Radioactive wastes

In 1997, radioactive waste management around the world focused on solutions for the final disposal of low-, intermediate-, and high-level radioactive wastes; the interim storage of spent fuel; and the disposition of excess weapons plutonium.North (1997) reported that the U.S. government is focusing on disposal solutions for large inventories of high-level waste (HLW) and transuranic (TRU) waste from its weapons program, spent fuel, and low-level waste (LLW).The planned solutions are for the disposal of spent fuel and HL W in a geological repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev.; TRU waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in southeastern New Mexico; and LL W at a collection of sites licensed by states.Barnes and Whatley (1997) explored the U.S. Department of Energy's (U.S. DOE) efforts to implement a permanent TRU waste disposal solution including U.S. Congressional mandates and other factors that have contributed to program changes associated with the proposed WIPP repository.The WIPP was highlighted in a summary of U.S. projects focused on reducing the long-term effects of HL W from spent fuel, TRU waste, and LL W (Kasten berg and Gratton, 1997).Renner (1997) described current methods ofthe U.S. DOE Office of Environmental Management for trimming costs and accomplishing more cleanup of radioactive wastes.Progress in resolving the storage of large volumes of radioactive wastes at the U.S. generation sites, many of which were not built for long-term use, was summarized (Ahearne, 1997).The development of U.S. commercial LLW disposal capacity as opposed to generation volumes was qualitatively analyzed with attention paid to the dynamics involved in matching planned disposal capacity to anticipated disposal need (Devgun and Peters, 1997).Mathews (1997) summarized the status of Literature Review 1998