Nuclear Waste

The town planning board of Hanover. N H has approved a proposal allowing storage of low-level radioactive waste on the campus of Dartmouth College beginning in September.

The proposal was first put forward by administrators and faculty members at Dartmouth's medical school.

Some research conducted at the medical school generates low-level radiation which contaminates paper, gloves, test tubes and pipettes used in laboratories at the school.

Materials contaminated by research are currently sent out of the state to federal disposal sites. The federal sites are scheduled to be closed to-all but the sites are scheduled to be closed to all but the host states beginning in 1985.

Starting in September, Dartmouth will store radioactive waste in steel barrels in a concrete warehouse to be constructed near a medical school building at a cost of $124,000.

The radioactive materials will be compacted into plastic jugs which will then be placed in plastic bags and stored in the steel barrels, which will remain in the warehouse for two years until they decompose sufficiently to fall below federal and state radioactivity standards.