Patent Number: 051714833
Section: claims

1. A method of long term storage of hazardous material in a hollowed out chamber in a salt bed, comprising the steps of: (a) placing one or more sealed, hazardous material holding containers within a fluidized bed by completely surrounding the containers with a granular load distributing medium; and  (b) closing the chamber.  spreading a layer of the granular load distributing medium over a floor of the chamber;  placing the containers in the chamber and on the layer; and  filling the chamber with the medium to completely surround the containers.  a chamber in a salt bed;  one or more sealed containers holding the hazardous material; and  a fluidized bed of a granular load distributing medium completely surrounding the containers and filling the chamber. 2. The method of claim 1 wherein step (a) comprises: 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the granular medium is selected from the class consisting of sand, bentonite and gypsum. 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the medium is granulated to have a particle size not to exceed about 2,000 microns. 5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of removing the granular load distributing medium from the chamber so that a sealed container may be inspected and/or removed from the chamber. 6. The method of claim 1 wherein in step (a) a plurality of sealed hazardous material holding containers is placed in the hollowed chamber in the form of a regularly spaced array and the fluidized bed completely surrounds the array of sealed containers. 7. A long term storage for hazardous material comprising: 8. The storage of claim 7 wherein the sealed containers are in a closely spaced array in the chamber.