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Radioactive contamination, also called radiological pollution, is the deposition of, or presence of radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids, or gases (including the human body), where their presence is unintended or undesirable (from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) definition). [3]
One of four example estimates of the plutonium (Pu-239) plume from the 1957 fire at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. The Rocky Flats Plant, a former United States nuclear weapons production facility located about 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Denver, caused radioactive (primarily plutonium, americium, and uranium) contamination within and outside its boundaries. [1]
In 2002, the United States stored approximately 47,000 tonnes of high-level radioactive waste. Among the constituents of spent nuclear fuel, neptunium-237 and plutonium-239 are particularly problematic due to their long half-lives of two million years and 24,000 years, respectively. [2]
Social scientist and energy policy expert, Benjamin K. Sovacool has reported that worldwide there have been 99 accidents at nuclear power plants from 1952 to 2009 (defined as incidents that either resulted in the loss of human life or more than US$50,000 of property damage, the amount the US federal government uses to define major energy ...
After revelations that radioactive waste may be buried under two Bay Area parks, the cities of Albany and Berkeley submitted testing plans. Albany's was approved; Berkeley's was deemed insufficient.
At around 5:30 am on July 16, 1979, a previously identified crack opened into a 20-foot-breach (6.1 m) in the south cell of United Nuclear Corporation's Church Rock temporary uranium mill tailings disposal pond, and 1,100 short tons (1,000 t) of solid radioactive mill waste and about 93 million US gallons (350,000 m 3) of acidic, radioactive tailings solution flowed into Pipeline Arroyo, a ...
High-level waste is the highly radioactive waste material resulting from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, including liquid waste produced directly in reprocessing and any solid material derived from such liquid waste that contains fission products in sufficient concentrations; and other highly radioactive material that is determined, consistent with existing law, to require permanent ...
The transport of LLW is regulated by two United States government agencies. The first is the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) under the 1974 Transportation Safety Act (H.R. 15223), and second, the NRC under authority of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. § 2011) and the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974. [16]