Prospects for storage and disposal of low and intermediate level radioactive waste in Egypt

Nuclear activities have been established in Egypt for more than three decades. As in other developing countries, this activity gives rise to an appreciable amount of liquid and solid radioactive wastes and to spent sealed sources from industrial, medical and agricultural applications. The paper discusses the waste management policy and strategy adopted by the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority and the prospects for that policy for the next two decades, with special reference to the storage and disposal of low and intermediate level radioactive wastes. The national policy is based on the separation of responsibilities between the operating organization (Waste Management Facility, Waste Management Centre) and the regulatory body (the National Centre for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control). Over the past ten years, the Waste Management Centre has begun to build an integrated waste management facility at the Inshas site for the treatment, conditioning and interim storage of various types of waste produced in the course of the above mentioned activities. The facility comprises a treatment plant for low and intermediate level radioactive liquid wastes, an incinerator for incinerable low level solid wastes, an in-drum compaction unit for low level compatible solid wastes and a cementation facility for conditioning sludges, concentrates, ashes, filter cartridges, compacted solid wastes and spent sealed sources. A near surface disposal site, collocated within the Waste Management Facility premises and designed to accommodate 6000 concrete blocks, is under investigation. (author). 4 refs, 9 figs, 2 tabs