Nuclear Waste Disposal

Storage and elimination of radioactive by-products of nuclear weapons production, nuclear power generation, [Page 538]and other uses of nuclear materials. The management of nuclear waste of any sort received little attention from government policymakers in the three decades after the atomic bomb's development in 1945. Although the nation spent billions of dollars to produce nuclear weapons and commercialize nuclear power in the 1950s and 1960s, only a few hundred million dollars were spent researching storage and disposal processes. Starting in the 1970s, however, considerable public and government attention and resources have focused on nuclear waste as a serious national problem.

Workers in radiation suits standing by trucks at a nuclear waste site, waiting to pump one million gallons of high-level radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state. The safe disposal of nuclear waste has been a growing concern of many since the 1970s. Because such waste can remain dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years, it can pose a continuing threat to many generations of people in the future unless it is disposed of safely.

Corbis.

Radioactive materials from nuclear waste must be kept from entering the atmosphere, the ground, and the water supply. This is usually possible only by storing the waste securely beyond reach—what is known as shielding. Storage facilities must provide maximum protection against the escape of radioactivity, sometimes for thousands of years. There are two main types of nuclear waste: defense-related waste and civilian waste. Although many of the issues are similar, in other ways the problems are quite different.

Defense Waste

Short-term priorities in the early development of atomic energy created significant waste disposal and site cleanup problems later. These priorities included the sense of urgency in developing the atomic bomb during World War II, the pressure to maintain nuclear parity with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and a lack of outside regulation and government openness about the nation's atomic program. As a result, radioactive waste created by the defense industry was treated, stored, or disposed of in the most expedient way, with little thought for long-term problems.

It was not until the 1970s that federal government management of nuclear facilities came under scrutiny. Reports of high-level liquid radioactive waste leaking from government storage tanks and abandoned uranium mills raised public awareness and concern about nuclear waste disposal. Successful lawsuits, new legislation, and changed policies gradually opened the weapons production sites to state and public review and oversight. The government finally also allocated substantial funds and personnel to develop a plan for the long-term management of defense waste. In 1987, the Department of Energy (DOE) was reorganized to consolidate defense-related waste management programs and to place increased emphasis on site cleanup.

Civilian Waste

Civilian waste is produced not only by commercial nuclear power plants but also in industrial processes, in medical and biotechnological research, in diagnosing and treating disease (for example, in X-ray use), and in many other ways. For years, users of radioactive materials relied on private sector facilities to dispose of low-level radioactive waste. Meanwhile, most scientists, regulators, and proponents of nuclear-generated electric power thought of high-level waste disposal as a problem that would be solved by future technology.

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