Radioactive Wastes

Abstract

Papers reviewed herein present a general overview of radioactive waste activities around the world in 2002. These include management solutions for the final disposal of low, intermediate, and high level wastes (LLW, ILW, HLW), interim storage and final disposal options for spent fuel, and disposal of excess weapons plutonium (Pu), with a focus on environmental impacts due to the mobility of radionuclides in water (e. g., associated with reprocessing plant discharges to seawater, repository waste interactions with ground and surface water, and buried waste interactions with pore water). REPOSITORIES AND DISPOSALIn the United States, the Yucca Mountain site, Nevada, i.e., the proposed highlevel radioactive waste disposal repository, continued to be focuses of many studies. Hydrological flow and down gradient dilution and dispersion of radionuclides were examined in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain (Paces et al., 2002). The results demonstrated that large variations in both U concentrations (commonly 0.6-10 µg/L) and 234 U/ 238 U activity ratios (commonly 1.5-6) existed on both local and regional scales; however, ground water samples from Yucca