Science: Atomic Garbage Disposal

What becomes of radioactive waste material? As the Atomic Age enters its 14th year, the problem is growing, and no one can be certain that present disposal systems are reasonably safe.

At Sea. The AEC last week announced that it would license the Navy’s Military Sea Transportation Service to dump waste material—imbedded in concrete and steel containers—at selected points in both the Pacific and the Atlantic. The oceans are used only for low-energy leftovers—radioactive rubber gloves, mops, rags, discarded lab equipment—but over the years an impressive amount of stuff has been dumped. MSTS joins the Coast Guard, other Navy units and seven private firms in the atomic garbage business; the others have already dumped some 30,000 steel and concrete packages into the Atlantic, and 24,000 into the Pacific.

The main criterion for selecting a dumping spot is depth, with 1,000 fathoms (6,000 ft.) as a minimum. MSTS will drop its cargoes at points about 200 miles due east of Cape Cod, 105 miles south-southeast of Cape Henry, Va., 120 miles southeast of Sandy Hook, N.J., 240 miles southwest of Los Angeles and 150 miles west of San Francisco. Diving tests have shown that most of the hot material remains sealed off in the containers, but some leaks out, might yet show up in seafood. Oceanographers and marine biologists are studying the effects wrought on the radioactive graveyards by such phenomena as bottom currents, movement of bottom sediment and the upwelling of bottom waters. AEC is also concerned about such future needs as a program of international coordination (Britain now pumps its low-energy atomic garbage through a pipe into the Irish Sea) and the radioactivity that will remain in the oceans in the wake of nuclear-powered ships.

On Land. High-energy waste material from nuclear reactors at Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, Richland, Wash, and other places is much too hot for sea disposal. Instead, the U.S. has spent $120 million to build vast, concrete-encased underground steel tanks, which hold a total of 65 million lethal gallons. The largest concentration is at AEC’s Hanford Works at Richland, where tanks hold 80% of the high-energy waste in the U.S. It will remain dangerous at least until the year 2959.

One way to dispose of atomic waste is to use it. By reprocessing, some of it can be turned into isotopes for use in medicine, agriculture and industry. A reprocessing plant is already being set up at Oak Ridge. And the House Committee on Science and Astronautics last week reported on another use for atomic wastes: inserted in modified grenades, leftovers from nuclear reactors could be lobbed across enemy lines. The small releasing blast would do almost no damage to roads and real estate. But the radioactivity would, within a reasonably short time, bring death to every person within a wide area.