Present state and future view of the nuclear wastes processing and disposal

Nuclear wastes are generally called radioactive wastes, classified to low level, middle level, high level, and TRU wastes to be managed according to their features, and disposed, in principle, so as not to make effect on long-term ecological environment under their background values. As the low and middle level wastes were conducted oceanic disposal till early 1970s at center of European nations and USA, since issue of the London Treaty in 1975 (a treaty on the oceanic pollution protection due to disposal of wastes and so forth), the oceanic disposal was paused and became at present because almost nuclear advancing nations had become its conclusion nations. Thereafter disposal was limited to ground disposal, and shallow underground disposal with artificial barrier was only conducted in every nations. For high level and TRU wastes, development of disposal technique is in advancing step, and is not in actually conducted state yet. A disposal method investigated in common to each nation is planned to dispose at deep stratum from some hundreds to a thousand meter underground thought not to affect any effect on ecosphere, to promote a site feature study of the deep stratum therefore. In this paper, for the low level wastes conducted the landfill disposal in Japan at present, actual state and feature view of processing and disposal techniques were described. (G.K.)