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•	NRC Grants to HPS Education Institutions for Student Scholarships/Fellowships and Faculty Development now open until 25 Feb 2009
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•	HPS Midyear Meeting Recent Advances in Planning and Response to Radiation Emergencies 31 January - 3 February 2009 San Antonio, Texas
•	54th Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society 12-16 July 2009 Minneapolis, Minnesota
•	2009 Professional Development School NORM and TENORM 16-18 July 2009 Minneapolis, Minnesota

07 January 2009

Answer to Question #241 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Category: Radioactive Waste Disposal — Disposal

The following question was answered by an expert in the appropriate field:

What is the current method for disposal of radioactive waste from reactors, universities, and hospitals?

There are two major classes of radioactive wastes. They are designated as High Level Waste (HLW) and Low Level Waste (LLW). HLW has been produced by Defense programs and is stored in government installations; HLW produced by nuclear power plants that generated electricity is called spent (irradiated) nuclear fuel. At present the fuel is stored on site; in the future, the plan is to place it a geologic repository at Yucca mountain in Nevada. LLW is generated by any entity that uses radioactive materials (universities, hospitals, power plants, industry, etc). LLW is placed in shallow trenches. In the United States there are three sites that accept LLW for disposal. One is at Barnwell, South Carolina; the second is at Hanford, Washington (restricting access to their region only); and the third one is at Clive, Utah (accepting mildly radioactive materials). Nicholas Tsoulfanidis, Ph.D.

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