Requirements for Disposal of Remote-handled Transuranic Wastes at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant PDF Download

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Publisher: Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers(IEEE)
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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This report contains the results of a peer review performed jointly by the ASME and the Institute for Regulatory Science(RSI).This report, conducted for the U.S. Department of Energy's Carlsbad Operations Office, explores the criteria for disposing of remote-handled transuranic waste at the Carlsbad waste isolation site.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309183138
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a deep underground mined facility for the disposal of transuranic waste resulting from the nation's defense program. Transuranic waste is defined as waste contaminated with transuranic radionuclides with half-life greater than 20 years and activity greater than 100 nanocuries per gram. The waste mainly consists of contaminated protective clothing, rags, old tools and equipment, pieces of dismantled buildings, chemical residues, and scrap materials. The total activity of the waste expected to be disposed at the WIPP is estimated to be approximately 7 million curies, including 12,900 kilograms of plutonium distributed throughout the waste in very dilute form. The WIPP is located near the community of Carlsbad, in southeastern New Mexico. The geological setting is a 600-meter thick, 250 million-year-old saltbed, the Salado Formation, lying 660 meters below the surface. The National Research Council (NRC) has been providing the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) scientific and technical evaluations of the WIPP since 1978. The committee's task is twofold: (1) to identify technical issues that can be addressed to enhance confidence in the safe and long-term performance of the repository and (2) to identify opportunities for improving the National Transuranic (TRU) Program for waste management, especially with regard to the safety of workers and the public. This is the first full NRC report issued following the certification of the facility by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on May 18, 1998. An interim report was issued by the committee in April 2000 and is reproduced in this report. The main findings and recommendations from the interim report have been incorporated into the body of this report. The overarching finding and recommendation of this report is that the activity that would best enhance confidence in the safe and long-term performance of the repository is to monitor critical performance parameters during the long pre-closure phase of repository operations (35 to possibly 100 years). Indeed, in the first 50 to 100 years the rates of important processes such as salt creep, brine inflow (if any), and microbial activity are predicted to be the highest and will be less significant later. The committee recommends that the results of the on-site monitoring program be used to improve the performance assessment for recertification purposes. These results will determine whether the need for a new performance assessment is warranted. For the National TRU Program, the committee finds that the DOE is implementing many of the recommendations of its interim report. It is important that the DOE continue its efforts to improve the packaging, characterization, and transportation of the transuranic waste.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309084601
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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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.

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Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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This document identifies the necessary actions for addressing current questions concerning the safe and efficient disposal of remote-handled transuranic wastes that have been generated through Department of Energy activities. In addition, this document presents summaries of existing information and analyses regarding the potential alternatives for disposing of remote-handled (RH) transuranic (TRU) waste at the Department of Energy (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). A further discussion of DOE's approach for addressing RH-TRU issues is contained in the document, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Remote-Handled Transuranic Waste Disposal Strategy, DOE/WIPP-95-1090 (DOE, 1995a). Of this stored and projected inventory, approximately 30% can be characterized with current technology and subsequently certified to meet the waste acceptance criteria for disposal at WIPP; characterization of the remaining 70% will require the use of alternative techniques. At most of the generator sites, characterization equipment and facilities need to be procured in order for the sites to certify waste for shipment either to WIPP or to an interim site. If surface dose rates are too high, the use of non-invasive techniques such as non-destructive examination (NDE) and non-destructive assay (NDA) may be precluded. Characterization methods using NDA can be effectively used on RH-TRU wastes with surface dose rates of less than 1.0 rem/hr (neutron); NDE methods are effective on waste with surface dose rates of less than 10 rem/hr (gamma). The ability to use current NDE technology on waste with surface dose rates above 10 rem/hr will need to be demonstrated. Alternate characterization techniques, such as examination within a hot cell, could be used for the remaining waste; however, such techniques are labor intensive and would require additional effort to gather assay data. Improvements in characterization capabilities are being pursued through future technology development initiatives.

Author: DIANE Publishing Company
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 9780788133985
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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In 1998, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) plans to begin a $19 billion program to dispose of 176,000 c.m. of transuranic waste that will be permanently stored in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a repository near Carlsbad, NM. However, DoE must first obtain from EPA a certificate of compliance with its disposal regulations for radioactive waste and meet the requirements of RCRA for handling and disposing of hazardous waste. This report assesses the prospects for opening WIPP and determines how well DoE is positioned to begin filling it in the first few years of operation and longer.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC), DOE/WIPP-069, was initially developed by a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Steering Committee to provide performance requirements to ensure public health and safety as well as the safe handling of transuranic (TRU) waste at the WIPP. This revision updates the criteria and requirements of previous revisions and deletes those which were applicable only to the test phase. The criteria and requirements in this document must be met by participating DOE TRU Waste Generator/Storage Sites (Sites) prior to shipping contact-handled (CH) and remote-handled (RH) TRU waste forms to the WIPP. The WIPP Project will comply with applicable federal and state regulations and requirements, including those in Titles 10, 40, and 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The WAC, DOE/WIPP-069, serves as the primary directive for assuring the safe handling, transportation, and disposal of TRU wastes in the WIPP and for the certification of these wastes. The WAC identifies strict requirements that must be met by participating Sites before these TRU wastes may be shipped for disposal in the WIPP facility. These criteria and requirements will be reviewed and revised as appropriate, based on new technical or regulatory requirements. The WAC is a controlled document. Revised/changed pages will be supplied to all holders of controlled copies.

Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Commerce. Subcommittee on Energy and Power
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) was developed by the US Department of Energy (DOE) as a research and development facility to demonstrate the safe disposal of transuranic (TRU) radioactive wastes generated from the Nation's defense activities. The WIPP disposal inventory will include up to 250,000 cubic feet of TRU wastes classified as remote handled (RH). The remaining inventory will include contact-handled (CH) TRU wastes, which characteristically have less specific activity (radioactivity per unit volume) than the RH-TRU wastes. The WIPP Land Withdrawal Act (LWA), Public Law 102-579, requires a study of the effect of RH-TRU waste on long-term performance. This RH-TRU Waste Study has been conducted to satisfy the requirements defined by the LWA and is considered by the DOE to be a prudent exercise in the compliance certification process of the WIPP repository. The objectives of this study include: conducting an evaluation of the impacts of RH-TRU wastes on the performance assessment (PA) of the repository to determine the effects of Rh-TRU waste as a part of the total WIPP disposal inventory; and conducting a comparison of CH-TRU and RH-TRU wastes to assess the differences and similarities for such issues as gas generation, flammability and explosiveness, solubility, and brine and geochemical interactions. This study was conducted using the data, models, computer codes, and information generated in support of long-term compliance programs, including the WIPP PA. The study is limited in scope to post-closure repository performance and includes an analysis of the issues associated with RH-TRU wastes subsequent to emplacement of these wastes at WIPP in consideration of the current baseline design. 41 refs.

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309498619
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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In 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued an Interim Report evaluating the general viability of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration's (DOE-NNSA's) conceptual plans for disposing of 34 metric tons (MT) of surplus plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a deep geologic repository near Carlsbad, New Mexico. It provided a preliminary assessment of the general viability of DOE-NNSA's conceptual plans, focused on some of the barriers to their implementation. This final report addresses the remaining issues and echoes the recommendations from the interim study.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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