University Daily Kansan
Thursday, April 24, 1980
Dump...
9
From page one
material to lose half its radioactivity, is longer than most isotopes used. 12.3 years.
SOME OF THE ISTOISES used here in periods measured in hours, but one that doesn't and is used as a tracer is carbon 14. The 3,900-year, is much longer than the others.
Experimental isotopes may be ordered from manufacturing companies or created by the manufacturer, but only one material associated with the operation of the roaster is buried at the end of the roaster.
The reactor uses water to carry away heat and excess neutrons that result from the reactions. In some cases, it tanks until its radioactivity is below legal limits and is then poured down the sewer, or used for cooling the plant. The resin basin to trap impurities, and several years ago the first resin basin was removed in 1947.
ALTHOUGH THE REACTOR does run on uranium 235, that material is not and could not be disposed of at KU's site.
"Our reactor uses it so slowly there's never been a refueling of the reactor, and we see no need for refueling it in the foreseeable future," Friesen said.
KU's nuclear reactor, and its waste, differs from electricity-producing nuclear power plants in several ways, including the use of a nickel, one of the most toxic materials known.
A nuclear power plant periodically needs its fuel roots and uranium and plutonium fuel rods. In accordance with the high-level nuclear waste, must be treated in accordance with Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Where these high-level wastes should be stored, however, is a central point in the nuclear power controversy. It is a problem vet to be adequately resolved, but not one
concerning KU because the University's waste is all low-level.
KU'S NUCLEAR REACTOR uses only two specimens of plutonium for the calibration of instruments. Friesen said. But they are sealed sources, which means that permanently sealed inside equipment and are expected to last indefinitely.
lre University holds one of more than 400 licenses in Kansas for the possession and use of radioactive materials, although few have been licensed to KU. Nearly all the licenses are held by medical clinics and physicians, according to Gerald Sandelberg, director of the Division of Environment of the Kansas Department of Environment and Environment, which issues the licenses.
"Almost all are医ically-oriented."
Stollenberg说. "A few are in research at universities and a few are used in industry." (This is incorrect, manufacturing, but they're mainly medical.)
The only other low-level nuclear waste disposal site similar to KU in the state is operated by Kansas State University, he said.
ACCORDING TO FRIESEN, at the time of licensing, KU was granted special permission to store a sample somewhat above the normal license limits because the site was a dedicated site for the patient. Warning signs and in KU's case, one with geological considerations taken into account.
The special permission has been useful, Friessen said, because of KU's use of iodine 125, which at the time of burial would normally exceed the state limits. It decays rapidly, however, and the rest of the fluoride is retained even close to approaching the state limits.
Stoltenberg said the major license holders are inspected by the state for the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission once a year. The state checks on records of what was buried and when, although it does not examine the actual sites every year.
KU's license allows it to bury up to 12 feet, but burials normally occur about eye height, because the latest burial at the site was in January, with new burials awaiting the construction of the building.
THE TRENCHES AT the site are duf 8 feet of water and four feet of water on top of the material and a layer of dirt below it. The trenches are used to hold boxes and assorted of waste materials.
Among these materials are vials, bottles, both metal and glass containers, and other items which may or not be radioactive but were used in the experiments.
"Let's say you use rubber gloves, or wear a gown when you're working with radioactivity, or place a paper towl under a bottle to keep any of it from leading onto the table. Of all this, only some of it would probably be slightly radioactive, but it's too hard to try to separate the non-radioactive from the radioactive things." Bearse said.
EXCEPT FOR THE tritium and carbon 14, nearly all the other materials buried there more than a few years ago would today not be an am radioactive than the 1980s. The amount of 1988 would already have gone through one half-life and thus would be less than half as radioactive as it was at the time of burial. A Geiger counter placed at the surface of a filled trichloromethane would reveal no more than a neighboring field would Frieden said.
In the last few years, geological survey checks began to reveal that the layer of clay below the trenches was getting thin. This would have to be done about the site.
One of the site's original features had been a layer of clay above the shale bedrock that could have allowed the site to should any materials leak out of their container and begin seeping down to the surface. When they have been dug increasingly downhill of the sloping geometry site, that layer of clay
"We said we didn't see any problems as it was," Hambleton said. "There were, however, potential problems with expansion."
ACCORDING TO William Ham堡ley, director of the Kansas Geological Survey which made the clay studies, the concern sealant was raised more than a year ago.
A good clay layer is important, he said, because clay has a very low permeability, meaning that leaking materials would find it hard to penetrate. The more clay that lies under the trench the less likely it is that water goes down to the water below.
The dispensal license requires that only four feet of dirt be placed on top of buried radioactive materials, but Bearse said those involved with the burial of the waste must
IN RECENT MONTHS, KU officials have formulated several options that may be needed in a year or two when the area now being fenced fills up.
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS OFFICE OF MINORITY AFFAIRS AND NATIVE AMERICAN ALLIANCE
One proposal calls for bringing in dirt and bloomding it over the present site. New buildings will be built above the old trenches, taking advantage of the same land. But this would cost tens of millions of dollars.
K.U. POW-WOW
Another option is to find an entirely new disposal area, but it would require the purchase or donation of new land.
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BEARSE SAID THE CHANCES of this plan were also hurt by the distance between Lyons and KU and possible transportation hazards.
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It's an excellent job, but
Cost could be detriment, however,
the commercial site would have to
make a profit to stay in operation. The
current site does not have to make money.
"We don't have to transport very far with the Sunflower location, which is one good thing," she said. "The material itself isn't very hazardous, but I can think of a lot of things that could be dangerous."
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Because of the cost, however, stored materials would not routinely be removed, despite the fact that after they had decayed and their removal would be possible, Friesen said.
A third alternative concerns a proposed commercial low-level nuclear storage facility in an abandoned salt mine in Lvons.
"It's an excellent idea." he said.
"They'll probably require that we have to burn it beforehand, but the method of disposition of it. But then we're in a predicament because to burn the汤蓉 you'd have to burn an radioactivity along with it."
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IF KU WERE to use this proposed site, its waste would be mixed with other low-level materials but at a much higher level of water than what can be buried at the Sandflower site.
A decade ago, Lyons was suggested as a disposal ground for high-level radioactive matter. The focus then was on nuclear power plants. Geothermal furnaces ruled out high-level waste, however, and the plan was dropped. The state is now under control of other low-level storage would be feasible.
This proposal, Friesen said, had the advantage of being a retrieval site, meaning that if there were indications that radiation was present, it could be removed or the crates and barrels could be removed.
So far, problems such as these have failed to be resolved, and within the next couple of years KU will have to decide whether it will adapt the Sunflower site or find a new one.
"You'd have to consider what would happen if the car carrying it were to have
Toluene is toxic, although it is not radioactive, Bearse said. When it is used with isotopes in experiments, it is disposed of at the Sunflower plant.
ALSO IN THE meantime, new Environmental Protection Agency guidelines concerning hazardous wastes are expected to be implemented. These may cause contradictory situations. Bears said. Bee sweeps can also disrupt the foliage of tulipae, which is used to carry iostomes.
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an accident, and a little material were to leak out."
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He said his office was not now considering the proposed Lyons facility because it was just that, a proposal.
"I'm not considering anything that isn't there yet," Bearse said. "If the facility was there we could certainly investigate it."
THE SOLUTION to the dump problem is likely to become an area of increasing concern, especially when it is considered a major threat. The disposal of nuclear waste discharges. It means, on a much smaller scale, that KU will be dealing with the radioactive materials now. This is now facing—what to do with radioactive materials no longer useful but which could remain hazardous for months or milennia.
That question may be one of the most important faced in the 1980s.
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