Improving the Characterization Program for Contact-Handled Transuranic Waste Bound for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (2004) / Chapter Skim
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2 Transuranic Waste Inventories
2 Transuranic Waste Inventories
Pages 18-26
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From page 18... ...
For to-be-generated waste, characterization information is collected at the time of waste generation; therefore, if an approved quality assurance plan is in place, the Prior to 1970, most TRU waste was disposed of by burial in shallow earth trenches using operations similar to those used in low-level waste disposal facilities. In 1970, the Atomic Energy Commission, the predecessor of DOE, determined that radioactive waste contaminated with transuranic isotopes with a concentration of alpha emitters greater than 10 nanocuries per gram of waste should receive greater confinement from the environment.
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From page 19... ...
The TRU waste generator sites are listed in Table 2.~; the 5 largest sites (Hanford, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Savannah River, and Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site3) are responsible for 96 percent of stored and projected volumes of CH-TRU waste.
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From page 21... ...
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From page 22... ...
. This includes drums containing plutonium-238 and plutonium-239 wastes that are located principally at four sites: Savannah River Site, loos Alamos National Laboratory, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, and Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site.
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From page 23... ...
The rest of the oversized boxes of TRU waste are stored primarily at Hanford, Savannah River Site, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nevada Test Site, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Some wastes in oversized containers are also not shippable due to size and weight constraints on WIPP shipments.
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From page 24... ...
There are approximately 2,200 cubic meters of organic sludge at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site and Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory combined (Moody et al., 2003~. Headspace gas samples from these waste streams at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory show that most of this waste fails transportation requirements for flammable gases, mainly hycirogen, and/or fails gas generation testing due to total gas generated.
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From page 25... ...
EPA, NMED, the New Mexico Environmental Evaluation Group, and a previous National Research Council committee have expressed concerns that characterization methocis used for CH-TRU waste, such as real-time racliography, non-destructive assay, or non-destructive examination methods, may not be effective in the presence of the high-gamma, neutron, bremsstrahfung, or X-ray fields created by RH-TRU waste (EEG, 1994; EPA, 1998; NMED, 1999; NRC, 2002~. RH-TRU waste exists as a number of specialized, smalI-scale waste streams that may call for new equipment or for procedures that differ significantly from those used in the usual waste characterization processes.
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From page 26... ...
DOE estimates that 126,000 cubic meters of TRU wastes were disposed by shallow-tand burial at various DOE sites, particularly at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, prior to 1970. No decision has been made whether to exhume the wastes for deep geologic burial at WIPP or any other site (DOE-EM, 2000~.
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