Contrary to spent fuel and high-level waste, there is no technical advantage to delaying disposal of low — and intermediate-level waste. There is no heat production that needs to be considered, nor will the volume of waste to be disposed diminish with time. Most countries with nuclear power plants have thus developed disposal facilities. This provides the possibility of optimizing the management scheme for these wastes.

A basic principle for the management of low — and intermediate-level waste is to minimize the volumes that need to be disposed of. The first step in minimization is to avoid producing the waste, e. g. by avoiding bringing extra material like packaging into areas that are considered contaminated. Also decontamination and recycling of metals serve this purpose.

For the unavoidable waste, the management system should be designed such that it optimizes the use of resources for the whole management chain. This means that treatment and conditioning methods should be chosen to produce packages that can be handled in the transport and storage system and disposed of in the existing disposal facility. A key demand is that it should be possible to handle the waste packages as solid entities that are clean on the outside.

The management system for low — and intermediate-level waste includes sorting, treatment, conditioning and packaging systems, storage facilities and disposal facilities, and the necessary transport equipment to transport the waste between the different steps in the process. Sorting, treatment, conditioning and packaging systems are normally included at the nuclear power plants, but there are also examples of centralized or transportable conditioning facilities. For solid wastes, compaction or incineration is used to reduce the volume. Wet wastes, e. g. liquids or ion exchange resins, are solidified in packages, e. g. with cement or bitumen. In some cases ion exchange resins are stored and disposed of unconditioned in high-integrity containers.

Disposal of low-level and very low-level waste is an industrial practice, although not yet implemented in all countries, often for lack of public acceptance. Very low-level waste is disposed of in fairly simple landfills, while low-level waste is disposed of either in engineered facilities on the surface or in underground caverns. Examples of engineered facilities can be found in China, France and Spain, while underground caverns are in use in the Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden. Intermediate-level waste will be disposed of in rock caverns at a certain depth. Some facilities are under construction, e. g. in Canada and Germany.

More technical details about management of low — and intermediate-level waste can be found in Section 14.5.