uranium hexafluoride and enriched uranium (gaseous diffusion process) also requires heavy consumption of water. 4.4.8 Generation of Solid Waste The impact of solid waste generation cannot be entirely separated from land use issues. However, small amounts of waste can have large impacts on future land use when the nature of the waste affects the disposition of the land into which it is placed. Issues concerned with the quantity of land necessary for the disposal of solid waste are treated in Sec. 4.4 as a land-resource issue. Manufacture of the GaAlAs solar cell will produce 2 x 10? metric tons of aluminum oxide waste for each 5-GW satellite produced. This quantity of waste could present a disposal problem if all cells were manufactured at a single facility. Aluminum oxide does have commercial value for other purposes, which could lessen the impact of its disposal. Similar uncertainties exist for the manufacture of silicon cells for the TPV system. A 1,250 MW conventional coal power plant using Wellman-Lord SO2 removal will produce about 5 x 10$ metric tons of solid waste and sludges annually. CG/CC plants will produce about 20% less solid wastes and sludges. The quantity of waste leaving the power plant site will vary depending on the availability of land for on-site disposal. Procedures for returning these areas to productive use are available but are not mandated. Regulations governing the toxic nature of these wastes are currently being considered. Modest amounts of solid and liquid waste are generated in support of the LWR power cycle. However, most of these activities generate radioactive waste that must either be sent off site for commercial burial or buried on site. Among these wastes are: • 500 metric tons per facility per year of uranium hexafluoride-process effluents consisting of iron, calcium, magnesium, copper, and nonvolatile fluorides (shipped off site). • 90 metric tons per facility per year of enrichmentcleanup sludge consisting of mostly settleable solids, precipitated metals and soil runoff (retained on site). • 700 metric tons per facility per year of calcium fluoride from fuel-fabrication activities (generally retained on site). • Numerous liquid and solid radwastes that are released through fission product leakage, activation of chemical inhibitors, reactor purification procedures and spent reactor parts (shipped off site). • Spent reactor fuel shipped to the reprocessing center. Large amounts of mine and mill tailings should not present any specific problem since they are often used as backfill and retained on site. However, inadequate precautionary measures have, on occasion, permitted low-level
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