Managing radioactive wastes

AUG 01, 1973

Alternative storage areas considered have included the arctic ice cap, deep ocean trenches, and solar orbit, with underground salt deposits still the most favored.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3128182

John O. Blomeke

Jere P. Nichols

William C. McClain

Nuclear fission can provide a major share of our energy needs over the next several decades. But to fulfill this promise, we must learn to manage the radioactive wastes that arise in a multiplicity of chemical and physical forms at every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle, and to manage them by technically, politically and socially acceptable means. The problem of containing the so‐called “high‐level” wastes from fuel reprocessing is particularly difficult, for they remain biologically hazardous for thousands of centuries.

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More about the authors

John O. Blomeke, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Jere P. Nichols, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

William C. McClain, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.