Technical Meeting on Enhancing Institutional Radioactive Waste Management by Promoting Innovations, and Overcoming Challenges

Radioactive waste is generated not only by the nuclear industry but by industries using radioactive materials or resulting from technological processes that involve naturally occurring radioactive materials. This waste is often termed as institutional radioactive waste (IRW) or non-nuclear power radioactive waste, they are the result of many activities, including operation of research reactors, medical diagnostic, therapeutic and research applications in medicine, process control and measurement in industry, as well as numerous uses of radioactive material in agriculture, geological exploration, construction, and other fields.
The IRW can be in solid, liquid, or gaseous form. Solid waste can include spent or disused sealed radioactive sources; contaminated equipment, glassware, gloves, and paper; and animal carcasses, excreta, and other biological waste. Liquid waste can include aqueous and organic solutions resulting from research and production processes; excreta; liquids arising from the decontamination of laboratory equipment or facilities; and liquids from activity measurement systems (such as those employing liquid scintillation counters). Gaseous waste is generated at several facilities in the production and radiolabelling of chemical compounds and organisms and in the treatment of solid and liquid waste.Characteristic for these types of wastes is that they are limited in volume and activity, but since are generated by so many and different activities, their composition varies significantly. Safe management ofPage 2IRW including its processing, storage and disposal of this unique waste streams must therefore be given specific consideration.
As all Member States have to manage this type of waste, there is a high demand for sharing the progress achieved and best practices used in the management of IRW. This technical meeting will address that need by sharing operating practices and lessons learned on IRW processing, storage, and disposal technologies and facilities worldwide, to facilitate the review of the IAEA draft technical publication on “Established Practices in the Predisposal Management of Institutional Waste”.
The purpose of the event is to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration among experts, practitioners and waste owners involved in the management of institutional radioactive waste. The meeting aims to showcase and discuss achievements, established best practices, and key challenges in the field, with the objective of fostering innovative solutions and continuous improvement in institutional radioactive waste management.
The event is targeted at operators, regulators, and decision makers that are performing or are involved in the management of institutional radioactive waste management in both pre-disposal and disposal stages.