Operational waste

All these processes produce nuclear waste. The first waste that emerges is the tailings (excavated rocks to access the uranium ore) at the mine. In some cases, these tailings were stockpiled in heaps to fill open-cast mines or to redevelop areas. Six countries supply around 85 percent of the world’s mined uranium: Canada, Kazakhstan, Australia, Niger, Namibia, and Russia.22 Mining (and subsequent processes) creates large amounts of nuclear waste in the exporting countries, of which only Canada and Russia operate nuclear power plants. France, Russia, Canada, China, and the US commercially convert yellow cake into uranium hexafluoride (UF6). England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Japan, and the US provide commercial enrichment services. Uranium-containing waste is generated in both stages.

OPERATIONAL WASTE

The operation of nuclear power plants for electricity generation produces different kinds of nuclear waste in different kinds of physical states, of which the lion’s share is low- and intermediate-level waste (LILW). The IAEA classifies operational waste into two main categories: unconditioned (as-generated) and conditioned operational waste. For unconditioned operational waste, an indication of the physical state (such as liquid or solid) is important:23

• Raw waste (waste in its original form) is unconditioned and often listed in tons for solid waste and cubic meters (m³) for liquid waste.24

• But this category also includes pre-treated waste. This waste has undergone some form of preconditioning and is often measured in tons for solids and m³ for liquids.

To bring the waste into a stable and immobilized form and to make it suitable for transportation, storage, and eventually disposal, it needs to be conditioned. Waste compaction is also applied in order to minimize the waste quantities; compaction can be a part of conditioning but does not have to be.25

• An additional category is conditioned waste that has to be reconditioned for safety or acceptance reasons or both.26

• After conditioning, the waste is stored in drums, storage, transport, or disposal casks. The stored waste is measured in m³, metric tons, or number of casks or drums.

• A last waste category is disposed waste. In Europe, only less than half of the nuclear countries have installed disposal facilities for LILW (UK, France, Spain, Hungary, Finland, Czech Republic,

Sweden). Disposed waste is often measured in m³ or waste packages or casks.

22 Mendelevitch, R., Dang, T. 2016, “Nuclear Power and the Uranium Market: Are Reserves and Resources Sufficient?”,

DIW Berlin — Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung. 23 Solid waste is for example protective clothing, replaced plant components, or insulation material. Liquid waste is for example cooling water contamination, oils, vaporizer concentrates, filter substances, or sludge, which forms when solid matter collects as sediment at the bottom of pumps. See IAEA, “Categorizing Operational Radioactive Wastes”, International Atomic Energy Agency, 2007. 24 Or mega gram (Mg) of heavy metal (HM). 25 For more details on the waste production techniques, see Homberg, Pavageau, and Schneider 1997 “Cogema — La Hague The Waste Production Techniques”, Greenpeace International. 26 For example, bituminized sludges from reprocessing that AREVA client countries refuse to take back and that turn out sub-spec for final disposal in France.