Incinerators burn waste at high temperatures. The main purpose of incinerating radioactive waste is to reduce waste volume, since a large proportion consists of bulky items such as contaminated clothes, lumber, and plastic. Health and Environmental Risks Incineration does not destroy metals or reduce radioactivity of wastes. Radioactive waste incinerators, when equipped with well-maintained, high efficiency filters, can capture all but a small fraction of the radioactive isotopes and metals fed into them. The fraction that does escape, however, tends to be in the form of small particles that are more readily absorbed by living organisms than larger particles.
PICs can be more toxic per unit weight than the original wastes.
The most widely-studied toxic PICs are known as dioxins. Dioxins and similar toxic chemical compounds accumulate in fatty tissue, increasing in concentration at each successive level of the food chain. Until 1993, regulations did not factor in food chain exposure. Although special filters can reduce toxic emissions to well below legal limits, they also concentrate toxins in ash . Permanent storage of ash in well-monitored structures can minimize the risk of groundwater contamination.