nuclear-news

Low-level nuclear waste is piling up at hospitals | National | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

Low-level nuclear waste is piling up at hospitals
South Carolina law that took effect in July leaves 36 states nowhere to stash the stuffB Houston Chronicle by SEANNA ADCOX Associated Press 4 Oct 08

BARNWELL, S.C. — Tubes, capsules and pellets of used radioactive material are piling up in the basements and locked closets of hospitals and research installations around the country, stoking fears they could get lost or, worse, stolen by terrorists and turned into dirty bombs.

For years, truckloads of low-level nuclear waste from most of the U.S. were taken to a rural South Carolina landfill. There, items such as the rice-size radioactive seeds for treating cancer and pencil-thin nuclear tubes used in industrial gauges were sealed in concrete and buried.

But a South Carolina law that took effect July 1 ended nearly all disposal of radioactive material at the landfill, leaving 36 states with no place to throw out some of the stuff. So labs, universities, hospitals and manufacturers are storing more and more of it on their own property……………………….n 2003, the federal Government Accountability Office reported there wasn’t even a record of how many radioactive sources existed nationwide

Low-level nuclear waste is piling up at hospitals | National | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

Tags: Nuclear, antinuclear, radiation, uranium

October 6, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | wastes