| Philosophy:
The main objective of handling the radioactive (or any other) waste is to protect people and the environment. It means the isolation or dissolution of waste such that the concentration of any radio nuclides, leaking into biosphere, are safe. To achieve that, the preferable technology at present is deep and protected storage for the most hazardous waste. The conversion of radioactive waste into long-term restorable storage and their disposal into space are offered.
The aforesaid can be summed up with “Isolate waste from people and environment” till the waste completely disintegrates and till they stop posing hazard.
Fiction:
In fiction and movies, radioactive wastes are usually considered as a source of super possibilities for a person. An example of a similar scenario - in the film “Modern Problems” released in 1981, in which the actor Chevy Chase portrayed the role of the jealous and crazy traffic controller Max Fielder. Max, left by his beloved girlfriend, comes into contact with radioactive waste and acquires telekinesis abilities with the help of which he not only wins back his girlfriend but also takes a small revenge. A more popular character – a student, bitten by a radioactive spider, turns into a mutant - Spiderman. Spiderman was created by the studio “Marvel Comics” and Tobey Maguire twice portrayed the role of spider man on big screen in 2002 and 2004.
Actually, coming into contact with a large quantity of radioactive waste can cause serious damage or can even lead to death. It is interesting to notice that the influence of radiation can lead to the mutation of an adult, for example, cytotoxic medicine against cancer is not capable of transforming an adult into mutant. Most likely, this influence will lead to cancer. It is estimated that at a radiation dose of 1 sievert Sv, the probability of the cancer occurrence in human being equals to 5% and the probability of mutation, which will be passed onto next generation in gamete or cell, forming it (for example, in testis), equals to 1%. If the growing organism is irradiated, for example, the embryo of a child, the probability of occurrence of congenital defect exists, but it is improbable that this defect will occur in gamete or a gamete-forming cell.
Classification:
Despite of small radioactivity, wastes of uranium processing plants also belong to radioactive wastes. These substances are byproducts of the primary treatment of uranium containing ores. According to US legislation for the use of atomic energy, they are sometimes categorized to a waste class of 11 (e) 2. This waste usually contains chemically hazardous heavy metals, such as lead and arsenic. Huge quantities of waste from uranium plants are left near old uranium deposits, especially in the states of Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
Low-active waste is a result of activities in hospitals, industrial enterprises and also the nuclear fuel cycle. Paper, rags, instruments, clothes, filters etc, containing a small quantity of predominantly shot-lived isotopes belong to this waste. Usually, these items are defined as low-active waste as a safety measure, if they were located in any area or so-called “Active zone”, often including office premises with the extremely insignificant possibility of infection by radioactive substances. Usually, low-active waste possess small radioactivity, rather than the same items, sent for dumping from non-radioactive zones, for example, usual offices. Given the type of waste this does not require isolation during transportation and is suitable for surface burial. To reduce the volume of waste, they are usually compressed or burnt before burying. Low-active radioactive waste is divided into four classes: A, B, C and GTCC (most hazardous).
Medium-active radioactive waste possesses high radio-activity and in certain cases requires shielding. Resins, chemical residues, metallic casings of heat-emitting elements of reactors and also contaminated substances, released due to the operations of an atomic energy station belong to a given class. During transportation, this waste can be wrapped-up in concrete or bitumen. As a rule, waste with short half-life period (basically, substances from reactors, which do not have any concern with fuel) is burnt in on-ground storages and waste with long half-life period (fuel and its processing products) is placed in deep underground storages. US legislation does not assign this type of radioactive waste into a separate class; the term is mainly used in European countries.
The transportation of boxes with highly active radioactive waste by train happens in Great Britain.
Highly active Russian Open Societies result from the work in nuclear reactors. They contain fission products and transuranium elements, obtained in the kernel of the reactor. This waste is extremely radioactive and often possesses a high temperature. Highly active radioactive waste has 95% of general radioactivity, formed as a result of the generation process of electric energy in reactor.
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Ever since the beginning of the nuclear age, there's a growing problem of how to dispose the nuclear waste, and by-products of nuclear production. Since most countries wish to get rid of nuclear waste, it became a good business for Eastern European countries to accept nuclear waste on their territories and store it in special storage systems where it sits for 30-50 years before it becomes less radioactive. Still, nuclear waste production every year far exceeds the capacity of the countries who are willing to store nuclear waste on their territories.
