The IAEA safety fundamentals document2 states that:

The generation of radioactive waste must be kept to the minimum practicable level by means of appropriate design measures and procedures, such as the recycling and reuse of material.

‘Waste minimisation’ or (more appropriately, perhaps) ‘waste avoidance’ is derived from the principle of sustainability and there two fundamental ways of achieving it. The first is through the control of practices that lead to unnecessary radioactive waste generation. An example is the carrying of non-essential items such as packaging on replacement plant items (filters for instance) into NPP contamination-controlled areas. The second is through the decontamination of (mainly metallic) waste, which may be done chemically, mechanically and/or by re-melting. The aim is to reduce contamination to below clearance levels so that the metal may be recycled as scrap. By avoiding the need to dispose of material as radioactive waste, considerable cost savings can be made. Care should be taken to maintain a distinction between waste avoidance and volume reduction although, as we shall see, when it comes to re-melting one does rather merge into the other.