Waste treatment after a
radiological accident
Miliza Malmelin
Starting points and scope of the work
 After a radiological accident the area has to be cleaned
and waste is generated.
 The generated waste contains small amounts of
radioactive substances which has to be taken into
account during waste treatment.
 The amounts of waste generated might be huge.
 Most preparedness plans cover only the early phase of
radiological accidents - the later phase (clean-up) is
seldom covered
 The scope: How should waste treatment be organized
after a radiological accident.
What does the study cover?
 Background:
– Legislation applied
– Authorities and their responsibilities
 Waste generation: where, what and how much
 General principles of waste treatment: what can be
done to different types of waste
 Waste treatment in practice: what would be done
 Recommendations
The type of accident will affect the amount of waste and
the type of waste generated (1/2)
 Regionally large accident – most of the area will be lightly
contaminated: no population protection actions, waste is generated when
foodstuff and other products are thrown away, and when the environment
is cleaned
– Serious nuclear power plant accident
– Nuclear weapon explosion
 Local accident – will be limited to the nearby environment or indoors;
waste is generated when the environment is cleaned and products are
thrown away
– Accident during transport or use of powerful source of
–
–
radioactive radiation
Transport and storage of nuclear fuel
Illegal use of radioactive substances for deliberate
contamination
The type of accident will affect the amount of waste and
the type of waste generated (2/2)
 The consistency and amount of radioactive substances
– The characteristics of radioactive substances vary a lot
– The intensity of the contamination will affect actions
needed and what type and amounts of waste are
generated
 Accident area and time
– The regional structure: production, business and other
–
–
activities
The environment
Time of the year
Cleaning actions should be planned
 Cleaning actions should be planned and made based on knowledge about the
contamination (area, type and amount)
 This way the amount and type of waste generated from cleaning actions can
be predicted
 The amount of waste generated is affected by the type of accident, the
structure of the area, the cleaning actions chosen, the efficiency of
decontamination wanted, the availability of cleaning equipment and personnel
 The amounts of waste can be extremly large, so
– the waste should be sorted according to type of waste and
–
radioactive substances
 Helps finding appropriate recycling or waste treatment method
Often pretreatment is needed, eg.
 Composting of biomass, rotting or incineration
 The solidification or filtration of fluids
 The places of deployment of waste should be planned ahead
 The protection of workers should be planned ahead
Conclusions
 How and where waste is treated depends on the type and amount
of waste generated.
 Central for the waste treatment is that:
– The local/regional waste treatment possibilities (eg. Dumping
grounds, incineration)
– The capability of transportation and treatment and the need
for additional instruments (eg. Radiation measuring
equipment)
– The changes of the level of radiation during different phases
of waste treatment chain
– The appropriate dumping of waste from the beginning so, that
radioactive substances are hindered from drifting into groundand surface water and, that the radioactive material is finally
covered with enough non-radioactive material to damp the
outer radiation
Recommendations
 Preparedness for the later phase of radiological
accidents is needed in many sectors
 The legislation should be developed and questions on
responsibilities solved