The establishment of a radioactive waste disposal facility in western Australia for low level waste

International low level waste disposal practices and facilities

“…For example, the Mount (Mt) Walton East Intractable Waste Disposal Facility (IWDF), located approximately 480 km northeast of Perth, accepts waste originating from within Western Australia only. The IWDF opened in 1988 and currently is owned and operated by Waste Management (WA) on behalf of the Western Australian Government, with senior officers in the Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), working for WA, managing the site (DTF 2011;Hartley 1998;EPA 2000). This site occupies nearly 25,000 acres (2500 ha) includes a near surface repository for LLW, along with disposal options for chemical, and other intractable wastes and is only used when all other practicably available disposal, recycling, and re-use options have been exhausted (EPA 2000).…”

“…A concrete base was laid at the bottom of each shaft. Drums are progressively concreted into place and the shaft is eventually covered with 8 m of natural fill and capped with a 0.15 m layer of concrete (Hartley 1998). Alternately, LLW disposal may be carried out using the trench burial technique (EPA 2000).…”