Technical Evaluations of Proposed Remote-Handled Transuranic Waste Characterization Requirements at WIPP. PDF Download

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 12

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Book Description
Characterization, packaging, transport, handling and disposal of remotely handled transuranic (RH TRU) waste at WIPP will be different than similar operations with contact handled transuranic (CH TRU) waste. This paper presents results of technical evaluations associated with the planned disposal of remotely handled transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).

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.

Author: C. S. Gist
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 10

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Book Description
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is operating to receive and dispose of contact-handled (CH) transuranic (TRU) waste. The Department of Energy (DOE) Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) is seeking approval from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) of the remote-handled (RH) TRU characterization plan to allow disposal of RH TRU waste in the WIPP repository. In addition, the DOE-CBFO has received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to use two shipping casks for transporting RH TRU waste. Each regulatory agency (i.e., EPA, NMED, and NRC) has different requirements that will have to be met through the use of information collected by characterizing the RH TRU waste. Therefore, the DOE-CBFO has developed a proposed characterization program for obtaining the RH TRU waste information necessary to demonstrate that the waste meets the applicable regulatory requirements. This process involved the development of a comprehensive set of Data Quality Objectives (DQOs) comprising the various regulatory requirements. The DOE-CBFO has identified seven DQOs for use in the RH TRU waste characterization program. These DQOs are defense waste determination, TRU waste determination, RH TRU determination, activity determination, RCRA physical and chemical properties, prohibited item determination, and EPA physical and chemical properties. The selection of the DQOs were based on technical, legal and regulatory drivers that assure the health and safety of the workers, the public, to protect the environment, and to comply with the requirements of the regulatory agencies. The DOE-CBFO also has the responsibility for the certification of generator/storage sites to ship RH TRU mixed waste to the WIPP for disposal. Currently, thirteen sites across the DOE complex are generators of RH TRU waste or store the waste at their location for other generators. Generator/storage site certification involves review and approval of site-specific programmatic documents that demonstrate compliance with the WIPP waste characterization and transportation requirements. Additionally, procedures must be developed to implement programmatic requirements and adequacy of those procedures determined. Finally, on-site audits evaluate the technical and administrative implementation and effectiveness of the operating procedures.

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

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Book Description
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: B. A. Walker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 10

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Book Description
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) intends to dispose of remote handled (RH) transuranic (TRU) waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) beginning in 2005. (1) Four principle regulatory agencies are involved in the process of approving the RH TRU waste activities. The DOE is responsible for operational activities. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approves the design and use of shipping containers. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for assuring safe and environmentally effective long-term disposal of the radioactive component of the waste and operational environmental monitoring. The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) is responsible for the handling and the disposal of the non-radioactive hazardous component of the waste. The Environmental Evaluation Group (EEG) is responsible for performing independent technical oversight of all WIPP activities, and will comment on documents and practices for the various regulated RH TRU waste activities. The DOE has already obtained the necessary approvals from the NRC, and has submitted a Class 3 Modification request to the NMED. On December 16, 2002 the DOE Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) provided the EPA with a notice of proposed change, in accordance with 40 CFR 194.4 (b) (3), to receive and dispose of remote handled transuranic waste. (2) WIPP procedures for the management of RH TRU waste at the site are being developed. While there are no issues with current NRC Certificates of Compliance for the RH TRU waste shipping containers, it is likely that there will be some controversy over other aspects of the currently planned RH TRU waste program. These issues may include: (1) the published RH TRU waste inventory, (2) the characterization of the radionuclide portion of the waste, for which one planned method is to use dose-to-Curie conversions, and (3) the plans to use bounding estimates for the hazardous portion of the WIPP waste, rather than measuring VOCs on a container-by-container basis or by representative sampling as is done for contact handled transuranic (CH TRU) waste. This paper discusses the currently planned process and the possible issues related to the DOE's efforts to dispose RH TRU waste at the WIPP.

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

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

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Book Description
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: International Atomic Energy Agency
Publisher: IAEA
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Over the past decade significant progress has been achieved in the development of waste characterization and control procedures and equipment as a direct response to ever-increasing requirements for quality and reliability of information on waste characteristics. Failure in control procedures at any step can have important, adverse consequences and may result in producing waste packages which are not compliant with the waste acceptance criteria for disposal, thereby adversely impacting the repository. The information and guidance included in this publication corresponds to recent achievements and reflects the optimum approaches, thereby reducing the potential for error and enhancing the quality of the end product. -- Publisher's description.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Book Description
The first remote-handled transuranic (RH-TRU) waste is expected to be permanently disposed of at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) during Fiscal Year (FY) 2003. The first RH-TRU waste shipments are scheduled from the Battelle Columbus Laboratories (BCL) to WIPP in order to facilitate compliance with BCL Decommissioning Project (BCLDP) milestones. Milestones requiring RH-TRU waste containerization and removal from the site by 2004 in order to meet a 2006 site closure goal, established by Congress in the Defense Facilities Closure Projects account, necessitated the establishment and implementation of a site-specific program to direct the packaging of BCLDP RH-TRU waste prior to the finalization of WIPP RH-TRU waste characterization requirements. The program was designed to collect waste data, including audio and videotape records of waste packaging, such that upon completion of waste packaging, comprehensive data records exist from which compliance with final WIPP RH-TRU waste characterization requirements can be demonstrated. With the BCLDP data records generated to date and the development by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) of preliminary documents proposing the WIPP RH-TRU waste characterization program, it is possible to evaluate the adequacy of the BCLDP program with respect to meeting proposed characterization objectives. The BCLDP characterization program uses primarily acceptable knowledge (AK) and visual examination (VE) during waste packaging to characterize RH-TRU waste. These methods are used to estimate physical waste parameters, including weight percentages of metals, cellulosics, plastics, and rubber in the waste, and to determine the absence of prohibited items, including free liquids. AK combined with computer modeling is used to estimate radiological waste parameters, including total activity on a waste container basis, for the majority of BCLDP RH-TRU waste. AK combined with direct analysis is used to characterize radiological parameters for the small populations of the RH-TRU waste generated by the BCLDP. All characterization based on AK is verified. Per its design for comprehensive waste data collection, the BCLDP characterization program using AK and waste packaging procedures, including VE during packaging, meets the proposed WIPP RH-TRU waste characterization objectives. The conservative program design implemented generates certification data that will be adequate to meet any additional program requirements that may be imposed by the CBFO.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309052262
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 590

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Book Description
Disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production and power generation has caused public outcry and political consternation. Nuclear Wastes presents a critical review of some waste management and disposal alternatives to the current national policy of direct disposal of light water reactor spent fuel. The book offers clearcut conclusions for what the nation should do today and what solutions should be explored for tomorrow. The committee examines the currently used "once-through" fuel cycle versus different alternatives of separations and transmutation technology systems, by which hazardous radionuclides are converted to nuclides that are either stable or radioactive with short half-lives. The volume provides detailed findings and conclusions about the status and feasibility of plutonium extraction and more advanced separations technologies, as well as three principal transmutation concepts for commercial reactor spent fuel. The book discusses nuclear proliferation; the U.S. nuclear regulatory structure; issues of health, safety and transportation; the proposed sale of electrical energy as a means of paying for the transmutation system; and other key issues.