Time to take control: the states and low-level radioactive waste management

Low-Level Radiation Waste Policy Act enacted in the final days of the 96th Congress gives statutory force to a recommendation placing particular emphasis on regional efforts to handle low-level waste. This legislative act gives a disposal site by 1986 the option of refusing to accept wastes from a state that is not part of an interstate compact. This presents states with three possible options for low-level wastes arising from commercial reactors, hospitals, universities, clinics, and industry. These options are: (1) develop within each state a disposal site; (2) join an interstate compact with other states in the region; or (3) stop the production of low-level radioactive wastes. State legislatures must be directly involved in the exercising of either of these options. This question of addressing waste disposal must be faced by legislatures at once, because options must be in place by 1 July 1986. Action on this could serve as a model for other interstate cooperative efforts. (BLM)