Problems in the disposal of acid aluminum nitrate high-level radioactive waste solutions by injection into deep-lying permeable formations

Abstract

a single gram of one particular fission product (Sr 90) could contaminate, to twice the maximum permissible concentration (National Bureau of Standards, l953), a quantity of drinking water equal to that consumed by the total human population of the world in a one-year period. Published estimates indicate that by 1980, 1 X 107 to 3 X lOT grams of this isotope alone will be produced per year. Even the oceans are not an adequate diluent for such amounts of radioactivity (Renn, 1956). 2 Safe upper lin1its, for drinking water, are 10-20 ppm N0 8 (Walton, 1951) and 1.5 ppm F (Hardenbergh, 1952). 3 Several summaries of possible methods have been published. See Wolman and Gorman, 1956; Lieberman, 1956; National Academy of Sciences, l957. 4 DISPOSAL OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE SOLUTIONS (Amphlett, 1955), makes it desirable to know what phenomena might be expected and what corrective measures, if any, might be taken.