Decommissioning and Radioactive Waste Disposal

This category covers all your nuclear waste disposal and decommissioning questions, including decommissioning of equipment and nuclear sites, release criteria and associated guidance; radioactive waste disposal of all types - low level waste, high level waste, mixed waste, etc.

Questions Answered by HPS Experts

The following health physics questions have been answered by an expert and approved by our editors for inclusion in our "Ask the Experts" feature. Click on the question to see the answer.

Questions in this Category Are in the Following Subcategories:
  •  Disposal
  •  Low Level Waste
  •  US High Level Waste Issues (Yucca Mountain)
  •  Mixed Waste
  •  Decommissioning
  •  Miscellaneous
 
Disposal
Q6532   –   Characterization methods for radioactive waste
Q7193   –   Air sampling in rad waste area
Q8231   –   Monitoring for alpha emitters
Q8516   –   Disposal of lead lining
Q9858   –   Disposal of iodine-125 via decay in storage
Q9860   –   Disposal of strontium-85/strontium-82 Generator Waste
Q10119   –   Cremation and I-125 prostate implant seeds
Q14047   –   Distance between reactor entombment site and surrounding populations
Q14104   –   Disposal of residential GAC radon filter
Q14117   –   Disposal of historical artifacts containing radium-226
 
Low Level Waste
Q10391   –   Siting criteria for an LLW disposal facility
 
US High Level Waste Issues (Yucca Mountain)
Q10009   –   Disposal of radioactive waste - vitrification
 
Mixed Waste
Q10400   –   When radioactive waste is mixed waste
 
Decommissioning
Q10292   –   Decommissioning x-ray machines
Q11468   –   Reuse of equipment used for decommissioning a nuclear facility
 
Miscellaneous
Q8456   –   RG 1.86 limits
Q10203   –   Transportation of hazardous materials

Other Useful Websites

The following websites may also be useful:

  External website   Mixed Waste — US Environmental Protection Agency
  External website   Radioactive waste and spent fuel management – International Atomic Energy Agency
  External website   Radioactive Waste Management: Overview – US Environmental Protection Agency
  External website   The Impact of Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Policy on Biomedical Research in the United States Textbook – The National Academies Press