Disposal of Radioactive Wastes at
Argonne National Laboratory
W.   A.   RODGER,  P.   FINEMAN,   H.  GLADYS   SWOPE
Chemical Engineering Division
Argonne National Laboratory
Lemont, Illinois
Due to the press of other problems during the war years, the atomic
energy industry was unable to carry out any significant research and
development in the field of waste disposal. Fortunately, this industry
was developed at a time when the dangers from indiscriminate dumping
of waste materials was well recognized. An attempt was therefore made
to postpone the problem by the expedient of storing wastes in large underground tanks. Solid wastes were buried in specially prepared ditches
and gases were discharged to the atmosphere through tall stacks without
any other treatment. These measures were reasonably effective. In fact,
all of them are still in use at one place or another.
At the conclusion of the war, a policy was formulated that, in so far
as practical, no radioactivity was to be discharged back to the environment. At the same time the bulk of non-radioactive substances used
were to be returned. Actually the natural background of radioactivity
in nature makes this impossible, and the aim of current processing is to
put active waste into the smallest possible volume consistent with cost
and to return effluent with activities nearly undetectable from natural
background.
Each operating site is specifically charged with the responsibility for
handling its own waste problems. Since the wastes encountered are
extremely varied, there is no single solution to the problem. The optimum
solution for one laboratory may not even be applicable to another. This
paper discusses the solutions adopted at Argonne National Laboratory
which is located near Lemont, Illinois about 25 miles south and west
of the Chicago loop. The problems facing this laboratory are representative of those encountered by a radiochemical laboratory located in
a populous area. The amounts and concentrations of radioactivity are
nowhere near as large as those encountered at a production installation,
but the types of wastes are much more varied. In the operation of a
laboratory such as Argonne, gaseous, liquid and solid wastes are encountered.  The variety of methods used to handle these wastes is indi-
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