Page 372 - Radiation Safety

PROCEDURE OF RW MANAGEMENT

4. Disposal in the Ocean/Seabed

❖ Often used for disposal of radioactive wastes due to huge dilution capacity and because of
the remoteness of the deep ocean bed.

❖ Being practiced by a number of countries

❖ Not permitted for high activity radioactive waste
❖ Abandoned by most countries after London Convention 1972.

5. Borehole Disposal of Sealed Radioactive Sources (BOSS)
❖ A safe, simple and cost-effective solution for the management of disused sealed radioactive

sources (DSRS)

❖ Potentially the BOSS might be adopted to manage effectively small amounts of radioactive

wastes
❖ The system consists of a mobile facility that allows even high activity DSRS to be safely

conditioned and packed

❖ A disposal borehole with multi-barrier system able to confine safely conditioned DSRS. The

sources are placed inside two high integrity stainless steel containers (one inside the other,
expected longevity of thousands of years) and sealed within a 30-100 m deep, specially

engineered borehole in the suitable host geological media.