A study of the possibilities of the removal of low and intermediate-level radioactive solid wastes produced in the Netherlands, other than by dumping in the Atlantic Ocean

The (Dutch) Committee for Reconsidering the Removal of Radioactive Waste has been set up to advise the Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Environmental Supervision on the question indicated by the title of this report, with the stipulation that current safeguards for public health, the environment and job protection at least be maintained. This document is a report of their study and starts with an introduction about the phenomenon radioactivity and the associated detrimental effects, particularly on man. A description is then given of the radiation doses already present from natural sources in various parts of the environment that could be used for waste removal. Before judging the various alternatives the waste is split into three categories - that produced by hospitals, that by research centres and industry and that from nuclear energy centres. The last category provides the most radioactive waste qualitatively whereas the first two provide the most volume. The Committee has selected six possible methods of inactivating radioactive waste and these are described and assessed using a number of criteria concerned with public health, the environment, job protection and technical, economic and managerial feasibility. Each method is then compared to dumping in the Atlantic Ocean. Four methods are concluded to be better alternatives: storage in constructions above the earth's surface, storage just below the earth's surface, removal in deep lying geological formations on land and removal by burning. The advantages of and the type of waste best served by each method are discussed. (C.F.)