Fully Treated and Solidified Radioactive and Hazardous Wastes Belong in an Above-Grade, Earth-Mound, Concrete Disposal Vault

Abstract

Imagine a single waste treatment and disposal complex where contact-handled low-level radioactive waste, Classes A, B, and C, and radioactively contaminated hazardous waste (mixed waste) would all be dealt with as a single waste in both treatment and disposal. Is this too simplistic, too complicated, too costly, or unacceptable considering today's national, state, and local regulations? Perhaps so, perhaps not. Regardless of the answer, the concept deserves serious consideration.

Current philosophy calls for separating various classifications of waste for separate treatment in different treatment facilities (OE for no treatment at all) and then taking the various waste packages of many different sizes and shapes and placing them in separate disposal facilities with separate licensing. With some effort on our part, thew unnecessarily complicated and expensive concept of today can be turned around for the betterment of the nation in all respects.

Consider all of the busy, but unnecessary people involved in all of the separate organizations required in our currently planned and imagined individual concepts-managers, planners, design engineers, draftsmen, environmental engineers, architectural engineers, waste characterization specialists, clerks, secretaries, technicians, lawyers, technical editors, and on and on. We could all be doing constructive work elsewhere. We need a 6rm solution to our nuclear and hazardous waste problem so that we can get on with promoting nuclear power to provide economical electricity to recharge the batteries of the environmentally sound electric cars of the future.

With all of the combined waste fully treated to the highest standards, it could be placed in an environmentally sound above grade, earth-mounded, concrete disposal vault and limed according to existing regulations, or more likely to new national, state, and local rules and regulations tailored to the proposed concept. In doing this, cost and radiation exposure to workers would be dramatically reduced while providing exceptional environmental protection. We can only hope that our congressional leaders and national, state, and local regulators would be willing if not pleased to bless the concept and allow it to happen with minimum documentation and oversight.