**1. Introduction**

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396 Environmental Risk Assessment of Soil Contamination

There are many uses of radioactive materials which improve or facilitate human activities or quality of life of people. These uses are given in different fields of technology, ranging from power generation to supply entire cities or areas, to medical and industrial uses, even the smoke detectors in buildings. All these applications generate radioactive waste that may represent risks to the environment or to human beings, but it is necessary to have special attention to the management of radioactive waste.

In this chapter there are information about the generalities of radioactive wastes, such as its definition, origin, classification and stages of radioactive waste management. In addition, there are information about the current state of research and technologies which have been proposed for the treatment of radioactive waste, with their advantages and disadvantages, in special case of the electrochemical techniques to treat radioactive waste with theoretical considera‐ tions and cases of study. At the end of this chapter, there is information about the risk assessment and development of future strategies.
