What are the health hazards posed by the radioactive wastes? How are they taken care of?
A radioactive material poses health hazard due to radiation field as well as due to ingestion of radionuclide in the human body through contaminated air, water or food chain etc. So far as radioactive waste is concerned, it is immobilised and conditioned in a suitable matrix before storage/disposal in a designated waste repository in an engineered containment system. Therefore, its ingress to human environment through air, water and food chain is unlikely. So far as radiation is concerned, it is taken care of while designing the engineered containment system by providing necessary shielding of concrete and/or earth.
