For the Record (2)

December 12, 1980

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is working on a proposal that could let every nuclear plant in the country create its own low-level radioactive waste dump right on the premises. The staff asked the NRC for permission to study licensing proposals for three types of low-level dumps at reactor sites. One licensing procedure would apply to on-site waste storage for less than two years. Another was for intermediate storage of five years, and a still more elaborate procedure would cover storage for the lifetime of a reactor, or 40 years.