Editing Low-level waste (section)

{{Short description|Nuclear waste category}}
{{Globalize|article|USA|2name=the United States|date=December 2010}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
[[File:U.S. Department of Energy - Science - 285 042 001 (16375202305).jpg|thumb|Low-level waste buried under layers of soil at a storage facility.]]
'''Low-level waste''' ('''LLW''') or '''low-level radioactive waste''' ('''LLRW''') is a category of [[nuclear waste]]. The definition of low-level waste is set by the nuclear regulators of individual countries, though the [[International Atomic Energy Agency]] (IAEA) provides recommendations.<ref name="IAEAclass">{{cite web |year=1994 |title=Classification of Radioactive Waste : a Safety Guide. Safety Series No. 111-G-1.1 |url=http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub950e_web.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050515212915/http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub950e_web.pdf |archive-date=15 May 2005 |work=RADWASS Programme |publisher=IAEA |location=Vienna}}</ref> 

LLW includes items that have become [[radioactive contamination|contaminated]] with radioactive material or have become radioactive through exposure to [[neutron radiation]]. This waste typically consists of contaminated protective shoe covers and clothing, wiping rags, mops, filters, reactor water treatment residues, equipments and tools, luminous dials, medical tubes, swabs, injection needles, syringes, and laboratory animal carcasses and tissues.