Many individuals have gone to the doctor and been ordered to make an X-ray. But have you wondered what waste emerge from this exam? This kind of waste is called radioactive waste and contains a certain type of radioactive material. The radioactive material varies depending on the application. Radioactive waste arises mostly from by-products of nuclear power plants or other applications of nuclear fission, nuclear research and nuclear medicine (IAEA, 2016). There are two categories of waste; The HLW (High-level waste) which came for uranium that is no longer useful at electricity production. They are thermally hot and highly radioactive, which indicates that all managing should be done remotely. HLW decay varies from hours to thousand years. Denotative wastes of this caliber are, Strontium-90 and cesium-137 with half-lives around 30 years and Plutonium-239 which has a half-life of 24,000 years. It is noted that half-life is the time needed for the radioactivity to reduced in half. There is also the LLW (low-level waste), which are the elements that have been contaminated with radioactive materials or have become radioactive through exposure to neutron radiation. This kind of waste is typically stored on-site until it has decayed away and treated as ordinary waste or transported to a nuclear waste disposal site (NRC, 2015).
Picture 1. Managing LLW at Ansto
Why then do we use nuclear energy? Energy needs are increasing and nuclear power plants have one of the most antagonizing markets, with one of the lowest operating expenses (eia, 2017). Furthermore, many life cycle analysis studies indicate that on average, a nuclear power plant provides electricity with a carbon footprint equals 65 g CO2 eq/kWh, which is really low. Imagine that solar photovoltaic has on average 90 g CO2 eq/kWh (Lenzen, 2008).
Insofar, a brief talk has been deployed on radioactive waste. But what are the major concerns and how it is connected with the environment? The first issue has been raised years ago when nuclear waste have been transported to developing countries. It was a major environmental injustice which after the Basil Convention (CORE), tends to stop. In this convention, it is said that every country should manage its own waste. A great example. is Australia which manages all of its waste inside the country (Ansto, 2011). And lastly, the second issue is, how the public health and the environment will be affected by a possible nuclear accident. Data from the recent accident at Fukushima will be presented. From this incident, it is detected Cesium at the island of Hawaii which means that mitigation can occur relatively easy (McKenzie and Dulai, 2017) but the radiation dosage was kept at a minimum and some increase in thyroid cancer incidents may be overdiagnosed (Boice, 2017). So, be careful of your supportiveness at nuclear energy!
References
Ansto. (2011). Management of Radioactive Waste in Australia. Retrieved 01/ 03/ 2018, from: http://www.ansto.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/46172/Management_of_Radioactive_Waste_in_Australia_v2.pdf
Boice D.J. (2017). Chapter 3 – From Chernobyl to Fukushima and Beyond—A Focus on Thyroid Cancer. Thyroid Cancer and Nuclear Accidents: Long-Term Aftereffects of Chernobyl and Fukushima, p. 21-32.
eia- Energy information administration. (2017). Electric Power Annual 2016. Retrieved 01/ 03/ 2018, from: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/pdf/epa.pdf
IAEA- International Atomic Energy Agency. (2016). Waste technology. Retrieved 01/ 03/ 2018, from: https://www.iaea.org/OurWork/ST/NE/NEFW/Technical-Areas/WTS/home.html
Lenzen M. (2008). Life cycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions of nuclear energy: A review. Energy Conversion and Management, p. 2178-2199.
McKenzie T, Dulai H. (2017). Fukushima-derived radiocesium fallout in Hawaiian soils. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, p. 106-113.
NRC- Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (2015). Backgrounder on Radioactive Waste. Retrieved 01/ 03/ 2018, from: https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/radwaste.html
No comments:
Post a Comment