The State of Development of Waste Forms for Mixed Waters

More than 167,000 cubic meters of mixed waste, waste that contains both chemically hazardous and radioactive components, are in the known inventory at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites that formerly produced nuclear defense materials. The inventory includes both mixed low-level wastes (MLLW) and mixed transuranic (MTRU) wastes. 1  Site cleanup and decommissioning activities during the next several years are expected to nearly double this inventory, and the inventory will be further increased by mixed wastes retrieved as a result of DOE site remediation. 2  Processing and permanent disposal of these mixed wastes is a part of the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) program to close former DOE production sites (DOE, 1998c).