Purpose and Scope of Study

This Report is concerned with classification of hazardous wastes. Wastes are materials deemed to have no further beneficial use to their present custodian, although these materials may be useful to others. Unless otherwise indicated, the term hazardous as used in this Report refers to the presence of radionuclides, hazardous chemicals, or both. This term also may refer to certain characteristics of materials that pose a hazard, such as ignitability, corrosivity, or reactivity. 

The primary purpose of this Report is to present NCRP s recommendations on classification of hazardous wastes. The Report is directed at a multidisciplinary audience with different levels of technical understanding in the fields of radiation and chemical risk assessment and radioactive and chemical waste management. Anew hazardous waste classification system is proposed that differs from the existing classification systems for radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes in two fundamental respects. First, hazardous waste would be classified based on considerations of health risks to the public that arise from disposal of waste. Hazardous waste would not be classified based, for example, on its source. Second, the classification system would apply to any hazardous waste, and separate classification systems for radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes would not be retained. In the proposed system, waste would be classified based only on its properties, and the same rules would apply in classifying all hazardous wastes. 

The objective of the study presented in this Report was to address difficulties (elaborated, for example, in Sections 1.3.1.5 and 1.4) that have arisen from use of the existing classification systems for radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes. An important impetus for 

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