Nuclear Waste Management

by
Task Committee on Nuclear Effects of the Committee on Air, Noise, and Radiation Management of the Environmental Engineering Division of ASCE

American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, NY
978-0-87262-343-9 (ISBN-13) | 0-87262-343-2 (ISBN-10), 1982, Soft Cover, Pg. 52

Out of Print: Not available at ASCE Bookstore.


Document Type: Book

Abstract:

This Task Committee report to the members of ASCE reviews the current technology and many of the key technical issues concerned with the long-term storage and disposal of high-level and intermediate-level nuclear wastes from the commerical nuclear fuel cycle. Although national policy is not firm, major efforts are focused on permanent storage of nuclear wastes in engineered waste repositories with multiple barriers to transport to the biosphere. Many of the issues focus on the desire for assurances that the wastes can be isolated from the biosphere for geologic time periods in excess of thousands of years. The report reviews the origin of nuclear wastes from the total nuclear fuel cycle, the biological and environmental significance of the wastes, and technical options for waste repositories, both for shallow land burial and federal repositories. The report discusses pressing issues on spent fuel reprocessing and concludes with recommendations that could accelerate activities to relieving national need for nuclear waste disposal facilites. (Reprinted from the Journal of the Environmental Engineering Division, Feb., 1982.)



Subject Headings: Radioactive wastes | Waste storage | Waste disposal | Waste management | Fuels | Ecosystems | Transportation engineering

 

Return to search