Decontamination and disposal of radioactive wastes from nuclear facilities

A survey and characteristics are given of the main sources of wastes from the operation of nuclear installations. The amounts are compared of liquid and gaseous wastes from PWR and BWR reactors. The main trends of radioactive waste processing in the world are described. In Czechoslovakia, two methods of waste fixation have been developed: vacuum cementation and bituminization. The demands are summed up on radioactive waste storage sites and it is stated that there are a number of suitable localities, namely abolished granite quarries with a very deep ground water level and a low-permeable overburden and exhausted quarries of kaolinitic clays, which meet all criteria and secure the safe disposal of wastes from Czechoslovak nuclear power plants up to the year 2020. (Z.M.)