Nuclear Waste Management Facilities - Chapter 1: Sustainability and environmental impacts of the nuclear industry

The nuclear industry has been known as a controversial field for society, where supporters and opponents continuously argue about risks and benefits. In this chapter, the roots of the controversial approach to this industry were briefly introduced. The role of the nuclear industry in supporting the sustainability of the life was briefed by introducing the role of radioisotopes and fission energy in conserving water, monitoring the air quality, tracing climate changes, securing food, ensuring good health, advancing the industry, and energy provision. The factors that affect the sustainability of this industry were analyzed, where limited challenges were identified for the radioisotope applications and more complicated challenges were found to face nuclear energy production. These factors were further analyzed for the nuclear technologies, i.e., research and power reactors and particle accelerators. The nuclear/radioactive waste management as a multidimensional sustainability concern for the nuclear industry was introduced by presenting the current strategies/options to manage these wastes, their classifications, and global inventory. The methods for safety and environmental assessment were introduced with a special focus on the use of safety assessment (SA), environmental impact assessment (EIA), life cycle assessment (LCA), and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in assessing the impacts and behavior of the nuclear activities/facilities. Finally, the most recent comparative analyses for assessing the impacts of nuclear energy were presented.