Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 13
Book Description
Characterization of transuranic waste from the LANL Plutonium Facility for certification and transportation to WIPP includes the use of acceptable knowledge as specified in the WIPP Quality Assurance Program Plan. In accordance with a site specific procedure, documentation of acceptable knowledge for retrievably stored and currently generated transuranic waste streams is in progress at LANL. A summary overview of the TRU waste inventory is complete and documented in the Sampling Plan. This document also includes projected waste generation, facility missions, waste generation processes, flow diagrams, times, and material inputs. The second part of acceptable knowledge documentation consists of assembling more detailed acceptable knowledge information into auditable records and is expected to require several years to complete. These records for each waste stream must support final assignment of waste matrix parameters, EPA hazardous waste numbers, and radionuclide characterization. They must also include a determination whether waste streams are defense waste streams for compliance with the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act. The LANL Plutonium Facility's mission is primarily plutonium processing in basic special nuclear material (SNM) research activities to support national defense and energy programs. It currently has about 100 processes ranging from SNM recovery from residues to development of plutonium 238 heat sources for space applications. Its challenge is to characterize and certify waste streams from such diverse and dynamic operations using acceptable knowledge. This paper reports the progress on the certification of the first of these waste streams to the WIPP WAC.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 10
Book Description
This paper presents an overview of the activities being planned and implemented to certify newly generated contact handled transuranic (TRU) waste produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory's (LANL's) Plutonium Facility. Certifying waste at the point of generation is the most important cost and labor saving step in the WIPP certification process. The pedigree of a waste item is best known by the originator of the waste and frees a site from expensive characterization activities such as those associated with legacy waste. Through a cooperative agreement with LANLs Waste Management Facility and under the umbrella of LANLs WIPP-related certification and quality assurance documents, the Plutonium Facility will be certifying its own newly generated waste. Some of the challenges faced by the Plutonium Facility in preparing to certify TRU waste include the modification and addition of procedures to meet WIPP requirements, standardizing packaging for TRU waste, collecting processing documentation from operations which produce TRU waste, and developing ways to modify waste streams which are not certifiable in their present form.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 11
Book Description
This paper presents an overview of the activities being planned and implemented to certify newly generated contact handled transuranic (TRU) waste produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory's (LANL's) Plutonium Facility. Certifying waste at the point of generation is the most important cost and labor saving step in the WIPP certification process. The pedigree of a waste item is best known by the originator of the waste and frees a site from many of the expensive characterization activities associated with legacy waste. Through a cooperative agreement with LANLs Waste Management Facility and under the umbrella of LANLs WIPP-related certification and quality assurance documents, the Plutonium Facility will be certifying most of its own newly generated waste. Some of the challenges faced by the Plutonium Facility in preparing to certify TRU waste include the modification and addition of procedures to meet WIPP requirements, standardizing packaging for TRU waste, collecting processing documentation from operations which produce TRU waste, and developing ways to modify waste streams which are not certifiable in their present form.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 14
Book Description
The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) achieved a national milestone on the road to shipping transuranic (TRU) waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) when it received certification authority on September 12, 1997. Since that time, LANL has been characterizing a non-mixed TRU waste stream and preparing shipments of this TRU waste for disposal in the WIPP. The paper describes the TRU waste identified as waste stream TA-55-43 Lot No. 01 from LANL Technical Area-55 and the process used to determine that it does not contain hazardous waste regulated by the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) or the New Mexico Hazardous Waste Act (HWA). The non-mixed determination is based on the acceptable knowledge (AK) characterization process, which clearly shows that the waste does not exhibit any RCRA characteristics nor meet any RCRA listing descriptions. LANL has certified TRU waste from waste stream TA-55-43 Lot No. 01 and is prepared to certify additional quantities of TRU waste horn other non-mixed TRU waste streams. Assembly and preparation of AK on the processes that generated TRU waste is recognized as a necessary part of the process for having waste ready for shipment to the WIPP.
Author: Robert L. Dodge Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 7
Book Description
By the time the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) completes its Disposal Phase in FY 2034, the Department of Energy (DOE) will have disposed of approximately 109,378 cubic meters (m3) of Transuranic (TRU) waste in WIPP (1). If DOE adheres to its 2005 Pollution Prevention Goal of generating less than 141m3/yr of TRU waste, approximately 5000 m3 (4%) of that TRU waste will be newly generated (2). Because of the overwhelming majority (96%) of TRU waste destined for disposal at WIPP is legacy waste, the characterization and certification requirements were developed to resolve those issues related to legacy waste. Like many other DOE facilities Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has a large volume (9,010m3) of legacy Transuranic Waste in storage (3). Unlike most DOE facilities LANL will generate approximately 140m3 of newly generated TRU waste each year3. LANL's certification program was established to meet the WIPP requirements for legacy waste and does not take advantage of the fundamental differences in waste knowledge between newly generated and legacy TRU waste.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 6
Book Description
This paper represents an overview of analyses conducted on the TRU database maintained by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). This evaluation was conducted to support the ''TRU Waste Workoff Strategies'' document and provides an estimation of the waste volume that potentially could be certified and ready for shipment to (WIPP) in April of 1998. Criteria defined in the WIPP WAC, including container type, weight limits, plutonium fissile gram equivalents and decay heat, were used to evaluated the waste for compliance. LANL evaluated the containers by facility and by waste stream to determining the most efficient plan for characterization and certification of the waste. Evaluation of the waste presently in storage suggested that 40- 60% potentially meets the WIPP WAC Rev. 5 criteria.
Author: National Research Council Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 0309084601 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 132
Book Description
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) disposes of plutonium-contaminated debris from its 27 nuclear weapons facilities at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), an underground repository in Carlsbad, New Mexico. After four years of operational experience, DOE has opportunities to make changes to the costly and time-consuming process of "characterizing" the waste to confirm that it is appropriate for shipment to and disposal at WIPP.  The report says that in order to make such changes, DOE should conduct and publish a systematic and quantitative assessment to show that the proposed changes would not affect the protection of workers, the public, or the environment.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 7
Book Description
The issuance of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's (WIPP) Hazardous Waste Facility Permit in August of 2000, specifically the attachment I3 Waste Analysis Plan (WAP), had a profound impact upon transuranic (TRU) waste certification at Los Alamos National Laboratory's (LANL) Plutonium Facility. Program certification was lost until Laboratory internal program documents could be amended to meet the new WAP requirements, waste management personnel could be retrained to incorporate the changes into waste operations and the entire program successfully pass subsequent Carlsbad Field Ofice (CBFO) audit. This action resulted in the suspension of transuranic waste shipments from LANL to WIPP. In addition the changes unnecessarily increased the complexity of TRU waste program activities in waste handling.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 13
Book Description
At present,>35% of the volume of newly generated transuranic (TRU) waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory is not certifiable for transport to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Noncertifiable waste would constitute 900--1,000 m3 of the 2,600 m3 of waste projected during the period of the Environmental Management (EM) Accelerated Cleanup: Focus on 2006 plan (DOE, 1997). Volume expansion of this waste to meet thermal limits would increase the shipped volume to (approximately)5,400 m3. This paper presents the results of efforts to define which TRU waste streams are noncertifiable at Los Alamos, and to prioritize site-specific options to reduce the volume of certifiable waste over the period of the EM Accelerated Cleanup Plan. A team of Los Alamos TRU waste generators and waste managers reviewed historic generation rates and thermal loads and current practices to estimate the projected volume and thermal load of TRU waste streams for Fiscal Years 1999--2006. These data defined four major problem TRU waste streams. Estimates were also made of the volume expansion that would be required to meet the permissible wattages for all waste. The four waste streams defined were: (1) 238Pu-contaminated combustible waste from production of Radioactive Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) with 238Pu activity which exceeds allowable shipping limits by 10--100X. (2) 241Am-contaminated cement waste from plutonium recovery processes (nitric and hydrochloric acid recovery) are estimated to exceed thermal limits by (approximately)3X. (3) 239Pu-contaminated combustible waste, mainly organic waste materials contaminated with 239Pu and 241Am, is estimated to exceed thermal load requirements by a factor of (approximately)2X. (4) Oversized metal waste objects, (especially gloveboxes), cannot be shipped as is to WIPP because they will not fit in a standard waste box or drum.
Author: 
Author: 
Author: 
Author: 
Author: Robert L. Dodge
Author: 
Author: 
Author: National Research Council
Author: 
Author: