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Radioactive Waste Storage In NZ – Expert Reaction
A New Zealand Herald investigation has focused attention on a new storage facility for New Zealand’s radioactive waste in rural Manawatū.
The Ministry of Health redesignated a section of Defence Force land for the facility, which became operational earlier this year. The facility stores low-level and intermediate-level waste from agricultural, research, education, and health sectors.
The Science Media Centre asked experts to comment.
Dr David Krofcheck, Senior Lecturer in Physics, University of Auckland, comments:
“The news story of a new radioactive waste storage facility in rural Manawatu broke today. It is my understanding that radiation measurements outside of the facility are the same as normal background radiation so there is no cause for alarm. A lack of consultation with the local population appears to be the main issue for contention, not the actual radiation levels outside the storage facility.
“The facility is designed to hold low-level and intermediate-level radioactive material disposed from hospitals, industrial firms, and research/teaching universities. Low-level waste from medical procedures would include packaging, gloves, masks, or even clothing used in handling medical radioisotopes. Medical isotopes are often used in medical imaging. They are normally very short lived – Fluorine-18 takes two hours to lose half of its radioactivity, two more to lose another half, and so on. Technetium-99m has a “half-life” of about 6 hours, and Iodine-131 about 8 days. These high activity (decays per second) radioactive sources would need to spend 5-10 half lives duration in appropriately shielded containers before being moved to the new storage facility
“Without a detailed inventory of the sources currently stored in the new facility, it is difficult to estimate the length of time required before other radioisotopes from industries and universities, such as cesium-137 (half life of ~30 years) and cobalt-60 (half life of ~5 years), would need to be stored on site. These high activity sources also need concrete/iron shielding for a similar number 5-10 half-lives, which implies storage times of up to several hundred years.”
No conflicts of interest declared.
Science Media Centre NZ
Our aim is to promote accurate, evidence-based reporting on science and technology by helping the media work more closely with the scientific community.
The Science Media Centre is New Zealand's only trusted, independent source of information for the media on all issues related to science. Thousands of news stories providing context from and quoting New Zealand researchers have been published as a direct result of our work.
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