Status of Management of Radioactive Wastes from Nuclear Power Plants

摘要

The cognition for dealing with the radioactive waste has reached the waste management concept through the treatment and disposal from the simple disposal of the early stage. In nuclear-electric power generation system, many sorts of radioactive waste are generated from not only power stations but their related nuclear fuel cycle facilities. Two technical objectives in the waste treatment step are: the diminution of the release rate of radioactivity into the environment in fluid form, and the conditioning (solidification and packaging) of volume-reduced or concentrated wastes including both solid waste and wastes originated from the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. At this moment, endeavors dedicated for the diminution of release rate gives fairly good performances based on the ''As Low As Practicable'' principle, except the conditioning. Hereafter, much efforts will be concentrated on the following aspects, for example, diminution of the amount of the wastes to be solidified or packaged, realization of high volume reduction, and establishing the appropriate guidelines for packaging together with the consolidation of responsibility and financial liability. (ERA citation 03:000300)