minsoo Lee, Gha-Young Kim, Mihye Kong, Jin-Seop Kim
The treatment of spent nuclear fuel is an important issue for sustainable energy technologies, and deep geological disposal of high-level waste is a promising option.[1–3] Deep geological disposal aims to completely isolate spent nuclear fuels from human society using an engineered barrier system (EBS). In this system, the fuels are enclosed in sealed canisters and embedded in bentonite buffers located in the bedrock more than 500 m below the ground surface.[1–3]