The U.S. Department of Energy filed a notice of intent last week to conduct an environmental impact study to examine how and where to store a quantity of low-level radioactive waste.

Two of the eight sites being considered are Yucca Mountain and the Nevada Test Site.

The waste, which is stored at commercial nuclear power plants and other generator sites across the country, was created from the decommissioning of nuclear power plants, medical activities, and nuclear research.

The site would have to be approved by the state and receive licensing from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as there are currently no NRC-licensed facilities.

In addition, a portion of the waste includes transuranic material, created from non-defense-related sources.

Transuranic waste cannot, by law, be stored at the Waste Isolation Pilot Point (WIPP), located in southeastern New Mexico, although this is included in the list of sites that are being considered. However, Yucca Mountain may be used if licensed.

DOE is considering possibly storing the waste at a combination of the listed sites.

It estimates the current inventory of waste nationwide (existing and expected to be generated) to be approximately 2,600 cubic meters of "greater than Class C" waste and 3,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste.

This is a relatively small amount compared to the amount of low-level waste that has already been disposed of at the test site, which in the third quarter of 2007 was 7,952 cubic meters.

The activity of the waste is currently 15 million curies, and future activity is 129 million curies. The half-life of the constituents ranges from several years to over 10,000 years.

How the waste will be stored has yet to be decided, although shallow bore-holes, shallow burial, and burial in a containment vault are all being considered.

The other sites being considered for waste disposal include the Hanford Site in Washington, the Idaho National Laboratory, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, or "a generic commercial location."

A scoping meeting for the project will be held in Las Vegas on Sept. 4 at the Atomic Testing Museum.