Environmental Challenges: Waste Disposal: ‘Radioactively contaminated land’ OR ‘Radioactive waste management’.
Environmental Challenges: Waste Disposal: ‘Radioactively contaminated land’ OR ‘Radioactive waste management’.
Report Requirements and Guidelines:
Topics for individual reports for this module are outlined below. Please choose only one of them. The areas are quite broad so that you can tailor the report to your interests, and target case studies with good quality information available to you. When you choose your topic do try and consider the available, high quality information in the peer reviewed literature and the relevant technical reports as we are expecting references to be used to support your observations and insights.
Topic 1 – Geological Disposal of Higher Activity Radioactive Waste.
This topic requires you to produce a summary and critical assessment of one countries approach to higher activity (HLW or ILW) radioactive waste disposal in a geological disposal facility. Your report may include brief information on the country’s radioactive waste inventory, and their siting process and should include a critical assessment of the multi-barrier system in operation for either intermediate or high level waste using information from reports and primary literature. This critical assessment should define the retardation mechanisms for at least one or two key radionuclides across the multi-barrier system, demonstrating an understanding of the underlying chemical processes and should highlight, giving reasons, whether there are any problematic radionuclides in the multi-barrier system proposed.
See:
Chapter 6, Geodisposal of Higher Activity Wastes, Katherine Morris, Gareth Law and Nick D. Bryan In: Nuclear Power and the Environment, Page 129 – 151. (Available via Blackboard and the UoM Library)
For more detail on specific national approaches:
OR
Topic 2 – Contaminated Land.
In this topic you should discuss a case study of a radioactively contaminated land site. You should give a brief background to the contaminated land site, include information on the key radionuclide contaminants present and the challenges that they pose. For at least one or two key radionuclides, consider the mechanisms of radionuclide retention that are operating on site and using evidence from the literature highlight targeted remediation strategies for that radionuclide. Clearly, the peer reviewed literature will be key to defining the mechanisms of radionuclide retention and remediation here, and you should consider a site that has been well characterised. For the larger sites, you may want to focus on a particular area and radionuclide contaminant.
For a start on site relevant information, although this will need to be updated:
Chapter 4, Management of land contaminated by the nuclear legacy, Richard Kimber, Francis Livens, Jon Lloyd. In: Nuclear Power and the Environment, 2011, Page 82 – 115.(Available via blackboard and the University of Manchester Library).
For a more detailed technical review paper on bioremediation:
Newsome, L.N. et al., 2014. Chemical Geology, 363, 164-184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2013.10.034
Report Length:
- 2000 words excluding references. Figures do not contribute to word count, but should be proportionate to the report length.
- Submission will be via Turnitin – details and reminders to follow.
- Use standard Harvard or other recognised referencing format throughout – see referencing guide below.
Due Date:
- 1st May 2022, by 09:00 am. Hand in via Turnitin, Instructions to Follow.
Topic:
The report should contain evidence of individual research into your chosen topic area and be focussed on environmental radionuclide behaviour. We are expecting technical and mechanistic information on the topic you choose in the report. All relevant data should be from authoritative (web or journal) sources. We expect you to use good quality references and please follow the referencing guidance provided below.
Report Aim:
To produce an individual report based on one of the outlined topics associated with radioactive waste or radioactively contaminated land. If you need any help with clarification the seminars and drop-in sessions are a good forum or contact us by email.
To Include (use subheadings in the report):
- Introduction and aims
- Central Focus – theme and research, use data and figures as appropriate
- Conclusions – summarise the key points for the report
- High quality references from the primary literature – to show you have researched the report properly (this is IMPORTANT!)
Content:
For top marks the report should be tightly edited with good sentence construction and grammar, and well structured, with clear aims, analysis and arguments throughout. Using appropriate terminology, data (e.g. graphs, illustrations, annotated figures) and referencing is very important. Please refer to the DEES Undergraduate Marking Criteria at the end of this document.
References:
For top marks, references should be from sound sources (Journals etc.). Should be appended at the rear of the report, and presented according to a recognised referencing convention (e.g. Harvard). Report should display evidence of wider reading going beyond suggested course reading list. Some additional information sources (library, web, journals) are highlighted in the lecture notes and course resources. Use appropriate references cited in books and online articles, use abstract indexes (e.g. Scopus) to search for and access appropriate journal articles. High quality web based resources (e.g. CoRWM / NDA website/ .gov) are acceptable however, in your reference list, the full web address and date the source was accessed must be recorded.
Presentation:
Word Processed; font size 11, 1.5x spacing preferable. Word count included on front page please.
Assessment:
Counts 50 % towards final assessment of the module.
Hand in: 1st May 2022, by 09:00 am via Turnitin. Instructions to follow.
Feedback. We will provide e-feedback on your reports normally within 3 semester weeks of submission but please note we have a high number of students on the module this year so please bear with us.
DEES Project / Report Marking Criteria
Some Guidance on the use of References
You will use information from a range of sources in your essays and reports. Such information must be referenced so the author is acknowledged and credited with the work. The origin of the information must be clear to the reader so its validity can be assessed. The following conventions for referencing (otherwise known as citing) sources should be used:
In the Text
Reference should be made to the work in the text using the following convention:
“A model has been proposed (Meadows, 1972) which suggests……..”
There may be more than one source to acknowledge:
“Various models have been proposed (Meadows, 1972; Bloggs, 1983; Jones, 1992) which
suggest …..”
One person may need to be acknowledged for several different pieces of work:
“Several modifications have been made to the original model (Bloggs, 1994, 1995a, 1995b, 1996) which …..”
The source to be acknowledged may be an organisation rather than a person:
“Data are available (World Health Organisation, 1997) which show that…..”
Please note the punctuation in each of the above cases and use these conventions.
For websites, consider the reliability of the source, and if appropriate, give the web address and date accessed in the reference list. It would be more typical to reference reports etc. accessed through a website than the website itself.
In the ‘References’ Section
A references section should be included at the end of the essay/report/article. References should be listed in alphabetical order of the name of the author or organisation. The full title of the article should be given and the full range of page numbers included as well as the Digital Object Identifier (DOI). For example:
Bloggs, F. (1984) Degradable Plastics in the Supermarket, Journal of Packaging, 7, 51-59. DOI: https://doi.org/10.0010/100010.
If the information has been obtained from an Internet site, the full URL address should also be given. If the citation is longer than one line, the URL should only be split after a forward slash in the address. The accessed date (on which you downloaded or viewed the site) should be given.
If referencing software has been used (eg. Endnote or Mendeley), do a double check to ensure all the references that you’ve imported are listed correctly in this section!
Environmental Challenges: Waste Disposal: ‘Radioactively contaminated land’ OR ‘Radioactive waste management’.
CITATION
