Low-level waste, generation

Another piece of legislation, The Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act of 1980, establishes the policy that each state is responsible for disposal of the commercial low-level waste generated within its borders and that such waste can be most safely and efficiently managed on a regional basis. The law encourages states to enter into interstate compacts to establish and operate regional disposal facilities for low-level waste. This law requires subsequent approval of the compacts by the Congress. 

Funding for developing commercial waste disposal faciUties is to come from the waste generators. In the case of spent fuel disposal, a Nuclear Waste Fund is accumulating based on an assessment of one mill per kilowatt-hour of electricity. For low level wastes, surcharges on waste disposal and direct assessments of utiUties have been imposed. 

In 1992, NRC and EPAissued the National Profile on commercially generated mixed low-level waste (Klein et al., 1992) in response to a request from the Host State Technical Coordinating Committee (Alvarado, 1990). In its request, the committee stated that the information was needed by states, compact officials, private developers, and federal agencies to plan and develop treatment and disposal facilities for commercial mixed low-level waste. The National Profile was based on a survey of over 1,300 licensed nuclear facilities. 

Significant quantities of mixed low-level waste have been generated and are in storage at more than 40 DOE sites, including national laboratories and naval shipyards. These wastes contain materials listed as hazardous or having hazardous characteristics under RCRA and wastes that are considered hazardous under TSCA (1976). At the end of 1994, DOE sites had in storage 91,000 metric tons of... 

Although NARM is not a radioactive material defined in AEA, DOE is responsible for management and disposal of NARM waste generated by any of its authorized activities, based on the provision of AEA that all DOE activities must be protective of public health and safety (AEA, 1954). Current DOE policy specifies that NARM waste is to be managed as mixed waste under AEA and RCRA or TSCA (1976) if the waste is hazardous under either of the latter two laws (DOE, 1999c). Thus, all issues that arise in management and disposal of DOE s mixed low-level waste (see Section 4.3.3) also apply to DOE s mixed NARM waste. 

Under terms of the Federal Facility Compliance Act (FFCA, 1992), DOE was subject to RCRA requirements beginning in October 1995, including individual states variations thereof. DOE was expected to have mixed low-level waste treatment plans for each site approved by the host state, but adequate treatment capacity for some mixed waste will not be available until far beyond the time when its storage becomes non-compli-ant. As a result, solidified mixed low-level waste is and will continue to be stored in a noncompliant manner for times longer than those allowed under RCRA. This practice continues to be tolerated by EPA for responsible generators because of the lack of practical alternatives, but only until such time as appropriate treatment or disposal capacity becomes available. 

Other radionuclide-contaminated waste, generally called low-level waste, as generated in the reactor and fuel cycle, as well as in the radionuclide applications. (See Tables 21.14 and 21.15.)... 

All the NPPs have their own systems for managing the solid and liquid radioactive waste generated at the site. The very low level waste (VLLW) and the low and intermediate level short lived radioactive waste (L IL SL) waste is eonditioned in accordance with the waste acceptance criteria for the landfill type and the SFR repository respectively. Standard techniques are used processing liquid and solid waste. Cement and bitumen are used as matrix for conditioning. 

B. Siskind, Gas generation from low-level waste concerns for disposal. Report No. BNL-NUREG-47144 (Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1992). 

By contrast, a nuclear plant of 1000-MWe capacity produces annually some 35 tonnes of highly radioactive spent fuel. If the spent fuel is reprocessed, the volume of highly radioactive waste will be about 3 m. The entire nuclear chain supporting this 1000-MWe plant, from mining through operation, will generate, in addition, some 200 m of intermediate-level waste and some 500 m of low level waste of year. 

Mound Facility Low-Risk Waste. Approximately 3 x 105 l of low-level waste are generated weekly at the Mound Facility. This particular waste stream is essentially local hard water which has been demineralized and then used in various chemical processes involving the radionuclides 238Pu and 233U. The first step in decontaminating the low-risk wastes entails addition of small amounts of calcium and iron salts followed by addition of NaOH to pH 11.5 to precipitate iron and calcium hydroxides and carbonates. The clarified effluent from the precipitation step is then passed through a 200 micrometer sand filter to yield a solution containing, typically, 0.1+ d/min/m alpha activity. 

SNF constitutes about half of the HLW in the United States. The other half comes from the construction and existence of nuclear weapons. All HLW is a federal responsibility. About 90% of the radioactivity in nuclear waste is from HLW. The largest volume of nuclear waste is low-level waste (LLW) and that is mostly the responsibihty of the state (or group of states) in which it is generated. LLW is rather awkwardly defined, being everything that is neither HLW nor defense waste and consists of wastes from hospitals pharmaceutical labs research labs and the moon suits, tools, and the like from nuclear power plants. In the eastern United States, most of the LLW is in the form of the plastic beads that make up the ion-exchange resins used in nuclear power plants to clean various loops of water used in power production. 

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