Research Opportunities for Managing the Department of Energy's Transuranic and Mixed Wastes

Download or read book Research Opportunities for Managing the Department of Energy's Transuranic and Mixed Wastes written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-11-07 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About 155,000 cubic meters of waste contaminated with both radioactive isotopes and hazardous chemicals are stored at some 30 DOE sites, and another 450,000 cubic meters are buried. While DOE is making a concerted effort to properly dispose of this waste, the amount translates to a multi-decade effort that will require handling, characterizing, and shipping hundreds of thousands of waste containers at a total cost of billions of dollars. This report describes basic scientific research that can lead to new technologies for performing these tasks more safely and cost effectively.