Information base for commercial radioactive-waste management

This document provides an overview of the Department of Energy's responsibilities and plans for the management of radioactive wastes generated as part of the commercial fuel cycle, as well as that from industry, research, and medical institutions of the nation. The report also highlights the federal interagency cooperation and integration of programs needed to assure a national effort to isolate existing and future radioactive wastes from the biosphere, so that these wastes pose no significant threat to the environment or to public health and safety. This Information Base provides a status report as of December 1981, and outlines a strategy from that point and on into the future, when all of the wastes types will be safely and permanently disposed. The information provided herein is organized as follows: high-level waste; spent nuclear fuel; repository development; low-level waste; uranium mill tailings; and wastes from decommissioning and decontamination. The Department of Energy will continue to provide the commercial sector and states with the results of years of experimentation and technology development in the radioactive waste field. The Department will also continue to provide coordination and the needed information transfer, such as this Information Base, to assure that the waste management plans and programs, outlined in this document, will move forward in a timely fashion