Videos of Radioactive Waste Disposal
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Nuclear technologies benefit people everywhere. Radioactive sources are used to sterilize food and medical instruments, to develop improved crops and to diagnose and treat patients. Research reactors are used in science and for producing radioisotopes for medical use and 30 countries use nuclear power for energy production. These various uses of nuclear technologies generate waste like many other processes. To ensure that it poses no risk to people or the environment now and in the future all countries using nuclear technologies have the responsibility to manage radioactive waste safely and securely.
A team of experts from South Africa’s Nuclear Energy Corporation has removed 16 highly radioactive sources from disused medical devices in the Philippines. The source removal experts used a special facility known as a “mobile hot cell” to carry out the six-week operation, which was financed by the IAEA’s Nuclear Security Fund.
Nuclear technology has the potential to save lives, make food and medical supplies safer and produce energy. But it is also the basis for the development of nuclear weapons. One of the IAEA’s core functions is to confirm that countries are not misusing nuclear materials or equipment to produce nuclear explosive devices. To verify that nuclear materials are used solely for peaceful purposes, the IAEA has developed a system of “Safeguards Agreements”. 179 States have entered into these agreements with the IAEA, submitting nuclear materials, facilities and activities to the regular scrutiny of the IAEA’s inspectors. In November 2012, the IAEA conducted an inspection at the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, in the Czech Republic.
In November 2012, the IAEA conducted a ‘Physical Inventory Verification’ (PIV) at the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, in the Czech Republic, which is situated 170 km south east of Prague. This kind of inspection takes places after fresh fuel is loaded into a reactor core and the displaced irradiated fuel has been removed and transferred to the spent fuel pond. Dukovany is one of two nuclear power plants in the Czech Republic. It has two main production units, each of them contains two pressurized water reactors. The plant supplies around 20 percent of the total consumption of electricity in the country.
Uranium enrichment is one of the key processes in the nuclear fuel supply chain. After mining and conversion, uranium is enriched to a level that makes it suitable for the fabrication of fuel for types of nuclear power and research reactors.