The Problem of Disposing of Nuclear Low-Level Waste

A problem has developed in nuclear waste disposal. As late as 1975, six commercial low-level nuclear waste burial sites were licensed to operate in the United States. Now only three sites remain; Washington, Nevada, and South Carolina. Of these, two were temporarily shut down during the past year and the third has restricted the annual volume of waste it will receive. Low-level radioactive waste that has been disposed of at burial sites comes from several different sources: institutions, such as hospitals and universities; industry; commercial power reactors; and Federal Government installations.

The Governors of Nevada, South Carolina, and Washington feel it is not appropriate for the citizens of their three States to shoulder the burden of disposing of the commercial low-level wastes from all States. They have urged the other States to develop regional sites adequate to handle the wastes generated in each region. Implicit in their remarks and actions is the possibility that unless the regional imbalance in low-level waste disposal is relieved, the three States may unilaterally decide to close their sites or restrict disposal. In response to the Governors' concerns the Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed a sequence of steps to increase disposal capacity. The Commission plans to assign high priority to applications for increased storage capacity and waste volume reduction operations, and provide technical assistance to State Governments to formulate storage requirements.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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