Nuclear waste storage in Arizona salt deposits

State Senator Al Melvin's proposal to store high level nuclear waste in underground salt caverns in Arizona is drawing attention in the state's news media.

We recommend a couple of references for background on this.

Sandia National Lab released a report a year ago on "Salt Disposal of Heat-Generating Nuclear Waste." The 110-page report is available online at http://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-control.cgi/2011/110161.pdf. This report identifies 3 salt bodies in Arizona - Red Lake north of Kingman, Luke west of Phoenix, and Supai (or Holbrook) under and east of Holbrook in eastern Arizona.

AZGS published a report in 2002, "Arizona Has Salt!" (AZGS Circular 30, 41p) that summarizes what we know (and don't know) about the many salt bodies around the state. This is available online for viewing or free downloading.

In August, 2011, Sandia issued a companion report, "Granite Disposal of U.S. High-Level Radioactive Waste." The latter report is generating a lot of attention in the last few weeks in eastern and northern Midwestern states that were mentioned as having potentially suitable host rocks.