Planning for a solid waste management quality assurance program in Egypt

Over the past 40 years, a considerable amount of solid radioactive waste has been generated in Egypt from a variety of nuclear technology applications in research, medicine, and industry. The Hot Laboratory and Waste Management Center at Inshas, Cairo, has started to build an integrated waste management system to ensure the safe management of this radioactive waste. During the establishment of this system, a range of technological options have been identified and evaluated in order to select and justify the most appropriate option for each waste type, taking into account the basic waste management principles, regulatory requirements, available resources, and other technical and non-technical factors. Unfortunately, some of the generated wastes were not under a Quality Assurance Program that provides maintenance of traceability to production or conditioning records. So, these wastes are considered unacceptable to be placed in the disposal facility and need to be characterized and brought to an acceptable condition prior to disposal. This must be done in accordance with comprehensive plans and documented procedures to guarantee the safe handling, storage, and disposal. In this work, the existing Egyptian solid waste management system will be presented with a special reference to a management plan to be applied through this system. This will include a description of the organizational structure, functional responsibilities, organizational interfaces, personnel training, documentation, and corrective action. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.