Waste Disposal Problem May Soon Slow Research

University safety officials said yesterday some research in the medical area will have to end by early next week if Harvard's only outlet for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste remains closed.

Jacob Shapiro, radiation safety officer in the office of environmental health and safety, said yesterday if the Hanford, Wash., dumping site is not open by Monday, his office will stop collecting liquid radioactive waste.

Washington Gov. Dixy Lee Ray closed the site last week after a spot investigation revealed that trucks hauling radioactive wastes into Washington were violating federal safety procedures.

Federal officials said yesterday representatives from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Department of Transportation--the agencies charged with hazardous materials transportation--plan to meet with Washington officials early next week.

NRC spokesman Richard Cunningham said yesterday federal agencies must convince Ray to reopen the Hanford site--the only disposal area in the country currently accepting low-level wastes.

Charles Lohmiller, safety officer in the office of environmental health and safety, said yesterday current University stockpiling facilities allow for research to continue normally for two to three weeks.

"If we have no place to store it, we'll shortly fill ourselves up to the rafters," Lohmiller said.

Harvard last year disposed of about 100,000 gallons of low-level waste. Officials said yesterday more than half the research conducted in the medical area produces such wastes.

A spokesman for the Interex Corporation, which hauls away radioactive wastes for Harvard and most Boston-area colleges, said yesterday no pick-ups have been scheduled for this month. Interex normally picks up Harvard-generated wastes every two weeks.

Dr. Benjamin G. Ferris, director of the office of environmental health and safety, said yesterday his office is encouraging researchers in laboratories and at Harvard-affiliated hospitals to use smaller amounts of radioactive materials.

Ferris said the university is trying to keep the wastes scattered throughout the campus to reduce the danger of flammability. "We've not really had a chance to make up a battle plan," he added.

Many professors and researchers in the medical area yesterday said their research produces low-level wastes, and would have to be stopped if they are not allowed to generate any more.

But Edward S. Lenhoff, isotope laboratory supervisor in the biological labs, said yesterday he still "has plenty of storage area."

Shapiro said if the site remains closed, research 'won't come to a dead halt," but added that radioactive materials are essential to many experiments and hospital tests.

"It's not just a Harvard problem," he said, adding that the Hanford closing has affected hospitals and universities all over the state.

Murray Bolton, radiation safety officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said last week MIT has storage facilities for about two months.

Boston-area college safety officials all agree that the longterm solution to the problem is establishing local disposal cites or incineration facilities.

Cambridge City Manager James L. Sullivan said yesterday the problem is "beyond Harvard's control," adding that stockpiling poses a danger only in the immediate vicinity of storage sites.

"The idea of establishing a dumping site in Cambridge is absurd," Sullivan said, adding "You don't do that in the third most densely populated city in the country.