He added: "It is naturally occurring radioactivity not radioactive waste".
The core of the project is a waste treatment and immobilization plant consisting of three buildings: a single pretreatment facility to sort high-radioactivity waste from the low-radioactivity kind and separate vitrification plants for each stream in which the waste will be combined with molten glass and then cooled for stable storage.
However each of these assays had certain limitations, for example, chromium 51 release assay were high-cost, involved hazardous radioactivity and generated radioactive waste [ 30], whereas CD107α degranulation assay and other flow cytometric methods were time consuming and involved high cost, and more importantly, all these methods were not suitable for high-throughput analysis [ 31].
And though admitting that "radioactivity seems sinister to the public" and that "[t]he idea of radioactive waste in food is alarming," this record denied the dangers of radioactivity with some striking sentences: "[e]very day [… w]ater drawn from the Columbia River to cool the great reactors at Hanford, Wash., is returned to the river with more than 60 different kinds of radioactive element.
The second fact is key for high-level radioactive waste management, because these elements are the main responsible for the radioactivity of the irradiated fuel in the long term.
P. Dubey, a UCIL spokesman, told the Hindustan Times, "The radioactive waste flowing through the village is harmless, as incessant rains have diluted the intensity of radioactivity of the waste".
In order to store the high level radioactive waste in long-term geological depositories, specific waste forms need to be used which will allow the radioactivity to decay away while the materials retain their integrity for thousands of years.
Concentrating radioactivity into such beads for disposal would be cheaper than trying to get rid of large volumes of low-level radioactive waste, according to Dr Sevilimedu.
An important aspect of this work is the accurate measurement of low levels of radioactivity in waste forms such as building materials in order that these materials can be assigned to the correct waste streams.
Energy companies and ministers have repeatedly said a high standard of regulation means fracking in the UK will avoid the environmental concerns seen in the US, where fracking has been linked to water contamination and dangerous levels of radioactivity at waste sites.
Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) wastes are generated in huge quantities in several industries and their management has been carried out under considerations of industrial non-radioactive wastes, before the concern on the radioactivity content was included in the legislation.
