The safe management of radioactive wastes is of paramount importance in gaining both governmental and societal support for nuclear energy. The scope of this new textbook is to provide a comprehensive perspective on all types of radioactive wastes as to how they are created, classified, characterized, and disposed.
Written to emphasize how geology and radionuclide chemistry impact waste management, this book is primarily designed for engineers who have little background in geology with low-level wastes, decommissioning wastes, high-level wastes and spent nuclear fuel.
This textbook provides the most up-to-date information available on waste management in several countries. The content of this work includes transporting radioactive materials to disposal facilities. The textbook cites numerous case studies to illustrate past practices, current methodologies and to provide insights on how radioactive wastes may be managed in the future. An international perspective on waste management is also provided to help the readers better understand the diversity in approaches while highlighting what many countries have in common. Review questions for classroom use are provided at the end of each chapter.
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Sample Chapter(s)
Preface
Chapter 1: Radiation and Exposure
Contents:
- Radiation and Exposure
- Radionuclides in Groundwater
- Uranium and Thorium Resources and Wastes
- Low-Level Radioactive Wastes in the United States
- Management of Used Nuclear Fuel
- Geological Repositories
- Managing Decommissioning Wastes
- Transportation of Radioactive Materials
- Environmental Restoration in the United States
- International Management of Radioactive Wastes
- Appendices:
- Glossary of Technical Terms
- The International Atomic Energy Agency Classification of Radioactive Wastes
Readership: Undergraduate and graduate students in science and engineering, college-level faculty, attendees at waste-management training courses, Federal and commercial waste management/site remediation staff, environmental consultants, and waste management personnel in the military.
"This book is very well structured, well written and well referenced [and] is exactly a book which technical communities of many countries were expecting ... When we discuss further development of nuclear power we are most frequently asked three major questions: are nuclear reactor safe? How much they cost? And finally: what we shall do with the spent nuclear fuels and nuclear waste — Radioactive Waste Management in the 21st Century delivers competent and honest answers for these questions in a competent, ideology-free and emotion-free way. In this book William Roy shows his deep understanding of most of the problems related to the nuclear spent fuel management and a fantastic overview of the international activities in this field ... This book can be read both by experts and by laymen, and I am not surprised — William Roy is a very good storyteller, and each year he was awarded best lecturer prize at our Summer Course in Oskarshamn."
Waclaw Gudowski
Professor, National Centre for Nuclear Research - NCBJ , Poland
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden &
AlbaNova University Centre, Sweden
William R Roy is a Professor/Lecturer in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a former Senior Geochemist at the Illinois State Geological Survey. His academic background includes a BS and MA in Geology at Indiana University, and a PhD in Soil Physical Chemistry at the University of Illinois. He has led numerous research projects concerning the management of hazardous, radioactive, urban, agricultural, and coal utilization wastes, and their impacts on groundwater and soil quality. He has authored or co-authored 109 journal papers, technical reports, and symposia contributions. He has also authored 16 book chapters on environmental chemistry and coal and co-authored a textbook on managing radioactive wastes for the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm where he taught a summer course. He currently teaches a course on managing radioactive wastes at Illinois, and one course on environmental restoration and waste management for the University of Denver.
