Where is radioactive waste produced

Much smaller amounts of waste are produced by the medical, industrial, research and defence sectors. Radioactive materials are used for many purposes in the medical industry. In particular, radioactive materials are used to sterilise equipment, and help diagnose and treat medical illnesses.

Relatively small amounts of radioactive waste are produced during the manufacture, use and recycling of radiopharmaceuticals. Used radioactive sources are often returned to the manufacturer for recycling. Download our factsheet to learn more about radioactive wastes from medical activities. The industrial sector uses radioactive sources in a number of ways. The most common use is for non-destructive testing of materials and components. For example, gamma rays are used to test the quality of welds or the thickness of products, such as paper.

Download our factsheet to learn more about radioactive wastes from industrial activities. Academic and industrial research using radioactive materials takes place in many universities and research establishments across the UK. This research is very diverse, ranging from developing new radiotherapy treatments to testing novel solid materials for encapsulating liquid radioactive wastes. Some research will produce small amounts of radioactive wastes. Experiments and tests using JET produce small amounts of radioactive waste during its operation.

Download our factsheet to learn more about radioactive wastes from research activities. More information on research and development at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

The Ministry of Defence is responsible for the safe, secure and sustainable dismantling of retired submarines. Download our factsheet to learn more about radioactive wastes from defence activities.

Back About the Inventory What is the Inventory? Why do we have the Inventory? Who sponsors the Inventory? How is the Inventory produced? What are waste streams? What data is collected? How are waste volumes reported? How is the Inventory used? Data Accuracy. Back About radioactive waste What is radiation? What is radioactive waste? How is radioactive waste produced? How do we manage radioactive waste? In fact, the San Luis Obispo, Calif. The solution may be one or many interim storage sites, centralized depots where such dry casks could be stored until a permanent repository is opened.

Recycling In General Electric Co. The U. Today, France, Japan, Russia and the U. The problem is that this is also how governments separate out plutonium for use in nuclear weapons —potentially creating a tempting target for theft.

This DoE program proposes restarting the recycling of nuclear fuel in the U. At the same time, the Energy Department has enlisted 21 nations, from Australia to Kazakhstan, to safely develop such reprocessing technology, in many cases by shipping any future spent fuel to this proposed U. The National Research Council , the research arm of the U.

National Academy of Sciences, notes, however, that such reprocessing is impractical and expensive. Eleven years later, the Council further declared that research and development of such technology under the GNEP should be halted, because the money could be better spent on other areas of nuclear power research, such as next-generation reactors. The nuclear power industry has also not shown much enthusiasm for reprocessing because of the high price tag.

A report issued by Colorado think tank, The Keystone Center—an analysis of nuclear power by utility executives, environmentalists, policymakers and other experts—agrees, finding that "reprocessing of spent fuel will not be cost-effective in the foreseeable future. But "the cost of extracting plutonium from that ore is still much, much higher than the price of uranium. Nevertheless, advocates including researchers at Idaho, Argonne, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge national laboratories point to a reprocessing future of so-called fast-breeder reactors , which use plutonium to generate electricity—and in the process of fissioning generate yet more plutonium, a theoretically inexhaustible source of energy.

They are just not economical at the moment. And even if reprocessing or fast breeders could be made to work cheaply and efficiently—eliminating spent reactor rods as radioactive refuse—there would still be thousands of tons of nuclear waste in need of a permanent home. The other nuclear waste The U. Ranging from workers' coveralls to water filters, some of this stream of nuclear waste no longer has a place for its disposal either—particularly the highly radioactive materials rated as classes B and C, such as reactor vessel heads.

The national nuclear dump in Barnwell, S. A new dump in Texas, granted a license by the state this month, will only accept low-level leavings from that state and Vermont, alongside similarly restricted dumps in Utah and Washington State. This has also left users of nuclear products such as hospitals and universities scrambling to find a place to dispose of their radioactive residue.

So now the waste from the majority of reactors on the east coast and Midwest typically sits alongside the spent nuclear fuel in dry casks on-site. In terms of safety, it's the best that can be done at present. Somewhere where there were armed security officers with concrete buildings," Andersen says. It originally stated that the Monju fast-breeder reactor used molten salt coolant. Department of Transportation DOT is responsible for regulating the transportation of wastes to storage and disposal sites.

Radioactive Waste Transportation This website provides information on how radioactive materials are shipped in the United States. The DOE also manages certain closed disposal sites, including those designated for uranium milling wastes. Nuclear Waste Storage This webpage provides information on how the DOE is working towards finding long-term storage solutions for nuclear waste.

The DOT oversees the safety and security of hazardous materials during transport. Hazardous Material This webpage provides information on hazardous material spills, including the types of hazardous material transported in the U. Transporting Radioactive Materials Fact Sheet This fact sheet provides information about transportation of radioactive waste in the United States including rules and guidance.

The CRCPD is a nonprofit non-governmental professional organization dedicated to radiation protection. State Radiation Protection Programs This webpage provides links and contact information for each state's Radiation Control Program office. Skip to main content. Contact Us.