The Soviet Union established a system of specialized, regional facilities to dispose of radioactive waste generated by sources other than the nuclear fuel cycle. The system had 16 facilities in Russia, 5 in Ukraine, one in each of the other CIS states, and one in each of the Baltic Republics. These facilities are still being used. The major generators of radioactive waste they process are research and industrial organizations, medical and agricultural institutions, and other activities not related to nuclear power. Waste handled by these facilities is mainly beta- and gamma-emitting nuclides with half lives of less than 30 years. The long-lived and alpha-emitting isotopic content is insignificant. Most of the radwaste has low and medium radioactivity levels. The facilities also handle spent radiation sources, which are highly radioactive and contain 93-98 per cent of the activity of all the radwaste buried at these facilities. The authors discuss waste combustion, cementation, bituminisation, vitrification, and liquid radwaste purification.
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