Biosphere Implications of Deep Disposal of Nuclear Waste

Download or read book Biosphere Implications of Deep Disposal of Nuclear Waste written by H S Wheater and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2007-07-26 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The safety assessment of a deep repository for nuclear waste poses challenging scientific and technical questions. The risks from leakage of radionuclides from the repository, including transfers to the biosphere and the food chain must be assessed. This involves complex and poorly understood interactions between groundwater, soils, plants and the atmosphere. A unique, multidisciplinary experimental and modeling program at Imperial College London has been funded by UK NIREX to develop the science and to produce modeling tools to interpret and generalize the experimental data for safety assessment. This monograph brings together for the first time the accumulated results and experience from almost two decades of research. The results have important implications for the safety assessment of nuclear waste worldwide and provide new insights into the geochemical and biological controls on the upwards migration of radiochemicals in the near-surface environment. Contents:Methods:Experimental ProtocolsModelling Radionuclide Transport and Uptake in Vegetated SoilsResults:RadiochlorineRadioiodineTechnetiumRadioseleniumRadiocationsConclusions and Recommendations Readership: Professionals/academics/postgraduates of nuclear waste management industry, environmental science, soil science, environmental risk assessment, pollution and hydrology. Keywords:Nuclear Waste Management;Risk Assessment;Radionuclide Migration;Contaminant Transport in Vegetated Soils;Unsaturated Zone Flow;Transport ModelingKey Features:Addresses safety assessment issues for subsurface disposal of nuclear waste — important worldwide and currently highly topical in the UKReports a uniquely comprehensive set of experimental results related to the movement of radionuclides in the near-surface environment — with web-based data accessPresents state-of-the-art modeling tools for contaminant transport in vegetated soils