Re: U Waste and N-gen

[Sue Dupre <DUPRE%PUCC.bitnet@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu>]

You asked about avoiding the exorbitant cost of $8K to dispose of 1 kg of U
acetate and nitrate.  I imagine you've grilled your waste broker about your
options, but our own waste broker, Teledyne Isotopes, tells us this:  They
have a separate category for U and Th, which is very costly to use.  But we
are allowed to place small amounts of U and Th acetates, oxides and nitrates
in with our regular dry solid wastes.  Small amounts mean on the order of grams
to perhaps a few hundred grams, and the nitrates have to be solidified in con-
crete.  So once in awhile we'll have a few bottles of acetates and a few coffee
cans of solidifed nitrates that we scatter among several drums of our regular
radioactive waste rather than put it all in a single drum.  I don't know if
this is at all applicable to you what with us being in the East and using the
Barnwell facility and you in the West presumably using the Richland facility.
But if I had a kg of your stuff here and it could be divided up, I'd deal with
it as I described.  Hoping this helps,

Sue Dupre/Health Physicist/Princeton University