During the decommissioning of a commercial nuclear power plant, highly active reactor core components are classified as high-level waste. These components are sealed within thick-walled copper canisters and entombed in deep subsurface geological repositories.
This specific containment strategy is essential to isolate the biosphere over timescales of tens of thousands of years from:
alpha radiation emitted by nuclides with a short half-life.
alpha radiation emitted by nuclides with a long half-life.
gamma radiation emitted by nuclides with a short half-life.
gamma radiation emitted by nuclides with a long half-life.
128 exam-style questions on AQA A Level Physics Radioactivity (A-level only), covering Rutherford scattering (A-level only), $\alpha$ , $\beta$ and $\gamma$ radiation (A-level only), Radioactive decay (A-level only), Nuclear instability (A-level only), Nuclear radius (A-level only), Mass and energy (A-level only), Induced fission (A-level only), and Safety aspects (A-level only). Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.