1. Lecture 8: Radioactive waste
BIO410- Ecology and Environmental Engineering
FALL 2016
By Jasmin Šutković
28th Nov. 2016
Lecture 8: Radioactive waste

2. Outline Nuclear energy and power plants Radiation Health effects
Book Chapter 16– follow the subtitles in this presentations
while reading the book.
Nuclear energy and power plants
Radiation
Health effects
Source of radioactive waste
Radioactive waste management

3. How nuclear energy works
Fukushima accident
Current status: Ex city major interview –

4. Radiation
X-rays were discovered by Wilhelm Roentgen toward the end of the year 1895.
Henri Becquerel observed radiation similar to X-rays emanating from certain uranium salts.
Marie and Pierre Curie studied radiation from two uranium ores, isolating radium and polonium, staring the atomic age.

5. Radiation types
The Curies classified the radiation from radium and polonium into three types, according to the direction of deflection in a magnetic field.
These three types of radiation were called alpha (α), beta (β), and gamma (γ) radiation.

6. Radioactive decay An atom that is radioactive has an unstable nucleus.
Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay or radioactivity) is the process by which the nucleus of an unstable atom loses energy by emitting radiation, including alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays, and conversion electrons.
A material that spontaneously emits such radiation is considered radioactive

9. Ionizing radiation
Ionizing radiation (ionising radiation) is radiation that carries enough energy to free electrons from atoms or molecules, thereby ionizing them. Made of: Ions and electromagnetic waves

11. HEALTH EFFECTS
When radioactive elements RADIATE , then the molecules along the path of the ionizing radiation are damaged in the process, as chemical bonds are broken and electrons are ejected (ionization).
38 elements are radioactive

13. The Nuclear fuel cycle
The nuclear fuel cycle is the series of industrial processes which involve the production of electricity from uranium in nuclear power reactors.
Uranium is a relatively common element that is found throughout the world. It is mined in a number of countries and must be processed before it can be used as fuel for a nuclear reactor.
Fuel removed from a reactor, after it has reached the end of its useful life, can be reprocessed so that most is recycled for new fuel.

14. High-level waste (HLW) is a type of nuclear waste created by the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.[1] It exists in two main forms:
First and second cycle raffinate and other waste streams created by nuclear reprocessing.
Waste formed by vitrification of liquid high-level waste.
Low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste refers to all forms of radioactive waste, except used nuclear fuel, limited waste from the production of medical isotopes, and the waste from uranium mining and milling. This type of waste includes refurbishment waste, ion-exchange resins and some radioactive sources used in radiation therapy.
Low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW)
Low-level Radioactive Waste (LLRW) is radioactive waste that is not high-level radioactive waste, transuranic waste, spent nuclear fuel, or 11e(2) byproduct material (uranium and thorium mill tailings and wastes).

15. RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
Re-usage in different and less harmful forms
Disposal in land fields…..
What to do with radioactive waste that has half-lives more than years and we don’t need it ?

20. Conclusion
During the past half-century, the pendulum of public opinion swung from the ‘’pronuclear” extreme of the 1950s and 1960s to the “anti-nuclear” extreme of the 1980s and 1990s.
Politics tends to follow public opinion, but political decisions, including those about nuclear power and radioactive waste, are emotion-laden and not always scientifically or environmentally sound.
The role of engineers, now more than ever, is to inform and influence political decisions.
Alternative forms of energy a solution ?