environmental facts
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
There are more than 85 million gallons of high-level
radioactive wastes in storage in the United States. Most, of
this is liquid waste, but some has been reduced to solid form.
These wastes, mainly the byproduct of some aspect of nuclear
weapons production and related research, are stored mostly
by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) at its Hanford (Wash.)
plant and at its Savannah River plant in South Carolina.
Also held in storage are about 600,000 gallons of high-
level wastes from reprocessing fuels used in the operation of
commercial nuclear power plants. This waste is stored at the
Nuclear Fuel Service's reprocessing plant near Wost Valley, N.Y.
The problem of waste disposal will continue to grow.
High-level radioactive waste from expanding commercial nuclear
power production alone is expected to increase to 4.5 million
gallons by 1980, and to about 60 million gallons by the year
2000.
How these highly hazardous radioactive wastes will be
stored, reduced in volume, and finally disposed of, is a topic
of continuing investigation. The problem still has not been
fully resolved.
One difficulty is that current storage practices can
only be temporary. Steel-lined tanks are subject to corrosion
from the chemicals in the wastes or to a combination of corrosion
and radiogenic-heat effects and eventually will begin to leak.
New tanks must be constructed periodically and the wastes
transferred. Because some of the wastes will remain hazard-
ous for hundreds to thousands of years, the storage will require
continuous, careful monitoring and maintenance.
There are two principal aspects to the management of high
level radioactive waste: (1) reducing the volume by solidifi-
cation and (2) finding long-term storage sites and disposal
techniques that provide complete protection to the public.
The AEC is now evaporating its high-level waste at Hanford,
converting part of it into solid salt cakes which are stored
in underground tanks, and part into other solids which are
stored above ground.
UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY • WASHINGTON. D.C, 204611
-------
- 2 -
There are several other ways to remove the water from
liquid wastes to reduce their volume. These include calcination,
a heating process making dry, gandular solids, and flash
distillation, which uses a sudden release of heat energy to
condense the material.
The bulk volume of the solid material is about one tenth
that of the 'liquid wastes from which it is made. The solids
are safer than liquids to transport and store. In the event
of a transportation or storage accident, the solids would be
easier to retrieve and would not contaminate as much of the
environment as would spilled liquid wastes.
Final plans for the permanent storage of high level
wastes have not yet been developed. AEC is investigating possible
alternatives including: underground storage in salt formations,
underground storage in deep bedrock and above-ground storage
in bunker-type enclosures. The AEC is also studying other
methods such as rocketing the radioactive wastes to the sun.
NOTE: The recent EPA pamphlet, "Questions and Answers About
Nuclear Power Plants," contains four errors in its
listing of power plant sites, and these are corrected
as follows:
In Illinois, the Dresden Nuclear Power Station is
located about 35 miles southwest of Chicago, not
20 miles southwest.
In New Jersey, the Forked River Generating Station
and the Oyster Creek Power Plant are both about
50 miles south of Newark, not five miles south.
In Wisconsin, the Genoa Nuclear Generating Station
is 20 miles southypf La Crosse, not 20 miles north.
August 1972
SCC-Vd3
ON3OV NOU.33.LOUd 1V1N3WNOUIAN3
OlVd S33d QNV 30VlSOd
O'Q 'NOJ.DIMIHSVAA
suivddv onand do aoiddo
.ON3DV NOI1331OUd 1VJ.N3IAINOUIAN3 "S D
------- |