The approvals required for disposal of radioactive wastes are
granted by regulatory authorities and/or other government agencies
in individual countries. There are currently a number of
organizations around the world which operate licensed disposal
facilities for radioactive wastes. There are also a number of
national and/or regional organizations that are actively seeking to
develop disposal facilities.

The International Atomic Energy Agency
defines storage as:

The placement of waste in a nuclear facility
where isolation, environmental protection and human control are provided with the intent
that the waste will be retrieved at a later time.

Radioactive wastes are typically stored for one or more of the following reasons: to allow them to decay to lower radioactivity levels; to temporarily hold them awaiting processing (or until a processing method has been developed); or to temporariliy hold them awaiting disposal (or until a disposal facility has been constructed). Each of these reasons may impose slightly different restrictions on storage in terms of length of time, physical form of the waste, radioactivity levels, etc.

"Storage for decay" is a cost effective way to manage short lived, low level radioactive wastes. Due to the physical laws of nature, the radioactivity reduces with time. After 10 half-lives the level of radioactivity has reduced by a factor of 1024, typically to near background levels. For the short lived radioisotopes typically used in medicine and research, this storage period for complete decay may be only a few weeks to a few months. After this time, the waste is no longer radioactive and can be disposed of as conventional waste (of course, taking into account any other hazards that the waste might pose, such as biological hazards). For other wastes, such as spent nuclear fuel, the "storage for decay" period may be many hundreds of thousands of years. However, it is important to note that all radioactivity will eventually decay.

Regulated Waste





• Low-level waste (LLW) includes radioactively contaminated protective clothing, tools, filters, rags, medical tubes, and many other items


• High-level waste (HLW) is "irradiated" or used nuclear reactor fuel


• Uranium mill tailings are the residues remaining after the processing of natural ore to extract uranium and thorium

Nuclear Waste Disposal

The disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and
nuclear missiles is as politically intense an issue as the plants and
missiles themselves. Yet the three issues have remained curiously
separate in spite of their close physical ties. Few debates on
nuclear power or nuclear weapons discuss the problems of waste
disposal should the power plant or missile be decommissioned. Few
debates on nuclear waste disposal discuss the opportunities to
close nuclear power plants or get rid of nuclear weapons a disposal
site would afford.

Nuclear waste can be generally classified a either
"low level" radioactive waste or "high level" radioactive waste.
Low level nuclear waste usually includes material used to handle the
highly radioactive parts of nuclear reactors (i.e. cooling water pipes
and radiation suits) and waste from medical procedures involving
radioactive treatments or x-rays. Low level waste is comparatively
easy to dispose of. The level of radioactivity and the half life of
the radioactive isotopes in low level waste is relatively small.
Storing the waste for a period of 10 to 50 years will allow most of
the radioactive isotopes in low level waste to decay, at which point
the waste can be disposed of as normal refuse.

High level radioactive waste is generally material from the core of
the nuclear reactor or nuclear weapon. This waste includes uranium,
plutonium, and other highly radioactive elements made during fission.
Most of the radioactive isotopes in high level waste emit large
amounts of radiation and have extremely long half-lives (some longer
than 100,000 years) creating long time periods before the waste will
settle to safe levels of radioactivity.
This area will describe some
of the methods being under consideration, for dealing with this, high
level, waste. These include short term storage
, long term storage, and
transmutation.