How Can We Reduce Nuclear Pollution

Pollution from nuclear power plants can have extremely harmful effects on people, animals, and the environment. But did you know that scientists have made nuclear power much safer? Or that governments have rules to ensure that waste materials are handled correctly? Explore the story behind nuclear pollution. As part of the Searchlight Books™ collection, this series sheds light on an important question—What Can We Do about Pollution? Informative text, compelling photos, and engaging captions will help you find the answer!

This title delves into different issues pertaining to nuclear pollution and its causes, effects, and how we can proactively deal with it to make our planet a cleaner and healthier place.

Places the environmental issues related to the production of nuclear power in their political context. It evaluates the extent of nuclear pollution, in comparison with other forms of power, and looks at the future of energy.

This book covers essential aspects of transmutation technologies, highlighting especially the advances in Japan. The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) has caused us to focus attention on a large amount of spent nuclear fuels stored in NPPs. In addition, public anxiety regarding the treatment and disposal of high-level radioactive wastes that require long-term control is growing. The Japanese policy on the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle is still unpredictable in the aftermath of the accident. Therefore, research and development for enhancing the safety of various processes involved in nuclear energy production are being actively pursued worldwide. In particular, nuclear transmutation technology has been drawing significant attention after the accident. This publication is timely with the following highlights: 1) Development of accelerator-driven systems (ADSs), which is a brand-new reactor concept for transmutation of highly radioactive wastes; 2) Nuclear reactor systems from the point of view of the nuclear fuel cycle. How to reduce nuclear wastes or how to treat them including the debris from TEPCO’s Fukushima nuclear power stations is discussed; and 3) Environmental radioactivity, radioactive waste treatment and geological disposal policy. State-of-the-art technologies for overall back-end issues of the nuclear fuel cycle as well as the technologies of transmutation are presented here. The chapter authors are actively involved in the development of ADSs and transmutation-related technologies. The future of the back-end issues in Japan is very uncertain after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP and this book provides an opportunity for readers to consider the future direction of those issues.

Waste management at the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle comprises the various activities involved in the handling of the spent fuel once it has left the reactor. The purpose of the minimization of radioactive waste is threefold: (a) to reduce the risks of radiation exposure of technical personnel as well as of the public; (b) to reduce contamination of the environment; and (c) to reduce overall costs by reducing the repository space required for final waste disposal. Waste minimization has become a major part of waste management policies.

Over the past decade significant progress has been achieved in the development of waste characterization and control procedures and equipment as a direct response to ever-increasing requirements for quality and reliability of information on waste characteristics. Failure in control procedures at any step can have important, adverse consequences and may result in producing waste packages which are not compliant with the waste acceptance criteria for disposal, thereby adversely impacting the repository. The information and guidance included in this publication corresponds to recent achievements and reflects the optimum approaches, thereby reducing the potential for error and enhancing the quality of the end product. -- Publisher's description.

This title, first published in 1987, examines the topic of nuclear waste management, and the way in which the public reacts to this issue. Part 1 explores the sources of public unease, such as the way in which nuclear waste had failed to be properly contained in the past. Part 2 looks at the search for a waste policy and the introduction of The Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Part 3 examines the waste problem from the standpoint of it being an international issue, and finally, Part 4 looks to the future and the lessons that we can learn from past nuclear waste management failures. This book will be of interest to students of environmental management.