LLRW Sites

[Rrk099 <Rrk099@aol.com>]

Greetings,

I believe the following article was referenced recently on RADSAFE.  It is
from the NYTimes of Sunday, 12-7-97 and I could not find it on their website.
It appeared in the summaries entitled "National News Briefs."

"Overcapacity Is Warned for Nuclear Waste Sites

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 6 (AP) --  A planned nuclear waste disposal site in the
California deser, and others proposed around the nation, might be unnecessary
and could sink the industry, an economist has warned.
          The nation's three current dumps for low-level radioactive waste
will have excess capacity well into the next century, because recycling and
new compacting technologies have sharply reduced the volume of waste, the
economist, F. Gregory Hayden of the University of Nebraska, said on Wednesday.
          Mr. Hayden has said the annual volume of low-level waste shipped to
disposal sites drom from 3.8 million cubic feet in 1980 to 422,000 cubic feet
in 1996.  He says the decline means that the three current dump sites in
Richland, Wash.; Barnwell, S.C.; and Clive, Utah, have anywhere from 29 to 260
years of capacity at current disposal rates, which will probably drop even
further."

With the disclaimer of not having seen Mr. Hayden's data or other sources of
information, the overcapacity issue does not seem that far-fetched.  When I
was director of NYC's radiation control program and the Barnwell closure hit,
our generators became pretty inventive to reduce volumes to be able to store
on-site.  Also, NYSERDA did a study about 4 or 5 years ago on interim storage
of LLRW in NY State with the conclusion that such a facility would not be
economically viable.

Bob Kulikowski

As an aside, I don't believe that this Mr. Hayden was Jane Fonda's friend
whose name was Tom.