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Nuclear Waste: Slow Progress Developing Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facilities

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Report Type Reports and Testimonies
Report Date Jan. 10, 1992
Report No. RCED-92-61
Subject
Summary:

Each year, nuclear power plants, businesses, hospitals, and universities generate more than 1 million cubic feet of hardware, rags, paper, liquid waste, and protective clothing that have been contaminated with radioactivity. While most of this waste has been disposed of in facilities in Nevada, South Carolina, and Washington state, recent legislation made the states responsible--either individually, or through groups of states called compacts--for developing new disposal facilities. This report discusses (1) the states' progress and problems in meeting facility development milestones in the law, (2) federal and state efforts to resolve issues related to mixed waste (low-level waste that also contains hazardous chemicals) and waste with very low levels of radioactivity, and (3) the Department of Energy's progress in discharging the federal government's responsibility under the law to manage the most hazardous low-level waste.

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