The Texas Dumping Authority admitted quantities if plutonium would be present in the waste, around 200 - 300 pounds over the life of the dump. The material, radioactive waste would include gamma - emitters. The license application for the SB dump stated that the highly radioactive waste barrels would be handled and loaded into the cement containers by a worker operating a remote controlled crane, over a hundred yards away using binoculars, a lead bell surrounding the cement container. Any living being exposed to this waste could receive a lethal dose in seconds. The classification LLRW is one of the most misleading terms created by man.
Irradiated fuel is a federal responsibility.
But once some of this fuel leaks out of the rods, and it does through small cracks and pinhole pricks, it is in the superheated water. It must be cleaned out for safety, and ion exchange resins and large filters do that. This intensely radioactive waste is a state responsibility. This is decommissioning LLRW and complete power plants would be dumped including the plutonium spattered reactor vessel. All of this waste is now being considered for disposal at Barstow, near Pecos and Andrews, above Odessa.