Improving the Characterization and Treatment of Radioactive Wastes for the Department of Energy's Accelerated Site Cleanup Program (2005) / Chapter Skim
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Synopsis & Executive Summary
Synopsis & Executive Summary
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· Consider using a CERCLA removal action rather than a remedial action to expedite dealing with wastes that present a major risk, for example the 618-10/11 burial ground caissons at Hanford. · Consider leaving wastes in place if they present little risk or if removrng them with currently available technology would present more hazards than leaving them alone, as discussed in Chapter 4.
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· Some new facilities, e.g., the INEEL Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility (AMWTF) , the SRS Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF)
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to provide technical advice for its accelerated site cleanup program. EM was established in 1989 to manage the cleanup of waste and environmental contamination that resulted from World War II and Cold War-era production of nuclear materials at more than 100 sites around the country.
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The committee was not tasked to review or comment on other aspects of the accelerated cleanup program or to address waste issues outside the scope of the EM mission.3 To fulfill its task, the committee sought to identify major opportunities that are within EM's ability to implement in the time frame of the accelerated cleanup program and that have the greatest potential for saving time and money without compromising EM's health and safety commitments. The committee visited EM's four largest sites: the Oak Ridge Reservation, Tennessee; the Savannah River Site (SRS)
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s Recommendation: EM headquarters and sites should aggressively pursue opportumt~es to simplify and expedite waste characterization, treatment, and disposal by · workmg with the responsible classification offices to declassify, to the extent possible, classified materials declared as wastes, · better reutilizing the waste removal provisions of CLRCLA, and · developing more consistent mterpretat~ons among sites of waste acceptance requ~reinents and accelerated cleanup objectives. Classified Wastes EM has a significant opportunity to save time and money by taking aggressive measures to declassify materials and equipment that are to be disposed as waste.
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waste acceptance criteria and waste analysis plan comprise a complex set of requirements that must be met by each DOE site to dispose of TRU wastes at WIPP. Each site, working with EM, state officials and the EPA, has written its own procedures tO meet these requirements.
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Based on its own visits to the waste characterization facilities at SRS, Hanford, and INEEL, the committee endorses the previous study's conclusions and suggestions that EM and the sites review these characterization activities for possible modifications, such as reduced sampling frequency, that would remain in compliance with regulations but could save time, money, and the potential risks of operators handling and sorting the waste. The lack of formal WIPP waste acceptance criteria for TRU wastes that require remote handling is a significant impediment to accelerated cleanup.
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The TSCA incinerator, H-Canyon, and T-Plant are existing facilities that each provide a unique capability, respectively, for treating combustible mixed wastes; reprocessing spent DOE nuclear fuels; and treating large, highly contaminated equipment. Based on presentations to the committee and a previous BRWM study,5 it appears that upgrading and restarting the INEEL calciner, or converting it to a steam reformer as noted in the next section, would provide a means to treat that site's million gallons of sodiumbearing reprocessing waste.
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With further development, steam reforming could be implemented by upgrading the INEEL calciner to treat INEEL wastes and to demonstrate the process for treating orphan sludges and slurries throughout the EM complex. Steam reforming is also a promising technology for treating lowactivity waste streams from the Waste Treatment Plant being constructed at Hanford.
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Microwave heatrng appears to be a very promising method for adding supplemental heat at specific locations in glass melters to help stabilize their operations and increase throughput. "No-Consequence" Container For shipping TRU wastes to WIPP, there has long been concern over whether a flammable mixture might arise within the shipping container due to radiolysis or other reactions in the waste and result in deflagration with sufficient energy to breach the containment.
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In its fact finding, the committee noted that reactor "cocooning" at Hanford is an instructive conceptual approach to managing waste in place. Reactor cocooning involves demolishing and removing all of a reactor's ancillary buildings and the reactor building itself, except for the thick shielding walls around the defueled reactor core, which is left in place.
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