Waste management
...
discusses the different forms of radioactive waste and current issues related
to their long term management.
Exempt waste contains such a low concentration of activity
that it does not need to be treated differently from ordinary non-radioactive
waste;
Low/intermediate level waste consists of items such
as paper, clothing and laboratory equipment that have been used in areas where
radioactive substances are handled, as well as contaminated soil and building
materials, along with more active materials used in the treatment of gaseous
and liquid effluents before they are discharged to the environment, or the sludges
that accumulate in the cooling ponds where spent fuel is stored;
Short lived waste contains mainly radionuclides with
relatively short half-lives (less than 30 years), with only very low concentrations
of long lived radionuclides;
NORM (naturally occurring radioactive material) waste
consists of often very large amounts of waste containing fairly low concentrations
of naturally occurring radionuclides (though these concentrations are often higher
than those found in nature). This type of waste is generated in the mining and
processing of uranium and other minerals, such as phosphates used in fertilizers;
Alpha waste (or transuranic waste) — waste containing alpha emitting radionuclides
such as isotopes of plutonium — is treated as a separate category in some
countries; and
High level waste refers only to spent fuel from a reactor
(in countries where this is regarded as a waste) or to the highly active liquid
produced when spent fuel is reprocessed. The volume of this type of waste is
very low, but its activity is so high that it -generates considerable heat.
