DISPOSAL OF LOW LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES 
James M. Morgan, Jr. - The Johns Hopkins University 
Survey of AEC Installations. 
During the late summer and early fall of 1953, a group from 
the Department of Sanitary Engineering and Water Resources in The 
Johns Hopkins University made a survey of existing methods of dispos- 
ing of low level radioactive wastes at some twenty AEC project 
installations in the United States. The purposes of the survey 
were: (a) to study methods of existing low level disposal practices; 
(b) to obtain actual cost figures of land disposal techniques and 
sea burial techniques. Since operations differ at each installation, 
it is not possible to compare either the costs or the methods of 
waste disposal, and no attempt was made to do so. 
Findings of Survey. 
All operations with radioactive materials, both in the labora- 
tory and in production plants, produce a certain amount of low level 
radioactive trash or junk. This waste takes the form of combustible 
and non-combustible solids, i.e. "wipes'', Kleenex, broken glassware 
and hardware and contaminated equipment. Liquids may also be expected. 
The methods used for disposing of the low level wastes are: 
burial on site, shipment to another site for burial, temporary 
storage above ground, burial at sea, and incineration and confinement 
of ashes. Geographical and/or sivaiduneneieert factors determine the 
method selected in each case. 
Shei 
