Radioactive Waste Levels Increase In Connecticut

HARTFORD (AP) — Connecticut produced more low-level radioactive waste in 1999 than it ever had before, and at the same time it exported a record low amount of the same waste because of increased recycling, compacting, and incinerating, a new report shows.

The report by the Connecticut Hazardous Waste Management Service cites the decommissioning of the Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant in Haddam as the main reason for the record amount of waste.

Of the 177,850 cubic feet of low-level waste that was generated in 1999, 86 percent came from a single source: Northeast Utilities-owned Connecticut Yankee.

The waste management service began tracking radioactive waste amounts in 1987. The previous record for waste production was 127,021 cubic feet in 1992, shortly before NU and other producers launched waste reduction programs.

NU also owns the three nuclear power plants at Millstone Point in Waterford.

The state exported only 6,159 cubic feet of low-level waste to storage sites in South Carolina and Utah, Connecticut’s lowest amount ever.

“The reduction in the amount of waste disposed of has just been tremendous,” waste service Director Ronald Gingerich said. “And that is due primarily to the efforts of the generators.”

Until 1999, Connecticut’s recycling efforts had peaked in 1998, when 50,888 cubic feet of low-level waste was reduced to 11,664 cubic feet that was eventually buried out of state.

Faced with limited options and high prices for shipping waste, generators were forced to find ways to reduce the waste stream over the last eight years, Mr Gingerich said.

Both incineration and compacting methods have been used to reduce waste levels, he said. And new decontamination methods have allowed some metal tools to be used repeatedly.

Low-level waste does not include spent nuclear fuel or waste from uranium mining, which are extremely radioactive. It does include slightly radioactive materials, such as protective clothing and paper towels used in laboratories, and moderately radioactive substances like tools used in power plants or resins used to purify reactor coolant.

Low-level waste is largely produced by nuclear power plants, but it also comes from other private industries, university research facilities, hospitals, and military bases.

Connecticut’s long-term low-level waste disposal needs are more secure since July, when the state entered into the new Atlantic Compact with South Carolina and New Jersey.