The largest volumes of radioactive wastes in the United States contain only small amounts of radioactive material. These low-activity wastes (LAW) come from hospitals, utilities, research institutions, and defense installations where nuclear material is used. Millions of cubic feet of LAW also arise every year from non-nuclear enterprises such as mining and water treatment. While LAW present much less of a radiation hazard than spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive wastes, they can cause health risks if controlled improperly. Improving the Regulation and Management of Low-Activity Radioactive Wastes asserts that LAW should be regulated and managed according to the degree of risk they pose for treatment, storage, and disposal. Current regulations are based primarily on the type of industry that produced the waste-the waste's origin-rather than its risk. In this report, a risk-informed approach for regulating and managing all types of LAW in the United States is proposed. Implemented in a gradual or stepwise fashion, this approach combines scientific risk assessment with public values and perceptions. It focuses on the hazardous properties of the waste in question and how they compare with other waste materials. The approach is based on established principles for risk-informed decision making, current risk-informed initiatives by waste regulators in the United States and abroad, solutions available under current regulatory authorities, and remedies through new legislation when necessary.

The largest volumes of radioactive wastes in the United States contain only small amounts of radioactive material. These low-activity wastes (LAW) come from hospitals, utilities, research institutions, and defense installations where nuclear material is used. Millions of cubic feet of LAW also arise every year from non-nuclear enterprises such as mining and water treatment. While LAW present much less of a radiation hazard than spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive wastes, they can cause health risks if controlled improperly. Improving the Regulation and Management of Low-Activity Radioactive Wastes asserts that LAW should be regulated and managed according to the degree of risk they pose for treatment, storage, and disposal. Current regulations are based primarily on the type of industry that produced the waste--the waste's origin--rather than its risk. In this report, a risk-informed approach for regulating and managing all types of LAW in the United States is proposed. Implemented in a gradual or stepwise fashion, this approach combines scientific risk assessment with public values and perceptions. It focuses on the hazardous properties of the waste in question and how they compare with other waste materials. The approach is based on established principles for risk-informed decision making, current risk-informed initiatives by waste regulators in the United States and abroad, solutions available under current regulatory authorities, and remedies through new legislation when necessary.

The Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management (DOE) is responsible for the safe cleanup of sites used for nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. Low-level radioactive waste (LLW) is the most volumetrically significant waste stream generated by the DOE cleanup program. LLW is also generated through commercial activities such as nuclear power plant operations and medical treatments. The laws and regulations related to the disposal of LLW in the United States have evolved over time and across agencies and states, resulting in a complex regulatory structure. DOE asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to organize a workshop to discuss approaches for the management and disposition of LLW. Participants explored the key physical, chemical, and radiological characteristics of low-level waste that govern its safe and secure management and disposal in aggregate and in individual waste streams, and how key characteristics of low level waste are incorporated into standards, orders, and regulations that govern the management and disposal of LLW in the United States and in other major waste-producing countries. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

There have been reports on limitations in the mgmt. of U.S. low-level radioactive waste (LLRW). To identify potential approaches to overcome these limitations, the author examined the extent to which other countries have: LLRW inventory databases; timely removal of higher-activity LLRW from waste generator sites; disposition options for all LLRW; & requirements that LLRW generators have financial reserves to cover waste disposition costs, as well as any other approaches that might improve U.S. LLRW mgmt. The author surveyed 18 countries representing leading LLRW generators to identify their mgmt. approaches & to compare them with U.S. survey results & with approaches by LLRW generators, disposal operators, & regulators in the U.S. Ill.

A crisis awaits the states without adequate Low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW) disposal capacity, and states now struggling to comply with U.S. National Policy-widely believed unworkable. Some states may find that they are unable to dispose of the LLRW they generate! Long underestimated-or politically boondoggled-the dread subject of LLRW disposal is now being brought to climax, amidst conflicting viewpoints from generators, regulators, environmentalists and the public...from...medical-clinical labs...nuclear power plants...state and federal agencies...scientists and engineers...consultants...attorneys. This book emphasizes siting, disposal, historical approach to radwaste regulation, public attitudes, and NIMBY. AND deals comprehensively with radiation, biological effects, risk assessment, public health protection and government regulation, safety of LLRW, biological effects, and attempts to develop solutions to this pervasive problem. This text is essential to those likely to find themselves engulfed by LLRW problem: scientists, engineers, managers in many companies and institutions, consultants, and, of course, Government Agency Officials, public interest groups, technical, social science, law, and public libraries. There is no easy solution-but there will be a solution. And we believe this book is part of that solution. Expert authors-provide chapters carefully researched and written for this book; and provide their personal and professional experiences. This book is certainly a step toward understanding and solving the LLRW problem.