Waste generated at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants is getting hotter. Factors contributing to these higher levels of radioactivity include shorter outage schedules, aging plants, and more controls to prevent clean material from entering radiologically controlled areas. Aside from increasing bonding, sureties, and insurance for special high-rad storage areas, Duratek has responded with several initiatives in order to meet the changing needs of its customers:

• Increased Curie possession limits to allow receipt of the material to meet customers' scheduling needs
• Increased high-rad campaigns to meet throughput requirements
• Instituted more rigorous radiological controls and dose-management training for personnel
• Increased security provisions at facilities by nearly doubling the number of security personnel
• Added additional shielded containers to fleet
• Added high-rad liquid processing capabilities
• Added a high-rad off-loading facility to reduce the number of cask rental days, thereby reducing costs for customers
• Added new equipment such as remote handling tools and glove boxes Duratek expects the trend of hotter and more concentrated wastes to continue, which requires the fine balancing act of managing dose and not concentrating the waste to a point where disposal options become limited or impossible.