in the drum. Sometimes liquid wastes in 5 gallon or smaller carboys 
are surrounded by concrete in the drums. When properly prepared, 
drums have a specific gravity of 1.3 to 1.5 to assure sinking. 
Large, special packages take the form of reinforced, concrete boxes, 
rectangularly shaped, with capacities up to 80 cubic feet. One 
installation employs lead containers in the shape of cylinders to 
dispose of highly radioactive chips of metal. 
Costs of Sea Disposal: For sea disposal, the Johns Hopkins 
University survey found that when collection, handling, monitoring, 
sorting, packaging, transportation, storage, loading, and unloading 
were considered, the costs varied from about 20¢ per pound to slighti7 
above $1.00 per pound for solid wastes. The lower figure fits 
installations accumulating over 20 tons of waste per year, and the 
higher value refers to smaller installations, those with less than 4 
tons per year. The disposal of properly packaged, low level liquid 
wastes at sea costs up to $1.00 per gallon. 
Summary. 
Low level, radioactive trash accumulates daily at atomic 
industry installations. There is no reason to believe that the amounts 
will decrease. To protect and safeguard nearby residents as well as 
the plant workers, the release of wastes to the environment is care- 
fully controlled. Current methods of burial at sea are expensive. 
ah Sic 
