The Demon Hot Atom -- Over A Barrel

Over a Barrel: A bad place to be.

By volume, most nuclear waste which is stored (as opposed to nuclear waste which is released to the biosphere) is known as Low Level Waste. It is stored a number of ways: In barrels, in boxes, in cement containers, and many other ways. For many years the standard practice was to burn things like clothing, masks, etc..

-- Above image is from: Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940, Stephen I. Schwartz, Editor, from photo group following page 458, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1998.

The above photo shows Hanford Reservation, Washington, circa 1950s. Notice the RADIATION symbol on the boxes. AEC/DOE photo.

Below, the containers say "RADIOACTIVE WASTE -- STAY AWAY". Note 55-gallon drums behind the containers. 55-gallon drums are probably the most common disposal method of radioactive waste, by volume.

-- Above image is from: NO NUKES: Everyone's Guide to Nuclear Power, by Anna Gyorgy and Friends, page 127, South End Press, Massachusettes, 1979.

Regarding the image shown below, does anyone really believe there would be two observers/regulators/safety workers for each guy dumping the radioactive waste, and holding that Gieger Counter just to be sure -- what a joke! This photo is of low-level waste being dumped into trenches "for land burial" at AEC's National Reactor Testing Center, Arco, Idaho.

-- Above image is from: Controlling the Atom: The Beginnings of Nuclear Regulation, 1946-1962, by George T. Mazuzan & Samuel Walker, photos following page 244, Univ. of Calif. Press, 1984. (The caption states that the photo is from the National Archives.)

----------------------------------------------------------

Here's a fancy way to store a barrel of radioactive waste. The nuclear industry would have you believe that fanciful methods such as that illustrated below are the most common low-level waste storage method, rather than those illustrated above:

-- The above image is from: Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions, Tenth Edition, by G. Tyler Miller, page 448, Wadsworth Publishing Co. CA, 1998.

----------------------------------------------------------

But alas, it turns out that land-based storage is only a small part of the use of barrels in the disposal of nuclear waste. There is a far more sinister disposal method:

At Sea

Below illustrates how most drums of radioactive waste are disposed of:

-- Above image is from: Multiple Exposures: Chronicles of the Radiation Age, by Catherine Caufield, photo collection following page 148, New York, 1989.

-- Above image is from: Controlling the Atom: The Beginnings of Nuclear Regulation, 1946-1962, by George T. Mazuzan & Samuel Walker, photos following page 244, Univ. of Calif. Press, 1984.

So if we're not somewhere OVER a barrel of nuclear waste, we're swimming in one!