The above presentation describes the history,source,danger and effects,classification, and storage and disposal methods of radioactive waste. It also states the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear and radioactive waste

1. Nuclear
And
Radioactive
Waste

2. Q.Who is the Father of
Radioactivity
1. Marie Curie
2. Antoine Henry Becquerel
3. Pierre Curie

3. Q. Who is the Father of
Indian Nuclear Programme
1. Dr. Satyendra Nath Bose
2. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
3. Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha

4. In 1903,the
Nobel Prize was bestowed
uponThree Scientists

5. •Antoine Henry Becquerel for discovery of
Spontaneous Radiation. He is called 'Father
of Radioactivity’.
• Pierre Curie and Marie Curie for joint
research on Radiation phenomena
discovered by Henry.

6. Ernest
Rutherford
'Father of
Nuclear Physics'
Homi
Jehangir Bhabha
'Father of Indian
Nuclear Programme '

7. What is
Radioactivity?
• Property of emitting
energy and subatomic
particle
• An attribute of individual
nuclei.

8. What happens?
• Spontaneous decomposition or decay of
unstable nuclei to stable configuration.
How?
• By emitting certain particles or certain forms
of electromagnetic energy.
How Long?
• Until a stable nuclide has been formed.

10. Alpha Radiation
• Emission of alpha particle
• Due to charge, it interacts strongly
with matter
• Unable to penetrate
* sheet of paper
* outer layer of dead skin cells, but
can if ingested in food

11. Alexender Litvinenko, a former
officer of the Russian FSB spy
agency was poisoned and murdered
by Polonium-210, an alpha emitter
in his tea.

12. Beta Radiation
• Emission of electron or positron.
• Stopped by
* aluminium foil
* thick piece of plastic
* stack of papers
• Penetrates skin a few centimetres .
• Main threat: internal emission from
ingested material.

13. Gamma Radiation
• Emission of high energy wave.
• Can penetrate into body.
• Can be stopped by lead or depleted
uranium.
• The most energetic radiation.

14. X-Ray Radiation
• Similar to Gamma radiation
• Difference: originating from electon cloud
instead of nucleus
• Has longer wavelength and lower energy
than Gamma radiation

15. Neutron Radiation
• Emission of neutrons
• Blocked by hydrogen rich material like
concrete or water
• Does not ionize atom directly due to
lack of charge
• Only radiation that turns other
materials radioactive

16. Radioactive Waste
• Waste containing radioactive chemical
elements
• Usually, byproducts from
* mining
* industries
* nuclear power industries
* defense
* medicine
* scientific research

18. - Developed by University of Bristol
- Diamond is made from carbon- 14 (radioactive)
extracted from nuclear waste
-Generates a small magnetic current when subjected to
radiation field

19. - No moving parts involved
- No emissions generated
- No maintenance required
- Cost to produce diamond<< Cost to dispose
nuclear waste
- Low power and extremely
long life
- Continuous power
output
- Can be used where batteries could not be
replaced such as pacemakers, in spacecrafts
and satellites

20. SOURCES OF
RADIOACTIVE
WASTE

21. SOURCES
• Nuclear fuel cycle
• Nuclear weapons decommissioning
• Legacy waste
• Medical
• Industrial
• Naturally occurring radioactive material
(NORM)
• Coal ,gas and oil

22. NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
• It often contains radium and its decay products.
• Uranium is used to make fuel from the
reprocessing of used fuel.

23. NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
• The fission products removed from the
fuel are a concentrated form of high-level
waste as are the chemicals used in the
process.
• In the United States, this used fuel is
usually "stored", while in other countries
such as Russia, the United Kingdom,
France, Japan and India, the fuel is
reprocessed to remove the fission
products, and the fuel can then be re-
used.

24. Nuclear Plants
in India

26. NUCLEAR WEAPONS DECOMMISSIONING
Waste from nuclear weapons decommissioning
is unlikely to contain much beta or gamma
activity other than tritium and americium.
It is more likely to contain alpha-emitting
actinides such as Pu-239 which is a fissile
material used in bombs, plus some material with
much higher specific activities, such as Pu-238 or
Po.

27. LEGACY
• Due to historic activities typically
related to radium industry, uranium
mining, and military programs, there are
numerous sites that contain or are
contaminated with radioactivity.
• In the United States alone,
the Department of Energy states there
are "millions of gallons of radioactive
waste" as well as "thousands of tons
of spent nuclear fuel and material" and
also "huge quantities of contaminated
soil and water”.

28. MEDICAL
• Radioactive medical waste tends to
contain beta particle and gamma
ray emitters
• Y-90, used for treating lymphoma (2.7
days)
• I-131, used for thyroid function tests
and for treating thyroid cancer (8.0
days)
• Sr-89, used for treating bone
cancer, intravenous injection (52 days)

29. Man-Made Sources
• Exposure is mostly through medical
procedures like X-ray diagnostics.
• Radiation therapy is usually targeted
only to the affected tissues.

31. INDUSTRIAL
• Industrial source waste can
contain alpha, beta, neutron or gamma
emitters. Gamma emitters are used
in radiography while neutron emitting
sources are used in a range of applications,
such as oil well logging.

32. COAL,OIL AND GAS
• Coal contains a small amount of radioactive
uranium, barium, thorium and potassium, but,
in the case of pure coal, this is significantly less
than the average concentration of those
elements in the Earth's crust.
• Residues from the oil and gas industry often
contain radium and its decay products.

34. NATURALLY OCCURRING
RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
(NORM)
• Substances containing natural radioactivity
are known as norm
• After human processing the waste becomes
technologically enhanced becoming
naturally radio active material (TENORM).
• A lot of this waste is alpha particle-emitting
matter from the decay chains
of uranium and thorium.

35. NATURALLY OCCURRING
RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL (NORM)
• The main source of radiation in the
human body is potassium-40
• TENORM is not regulated as restrictively
as nuclear reactor waste, though there
are no significant differences in the
radiological risks of these materials.

36. CLASSIFICATION
• Low-level Waste
• Intermediate Level Waste
• High Level Level

37. Low Level Waste
• Low level waste (LLW) is generated from
hospitals and industry, as well as the nuclear fuel
cycle.
• Materials that originate from any region of an Active
Area are commonly designated as LLW
• LLW is suitable for shallow land burial

38. Intermediate level waste
• Contains higher amounts of radioactivity and in
general require shielding, but not cooling
• Includes resins, chemical sludge and metal nuclear
fuel cladding, as well as contaminated materials
from reactor decommissioning.
• It may be solidified in concrete or bitumen for
disposal.

39. High Level Waste
• HLW is produced by nuclear reactors.
• HLW worldwide is currently increasing by about 12,000 metric
tons every year
• In 2010, there was very roughly estimated to be stored some
250,000 tons of nuclear HLW
• that the main proposed long-term solution is deep geological
burial, either in a mine or a deep borehole.

40. Effects & Dangers
of Radioactive Waste

41. Effects
• Accidents
• Scavenging
• Transportation
• Health Effects
• Expense
• Somatic Effects
• Genetic effects
• Naturally occuring Ionizing

42. Accidents
• Disastrous situations like nuclear waste
being spread by dust storms into areas
that were populated by humans and
animals and contaminated of water,
whether ponds, rivers or even the sea.

43. Scavenging
• People often go scavenging for
abandoned nuclear waste that is still
radioactive.
• People will willingly expose themselves
to dangerous levels of radiation in
order to make money.

44. Health Effects
• Long term effects to radiation can
even cause cancer.
• Radiation can cause changes in ‘DNA’
that ensures cell repair.

45. Transportation
• Transporting nuclear waste from power plants
can result in problems.
• Use of poor shipping casks,then even a slight
bump can cause contents to spill.

46. Expense
• If accidents does
occur, the cost of
cleaning
everything up and
making everything
safe once again
for people,
animals and
plants is very
high.

47. Somatic Effects
• The delayed somatic effects have a potential
for the development of cancer and cataracts.
• Acute somatic effects of radiation include
skin burns, vomiting, hair loss, temporary
sterility or sub fertility in men, and blood
changes.
• Chronic somatic effects include the
development of eye cataracts and cancers.

48. Genetic or Heritable
Effects
• Appears in the future generations of
the exposed person as a result of
radiation damage to the reproductive
cells, but risks from genetic effects in
humans are seen to be considerably
smaller than the risks for somatic
effects.

49. Naturally Occurring Ionizing
• Also called background radiation.
• Sources of background radiation include
cosmic rays from the Sun and stars, naturally
occurring radioactive materials in rocks and
soil, radionuclide normally incorporated into
our body’s tissues, and radon and its
products, which
we inhale.

50. Dangers
•Long half life
•Storage
•Affects on Nature

51. Long Half Life
• The products of nuclear fission
have long half lives.
• They will continue to be
radioactive for many thousands of
years.
• Stored nuclear waste can be
extremely volatile and dangerous
for many years to come.

52. Storage
• One of the major issue is storage
• Can be stored in ground, ejected in space,
disposed in ocean or disposed in ice sheets.

53. Affects on Nature
• Have huge environmental impacts on
plant and animal species.
• Can cause cancerous growths, for
instance, or causing genetic problems.

54. Storage
of Radioactive Waste

55. Storage of Spent Fuel
• Two different strategies are used for
spent nuclear fuel:
 Reprocessing for new fuel
 Storing for future needs
• France, China, India, Japan, Russia
reprocesses the fuel.
• USA, Finland, Sweden, Canada have
opted for direct disposal.

56. Storage
Dry Storage
Underground
Storages
Virtification
Wet Storage
Spent Fuel
Ponds

57. Vitrification
It is a technique for the
transformation of a substance into
a glass (non-crystalline amorphous
solid).

58. Vitrification
• Borosilicate glass is mainly
used as medium for dealing
with High Level Waste
• The solidified waste is stored
in stainless steel containers
• Principle aims are:
i. Minimise the volume of
waste
ii. Reduce potential hazard
by conditioning it into
solid form

59. Underground Storage
• A Storage tank, not including any
underground piping connected to
the tank.
• Having 10% of its volume
underground

60. Underground Storages
in World
• Kalpakkam , India
• Olkiluoto, Finland - Largest repository
• Yucca mountain, USA
• Gyeognju , South Korea
• Forsmark, Sweden
• France, Belgium & Switzerland have
experimental sites.

61. • Spent fuel pools (SFP) are storage pools for spent fuel
from nuclear reactor.
• The nuclear waste is stored at least 20 feet under the
water.
SPENT FUEL POOLS

62. Storage of Spent Fuel
• Store waste in only approved bags and
container.
• Bags – Yellow with Radiation label
• Boxes – Line with Yellow bag
• Bottles – Attach Radiation label
• DO NOT use anything that can be
mistaken for a ordinary trash container
• DO NOT use coke bottles , milk bottles
and etc. for liquid waste.

63. Waste Containers
Do’s Don’ts

64. Amounts of fuel reprocessed, discharged and stored

65. RADIOACTIVE
DISPOSAL
AND
MANAGEMENT

66. • Waste disposal is discarding waste with
no intention of retrieval.
• Waste management means the entire
sequence of operations starting with
generation of waste and ending with
disposal.
Disposal & Management

67. Methods
• Deep geological repositories
Ocean dumping
• Seabed burial
• Sub-seabed disposal
• Subductive waste disposal method
• Transforming radioactive waste to
non-radioactive stable waste
• Dispatching to the Sun
• Legal methods of waste disposal

68. Methods
Geological
Disposal
Ocean
Dumping
Subductive
Method
Transmutation
Method
Other ways

69. GEOLOGICAL DUMPING
• Disposal in a facility constructed in
tunnel, vaults or silos in a particular
geological formation at least a few
hundred meters below ground level.
• Such a facility could be designed to
accept high level radioactive waste
(HLW), including spent fuels if it is to
be treated as waste.
• Yucca Mountain in USA is the recent of
geological dumping.

70. GEOLOGICAL DUMPING
• Geological dumping means disposal
of nuclear waste under continental
crust or under seabed.
• It provides natural isolation system
that is stable over thousands of years
to contain long lived radioactive
waste.
• Low level radioactive waste (in near
surface facilities or old mines)
• High level radioactive waste (in host
rocks that are crystalline or
argillaceous)

71. OCEAN DUMPING
• OCEAN DUMPING is the dumping or placing
of material in the ocean , often on the
continental shelf.
• A wide range of materials is involved,
including garbage, construction and
demolition debris, sewage sludge, dredge
material, waste chemicals, nuclear waste.
• Sometimes hazardous and nuclear waste
are also disposed but these are highly
dangerous for aquatic life and human life
also.

72. OCEAN DUMPING
• Ocean dumping (good alternative and least
expensive method)
• In this method nuclear waste is dumped
into the ocean.
• For many years the countries like U.S.A.
,U.K.,FRANCE etc. Adopted this method.
• Banned by most of the countries due to
scientific proof of bad effects on ocean and
marine life.
• But Russia continue to dispose of its waste
into ocean. Because it has no other
alternative method.

73. SUB SEABED DISPOSAL
• Seabed disposal is different from sea
dumping. The floor of deep oceans is a
part of tectonic plates covered by
hundreds of meters of thick
sedimentary soft clay.
• The high level radioactive waste
contained in canisters,would be
lowered into these holes and stacked
vertically one above the other
interspersed by 20 m or more of mud
pumped in.

74. Subductive waste
disposal method
• It is one of the single viable disposal
method which ensures NON RETURN of
regulated material to biosphere

75. • Subduction is process where one tectonic
plate slides beneath another and is
eventually reabsorbed into mantle
• It forms high level radioactive waste in a
subducting plate where it will be dispersed
through mantle.
Subductive waste disposal
method continued...

76. Transmutation of
high-level radioactive
waste
• Reduces transuranic waste.
• Integral fast reactor.
• Banned 1977-1981 (U.S.)
• MOX Fuel.
• Research now in subcritical reactors.
• Fusion also being researched.

78. • Transmutation
devices consisting of
nuclear reactor and
an accelerator of
charged particles are
used to destroy
radioactivity by
neutrons.
• The fission
fragments can be
transmuted by
neutrons capture
and beta decay to
produce stable
nuclides.
Transmutation of high-level
radioactive waste continued...

79. Why Not Just Dispose Of
Nuclear Waste In The Sun?
• Sun could swallow the tens of
thousands of radioactive waste but, if
the rocket is packing a few hundred
pounds of uranium. And if the uranium
caught fire, it could stay airborne and
circulate for months, dusting the globe
with radioactive ash.

80. Still seem like a good idea??

81. Legal Methods of Disposing
of Radioactive Waste
• Decay in Storage (DIS)
• Dump to Sanitary Sewer
• Only RSO may Ship to Disposal Site
• Dispose as if not radioactive

82. CASE STUDY

83. What is Cobalt-60 ?
• Cobalt-60 is a radioactive isotope of
cobalt, which is a hard, lustrous, grey
metal.
• Cobalt-based colours and pigments
have been used since ancient times for
jewellery and paints, and miners have
long used the name kobold ore for
some minerals.

84. M
a
y
a
p
u
r
i
C
a
s
e
S
t
u
d
y

85. Origin of Cobalt-60 That
Caused The Exposure
• The Cobalt-60 was in a "Gamma
Irradiator", at Delhi University which
was not in use since 1985,adding it
was bought by scrap dealers in
Mayapuri through an auction.
• The scrap dealers dismantled the
equipment and in the process, the
lead covering on it was pealed off
leading to radiation exposure and
casualties.

86. Panic was triggered
in the locality on
Thursday night after
the news of a
radiation leak broke
out with five persons
falling ill after
coming in contact
with a "mysterious
shining object" in a
scrap shop.

87. ATOMIC BOMBING ON
HIROSHIMA AND
NAGASAKI
• The United States dropped nuclear
weapons on the Japanese cities
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6
and 9, 1945, respectively, during the
final stage of World War II.
• The United States had dropped the
bombs with the consent of the United
Kingdom as outlined in the Quebec
Agreement.

88. • The two bombings, which killed at
least 129,000 people, remain the only
use of nuclear weapons for warfare in
history.
• The U.S. dropped a uranium gun-type
bomb on Hiroshima.
• Three days later,
a plutonium implosion-type bomb was
dropped on Nagasaki.
The Enola Gay
dropped the
Hiroshima bomb on
August 6, 1945.

89. • Within the first two to four months of
the bombings, the acute effects of the
atomic bombings killed 90,000–146,000
people in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000
in Nagasaki.
• Most of the deaths happened in the
first day.

90. ATOMIC BOMB MUSHROOM CLOUDS OVER
HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI

92. Future of Nuclear Energy in India
• Within 25 years, increase contribution to
electricity from 2.8% to 9%.
Nuclear
3%
Hydro
25%
Diesel
1%
Coal
52%
Gas
10%
Renewable
Sources
9%
Nuclear
Hydro
Diesel
Coal
Gas
Renewable Sources
ALL INDIA ELECTRICITY GENERATION CAPACITY
OF POWER STATIONS IN TODAYS SCENARIO

93. • India has proposed
new nuclear power
plants in many
states like
• West Bengal
(Haripur),
• Andhra Pradesh
(Kovvada)
• Gujarat
(Mithi Virdi)
• Madhya Pradesh
(Chutka,Bhimpur)
• Haryana
(Gorakhpour)
• Tamil Nadu
(Kundankulam)

94. • US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement.
 Expected to generate an additional 25,000 MW of
nuclear power by 2020.
 Trade of nuclear fuel and technologies with other
countries.
• Advanced Heavy Water Reactors (AHWR) fuelled by
thorium.