. The changing Illinois environment : critical trends : technical report of the Critical Trends Assessment Project. Man; Pollution; Environmental protection; Ecology; Environmental impact analysis. Figure 10. Tons of emissions per gigawatt-hour of electricity. Low-Level Nuclear Waste Illinois is the largest producer of nuclear power in the United States, operating seven nuclear power sta- tions. Although air emissions data on radioactive emissions were unavailable, low-level nuclear waste data was available from the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety. Because the volume of waste shipped var
. The changing Illinois environment : critical trends : technical report of the Critical Trends Assessment Project. Man; Pollution; Environmental protection; Ecology; Environmental impact analysis. Figure 10. Tons of emissions per gigawatt-hour of electricity. Low-Level Nuclear Waste Illinois is the largest producer of nuclear power in the United States, operating seven nuclear power sta- tions. Although air emissions data on radioactive emissions were unavailable, low-level nuclear waste data was available from the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety. Because the volume of waste shipped varies widely on an annual basis, both the annual total and a five- year average are shown in Figure 11. Based on the five-year average, the volume of waste shipped in 1974 was 94 thousand cubic feet; it peaked in 1978 at 243 thousand cubic feet and by 1991 it had dropped back to 110 thousand cubic feet While the volume of waste declined between 1976 and 1991, nuclear generation increased substantially, by 144%. The decUne in volume could be due to improvement in treatment processes or changes in production pro- cesses (IDNS, 1991). The major peaks in 1976 and 1978, for both the annual and the five-year averages, were due to large volumes from one 1970 1972 1974 197« 197S 1980 19S2 19S4 19Se 19M 1990 ââ â Annual â*â 5-year average Figure 11. Cubic feet of low level radioactive waste shipped by Illinois utilities. At the same time that volume was decreasing, the reported radioactivity (in curies) of low-level waste was increasing (Figure 12). Using the five-year average, in 1974 the average level of radioactivity was 426 curies, in 1983 the average was more than 10 thousand curies, and in 1991 it was 41 thousand curies. Subsequently, the ratio of megawatt-hours per curie of low level waste decreased from thou- sand mWh in 1983 to thousand mWh by 1989. The spike in radioactivity in 1989 was caused by several shipments of activated hardware, consisting of
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