• Nuclear Fuel Cycle.

• Nuclear Weapons Reprocessing.

• Others : Medical and Industrial Wastes,

Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials(NORM)

Uranium

FRONT END : Waste from the front end  is usually alpha emitting waste from the extraction of uranium. It often contains radium and its decay products.

BACK END:

Waste from nuclear weapons decommissioning is unlikely to contain much beta or gamma activity other than tritium and americium. It is more likely to contain alpha-emitting actinides such as Pu-239 which is a fissile material used in bombs, plus some material with much higher specific activities, such as Pu-238 or Po.

MEDICAL NUCEAR WASTE :

Radioactive medical waste tends to contain beta particle and gamma - ray emitters.  In

diagnostic nuclear medicine a number of short-lived gamma emitters are used. Many of these can be disposed of by leaving it to decay for a short time before disposal as normal waste.

INDUSTRIAL NUCLEAR WASTE :

Industrial source waste can contain alpha , beta, neutron or gamma

emitters. Gamma emitters are used in radiography while neutron emitting

sources are used in a range of applications, such as oil well logging.

Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM)

Coal : Coal contains a small amount of radioactive uranium, barium, thorium and potassium.

Oil and gas : Residues from the oil and gas industry often contain radium and its daughters. The sulphate scale from an oil well can be very radium rich, while the water, oil and gas from a well often contain radon.

• The nuclear waste produced over the globe is increasing day by day. And this is also increasing the Global Temperature and causes Global Warming.

• From a medical perspective, nuclear waste threatens global health. The toxicity of many elements in this radioactive mess is long-lived.

•  They also pose security risks, as a terrorist who acquired a substantial amount of nuclear waste could construct a so-called "dirty bomb," with the purpose of spreading radioactive materials over a large area. An accident or attack involving radioactive waste would likely contaminate a strictly local area.

•  Nuclear Waste enters the body through the lungs where it is known to cause cancer.

• It mimics iron in the body, migrating to bones, where it can induce bone cancer or leukaemia, and to the liver, where it can cause primary liver cancer. It crosses the placenta into the embryo and, like the drug thalidomide, causes gross birth deformities.

Mayapuri scrap market is a well known area of Delhi. There are around 200 scrap shops in the market. This area came into limelight when a radiation incident which makes five people seriously injured came in to existence.

Cobalt-60 (60Co) is a radioactive isotope of cobalt. Due to its short half life of 5.27 years 60Co is not found in nature. It is produced artificially by neutron activation of 59Co. 60Co decays by negative beta decay to the stable isotope nickel-60 (60Ni). ...

 A gamma irradiator  no longer in use since 1985 in a chemistry laboratory at Delhi University was auctioned in a scrap market of Mayapuri in February 2010.The orphan source was sent to one of the many scrap yards existing at Mayapuri and dismantled by workers. During the demolishing operations to recover metal scraps, the lead shielding protecting the radioactive source was removed and the source itself damaged. And the Cobalt – 6o leaked into the environment.

Deepak Jain a scarp dealer merchant purchased some scarp from the City Hospital which is covered in a plastic sheet when Deepak removed this sheet radiation begins to start, Deepak was not aware of this he got serious burn injuries and black marks on the skin, He was taken to the Apollo Hospital which informed the government that he had suffered radiation as told by officials. Four other workers in his factory also came in the range of this harmful radiation and got the burn injuries.