Low-level radioactive waste consolidation program

The objective of the program was to determine the requirements and feasibility of a centralized facility to consolidate low-level radioactive wastes for a sponsor who had a large number of small generators scattered throughout the country. This facility was to be designed to reduce the volume of low-level waste requiring disposal and would ensure that the final waste form and package would meet transportation and burial site requirements. While a case study was used to develop the low-level waste consolidation program described, the general principles used to develop the program could be applied to any group of low-volume generators in the same geographical area or waste compact region, for example, universities, hospitals, or research facilities. Two conclusions were made. The first is that a consolidation facility is well within the design capabilities of current available technology. All the volume reduction equipment has been tested and operated by various research institutions and private industry. Secondly, using the volume reduction techniques described in this report, a consolidation facility is economically feasible given a large enough quantity of waste. Finally, although for the case studied it was shown that a low-level waste consolidation facility of the type described would have minimal environmental impactmore » due to the nature of the materials and processing techniques, the environmental impacts would have to be assessed for other applications.« less