Word: aec
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...away. There is low-level radioactivity, for instance, in the carcasses of laboratory mice injected with isotopes-and in the hypodermic needle that injected them, and in the laundry water that washed the laboratory coat of the technician. In 1955 the total amount of land-buried waste in the AEC's main burial grounds came to 316,000 cu. ft.; by last year that figure...
...lethal liquid waste from the atomic bomb factories is stored in 34-ft. steel and concrete underground tanks on Government reservations at Richland, Wash., Aiken, S.C., and Idaho Falls. Idaho. Fenced and carefully guarded, it will stay there indefinitely. But much of the atomic waste produced today is, by AEC standards, lowlevel, and with proper precautions can be moved to dumping areas by truck or railroad car. To do the dumping, twelve private firms are now licensed by AEC...
Originally most of the waste was dumped at sea. The materials were packed into 55-gal. drums marked with AEC's radioactivity insigne, a white cloud with four lightning bolts shooting out of it. The drums were lined with 2 to 10 in. of cement, sealed with more cement, and carried by ship to offshore dumping grounds set up by AEC. Two such grounds are off the Atlantic coast, two more are off the coast of California. All four are in water 6,000 ft. deep. Since 1946. about 21,000 drums have been tipped into the Pacific...
...packing necessary for safe sea disposal makes it expensive: to dispose of radioactive waste at sea costs $10 to $20 per cu. ft. In comparison, disposal firms can bury low-level waste on land for 70? a cu. ft. in atomic graveyards maintained by AEC at Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Idaho Falls. Here drums are deposited in 15-ft. holes and covered with concrete and earth. The disposal fields cost the U.S. $6,000,000 a year to maintain, and AEC expects to establish from five to ten more...
Clean Record. Inevitably, a few accidents have occurred. Last year in Long Beach, Calif., a barrel of low-level waste blew up and scattered its contents over almost a mile because of improper handling by the disposal company, which lost its AEC license. In Antioch. Calif., two years ago, another low-level barrel leaked slightly into the San Joaquin River, from which Antioch draws its drinking water; after much testing and explaining by AEC, townspeople were persuaded that the water was still safe...