The management of radioactive wastes

After having indicated the different characteristics that radioactive wastes may have (radionuclide type, activity, decay period), this article presents a classification of radioactive wastes with respect to their activity and radioactive period, thus making a distinction between very short life, very low activity, low and medium activity and short life, low activity and long life, medium activity and long life, and high activity and long life wastes. It presents the different management modes associated with these different categories: sorting, processing and packaging, warehousing and storage. It mentions existing and projected processing and storage sites in France. It presents the different solutions adopted within the national plan for the management of radioactive materials and wastes (PNGMDR) and mentions the content of the law related to this management. Then it presents the fields of researches which are also mentioned in this law: separation and transmutation (principle, research status), reversible deep geological disposal, warehousing (principle, safety issues). It proposes an overview of strategies adopted by different countries for different types of underground disposal (USA, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Canada). It outlines the scientific and technical stakes for the IRSN on this issue of deep geological storage, and evokes some already important results which have been obtained