Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission: Regional management plan, Final report

Licensable (or traditional) shallow land burial results in the greatest computed exposure of the alternatives evaluated. The other alternatives in descending order of impact are belowground vaults, enhanced shallow land burial, augered holes, modular concrete containers, and earth mounded concrete bunker monoliths. The maximum exposure is received approximately 10,000 years after the closure of the facility and results primarily from the long-lived isotopes I-129 and C-14. This maximum dose is approximately four orders of magnitude below that received from natural background radiation and two orders of magnitude below the level proposed by NRC as the lower limit for consideration in developing population dose commitments. It is not anticipated that any public exposure would result in the groundwater from migration of nuclides emplaced in a mine. Similarly, the groundwater may not be the critical exposure pathway for at-or abovegrade technologies. 39 refs., 3 figs., 3 tabs