The decontamination of contaminated graphite, in particularly of irradiated graphite. According to the present invention, this means a method of separating volatile radionuclides from contaminated graphite and transforming the graphite together with non-volatile radionuclides into a form which is suitable for final disposal. The method according to the present invention comprises the step of heating up the contaminated graphite for obtaining treated graphite, a step of compacting the treated graphite for obtaining a molded body and optionally a step of embedding the treated graphite in a matrix material for obtaining a sheathed molded body. The molded body comprising the treated graphite can be finally disposed and stored under low safety requirements depending on the country-specific requirements. So the volume of such material which requires a particularly laborious and thus particularly cost-intensive final disposal and storage, in particularly an underground storage in deep ground regions, can considerably be reduced. The last one also results in considerably reduced costs, when contaminated graphite which accrues every year in high amounts has to be disposed.

The invention relates to a long-term storage device (1) intended to receive a containment case (3) containing radioactive materials, where this device includes a main body (2) having an inner surface delimiting a housing (7). According to the invention, in an unloaded configuration, in which the containment case containing radioactive materials is absent from the storage device, the latter includes a storage case (9) delimiting a cavity (4) to receive the containment case, where the storage device also includes ventilation means allowing air to circulate between the exterior of the storage device and a space delimited between the inner surface of the main body and the storage case (9).

A method and an apparatus for its practice to render radioactive earth materials such as NORM and TENORM more suitable for disposal, includes detecting the level of radioactivity in such earth materials as well as detecting the specific energy of radiation to identify specific isotopes within the earth materials. The radioactive earth materials are diluted with appropriate materials suitable for disposal. Preferably, the radioactivity of the diluted material is monitored to assure the resulting mixture is suitable for the disposal intended.