Long-Term Hazardous Waste Storage
Shielded Vault for Vitrified and Hazardous Canisters
The shielded vault for vitrified and hazardous canisters is a sub-surface storage trench designed to isolate up to 200 canisters of toxic electronics, end-of-life nuclear material, and vitrified waste prepared to ASTM C1285 standards. Because the lunar surface lacks an atmosphere and magnetosphere, cosmic radiation and micrometeoroids threaten long-term containment integrity over the required 100-year design lifetime. To maintain stable containment isolated from crew habitats, the 500-kilogram structure uses sintered regolith walls covered by a 2.0-meter-thick regolith berm for passive shielding, housing 316L stainless steel over-packs alongside an inventory monitoring database drawing 10 watts of continuous power.
Regolith-shielded vault holding vitrified hazardous waste canisters, decommissioned electronics with toxic content, and end-of-life nuclear material.
Purpose
Regolith-shielded vault holding vitrified hazardous waste canisters, decommissioned electronics with toxic content, and end-of-life nuclear material.
Context
Child of L2-WMS-STOR within the Lunar Ark system
Principles
- ▸Regolith berm provides radiation + MMOD shielding
- ▸Canisters per ASTM C1285 vitrification standard
- ▸Inventory database tracks contents and decay
- ▸Sub-surface trench installation
- ▸Remote-monitored radiation and integrity sensors
Typical implementations
- ▸WIPP (terrestrial deep geological repository)
- ▸Yucca Mountain repository design heritage
- ▸Industrial hazmat long-term storage
Lunar considerations
- ▸100-year mission needs verified-stable storage
- ▸Lunar regolith excellent shielding material
- ▸Vault location separated from habitat by safe distance
Specifications
Functional
| primary function | Regolith-shielded vault holding vitrified hazardous waste canisters, decommissioned electronics with toxic content, and end-of-life nuclear material. |
| canister capacity count | 200 |
| shielding thickness m regolith | 2.0 |
Physical
| mass kg | 500 |
| materials | Vitrified glass canisters, Stainless 316L over-pack, Sintered regolith vault walls |
| vacuum compatibility | True |
Operational
| power consumption w | 10 |
| thermal range c | -40, 70 |
| lifetime years | 100 |
| mtbf hours | 1000000 |
Interfaces
Provides
- Radioactive inventory tracked
Requires
- Vitrified canisters from neutralisation
- Hazardous-element residuals
- Vault structure anchoring
Cite this entry
Lunar Ark Codex. "Long-Term Hazardous Waste Storage" (L3-WMS-STOR-LONG). Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://lunarark.com/entry/L3-WMS-STOR-LONG
Licensed CC-BY-SA 4.0. You may reuse and adapt this entry with attribution, under the same licence.