Low-level radioactive waste disposal and nuclear plant storage designs in the United States

The current disposal technology that has been used for the past 20 years in the United States for low-level radioactive waste (LLW) has been engineered shallow land burial. The disposal technologies being planned at the new state and compact disposal facilities expected to be operational by 1996-1998 will employ several new features designed to add to the safety and protection of the general public. Almost all of the new facilities will include disposal of waste containers in concrete structures. Barriers are being planned to reduce the radiation exposure to an inadvertent intruder in the future. The barriers include greater depth for the soil cover for higher activity waste, stone and clay layers, and the concrete vaults or concrete canisters. Considerable monitoring of the disposal facilities to check against any leakage is an important feature at all current and planned disposal sites. Because the progress in developing the new disposal sites has been very slow, due to site selection difficulties, licensing, or site characterization, none of the new disposal sites will be available for several years. On July 1, 1994, the only operating disposal site, Barnwell, South Carolina is expected to close. Electric utilities and other waste generators have been making plans in the last few years for onsite storage of radwaste. Some utilities constructed onsite storage facilities in the mid-1980s because the operating disposal sites were supposed to close in December 1985. Now, with a new deadline, utilities are constructing storage facilities again