Need for Greater Regulatory Oversight of Commercial Low-Level Radioactive Waste

Nuclear power plant operations generate the greatest volume of low-level radioactive wastes. Because of a lack of adequate burial space on the east coast, there is a need for federal policy to encourage utilities to reduce waste volumes. Waste-treatment systems installed in nuclear power plants to handle low-level wastes have experienced operational difficulties resulting in increasing the potential for unnecessary exposures to nuclear power plant workers and unplanned releases to the environment.