The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) Nevada Test Site (NTS) is one of two regional sites where low-level radioactive waste (LLW) from approved DOE and U.S. DOD generators across the United States is disposed. In federal fiscal year (FY) 2002, over 57,000 cubic meters of waste was transported to and disposed at the NTS. DOE and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations ensure that radiation exposure from truck shipments to members of the public is negligible. Nevertheless, particularly in rural communities along transportation routes in Utah and Nevada, there is perceived risk from members of the public about incremental exposure from LLW trucks, especially when ''Main Street'' and the LLW transportation route are the same. To better quantify the exposure to gamma radiation, a stationary monitoring array of four pressurized ion chambers (PICs) have been set up in a pullout just before LLW trucks reach the entrance to the NTS. The PICs are positioned at a distance of one meter from the sides of the truck trailer and at a height appropriate for the design of the trucks that will be used in FY2003 to haul LLW to the NTS. The use of four PICs (two on each …

This paper summarizes the Department of Energy's (DOE's) current efforts to strengthen its activities for the management and disposition of DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel (SNF). In August 2002 an integrated, ''corporate project'' was initiated by the Office of Environmental Management (EM) to develop a fully integrated strategy for disposition of the approximately {approx}250,000 DOE SNF assemblies currently managed by EM. Through the course of preliminary design, the focus of this project rapidly evolved to become DOE-wide. It is supported by all DOE organizations involved in SNF management, and represents a marked change in the way DOE conducts its business. This paper provides an overview of the Corporate Project for Integrated/Risk-Driven Disposition of SNF (Corporate SNF Project), including a description of its purpose, scope and deliverables. It also summarizes the results of the integrated project team's (IPT's) conceptual design efforts, including the identification of project/system requirements and alternatives. Finally, this paper highlights the schedule of the corporate project, and its progress towards development of a DOE corporate strategy for SNF disposition.

This review describes high temperature methods of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste (LILW) treatment currently used at SIA Radon. Solid and liquid organic and mixed organic and inorganic wastes are subjected to plasma heating in a shaft furnace with formation of stable leach resistant slag suitable for disposal in near-surface repositories. Liquid inorganic radioactive waste is vitrified in a cold crucible based plant with borosilicate glass productivity up to 75 kg/h. Radioactive silts from settlers are heat-treated at 500-700 0C in electric furnace forming cake following by cake crushing, charging into 200 L barrels and soaking with cement grout. Various thermochemical technologies for decontamination of metallic, asphalt, and concrete surfaces, treatment of organic wastes (spent ion-exchange resins, polymers, medical and biological wastes), batch vitrification of incinerator ashes, calcines, spent inorganic sorbents, contaminated soil, treatment of carbon containing 14C nuclide, reactor graphite, lubricants have been developed and implemented.

For more than a decade, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has managed an environmental remediation project at its former uranium processing facility near Fernald, Ohio. To address public concerns about what will happen at the site once remediation is completed, the Site- Specific Advisory Board for the site, the Fernald Citizens Advisory Board (FCAB), designed and implemented the Future of Fernald. process to involve the public in planning for the site's future. The FCAB recently coordinated a feasibility study of post-remediation public access to site information. Information is a key component of Community-Based Stewardship, a system in which the public plays an integral role in long-term stewardship of a site. This study found that has just begun to address community needs for information during long-term stewardship. Through a public workshop, conducted as part of the study, the public was able to identify the kinds of information that are needed and how that information should be presented.

At some sites both chemical and radiological investigation of soil and groundwater is required for overall site characterization. While the planning and execution of investigation activities is usually completed to fulfill regulatory (i.e., United States Environmental Protection Agency or United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission) requirements, coordination of chemical and radiological investigation programs may provide an opportunity for reducing the duration of investigation activities and reducing overall project costs. There are several similarities in the chemical and radiological investigation processes that one can take advantage of in program design and execution to efficiently plan and execute chemical and radiological investigations simultaneously. At sites where both chemical and radiological constituents are being investigated in soil and groundwater, various steps can be taken during the investigation processes to combine chemical and radiological investigation and characterization activities. With proper planning, investigating chemical and radiological constituents simultaneously in soil and groundwater can reduce the project schedule and provide cost savings for overall characterization of the site.

This paper describes major components of the Dounreay Site Restoration Plan, DSRP to deal with the site's solid intermediate level waste, ILW legacy. Historic solid ILW exists in the Shaft (disposals between 1959 and 1977), the Wet Silo (operated between 1973 and 1998), and in operating engineered drummed storage. Significant further arisings are expected from future operations, post-operations clean out and decommissioning through to the completion of site restoration, expected to be complete by about 2060. The raw waste is in many solid forms and also incorporates sludge, some fissile material and hazardous chemical components. The aim of the Solid ILW Project is to treat and condition all this waste to make it passively safe and in a form which can be stored for a substantial period, and then transported to the planned U.K. national deep repository for ILW disposal. The Solid ILW Project involves the construction of head works for waste retrieval operations at the Shaft and Wet Silo, a Waste Treatment Plant and a Conditioned Waste Store to hold the conditioned waste until the disposal facilities become available. In addition, there are infrastructure activities to enable the new construction: contaminated ground remediation, existing building demolition, underground and overground …

The alpha-contaminated solid waste generated in Belgium results from past activities in the fuel cycle (R & D +Reprocessing and MOX fabrication pilot plants) and present operation of BELGONUCLEAIRE's MOX fuel fabrication plant. After the main steps in the management of alpha-contaminated solid waste were established, BELGONUCLEAIRE, with the backing of BELGOPROCESS and ONDRAF/NIRAS, started the design and construction of the T & C and interim-storage facilities for this alpha waste. The accumulated solid alpha radwaste containing a mixture of combustible and non-combustible material will be sorted. After sorting, both the accumulated and recently-generated non-combustible alpha waste will be embedded in a cement matrix. The erection of the sorting and cementing units which include glove-boxes and the interim storage building for conditioned packages was completed at BELGOPROCESS, at the beginning of year 2002. Start-up operations for both facilities have been performed. Operating tests of the sorting and cementing units were completed in July 2002 and inactive operation campaigns were started in August 2002. The results of the tests and inactive campaigns are given. Overall testing of the storage building supervised by the Safety Authorities was successfully performed at the end of 202 after completion of the operating tests on the …

As facility demolition and remediation continued at the DOE Ashtabula Environmental Management Project (AEMP), a DOE closure site located in Ashtabula, OH, the quantity of mixed waste increased by approximately twenty-fold from the original Site Treatment Plan estimates to over 567 m3 (20,000 cubic feet). Also, a greater variety of low-level mixed waste (MW) was identified that was suitable for alternate debris treatment like macroencapsulation (MACRO) instead of traditional shredding, stabilization, and solidification to improve the overall safety and cost-effectiveness. Macroencapsulation is required for lead and authorized for hazardous debris under the alternate debris treatment standards per 40 CFR 268.45. Several polymer encapsulation processes were being explored, developed, and deployed in the mid-1990's by various groups including the DOE Mixed Waste Focus Area, DOE EM-50 Office of Science and Technology, Brookhaven National Laboratory, DOE Macro Working Group, DOE-Albuquerque Mixed Waste/Mobile Treatment Unit, and Envirocare of Utah, Inc. As a result, technically-proven macroencapsulation and microencapsulation processes using extruded polyethylene beads were verified as being technically acceptable for waste treatment to RCRA standards. The AEMP had a variety of waste forms where technically-proven systems were needed to perform on-site treatment of challenging mixed wastes (MW) from production operations (i.e. HEPA filters, barium …

It has been revealed from the experiences of Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) activities that even a small improvement in performance can result in significant risk reduction and cost savings. For example, Race Scan Ear Mic System, which was originally developed for communications between racecar drivers and crews in loud environments, has been successfully applied to D&D work and proved to enhance worker safety and communications. Glovebox dismantlement is an important and costly process in D&D activities of nuclear facilities. Adequate decontamination and size reduction of the gloveboxes are especially important in this activity because they have the potential to reduce risks and costs significantly. This paper presents some simple approaches to support D&D tasks and discusses their potential advantages. Examples discussed include: Repeated shear wiping of large pipes and ducts; Application of thin layers on radiological counters for uninterrupted use; and Partial use of robotics for glovebox dismantling. The paper also discusses schematics for protecting equipment interiors and/or glovebox inner surfaces from contamination, which may result in significant savings and waste minimization upon future dismantlement. Examples discussed include: Smart coating for contamination prevention; and Protecting equipment by geometrically simple cover.

Radioactive materials transportation is stringently regulated by the Department of Transportation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to protect the public and the environment. As a Federal agency, however, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) must seek State, Tribal and local input on safety issues for certain transportation activities. This interaction has invariably resulted in the imposition of extra-regulatory requirements, greatly increasing transportation costs and delaying schedules while not significantly enhancing the level of safety. This paper discusses the results an analysis of the regulatory and negotiated requirements established for a July 1998 shipment of spent nuclear fuel from foreign countries through the west coast to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). Staff from the INEEL Nuclear Materials Engineering and Disposition Department undertook the analysis in partnership with HMTC, to discover if there were instances where requirements derived from stakeholder interactions duplicate, contradict, or otherwise overlap with regulatory requirements. The study exhaustively lists and classifies applicable Department of Transportation (DOT) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations. These are then compared with a similarly classified list of requirements from the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) and those developed during stakeholder negotiations. Comparison and analysis reveals numerous attempts to reduce transportation risk …

This user's guide documents the capabilities and functions of the Expanded Time Phase Force Deployment Data (TPFDD) Editor (ETEdit) software application. Step-by-step procedures for using ETEdit are provided in Chapter 5. Although ETEdit is primarily an editing tool for use with various software applications, it can also be used as a stand-alone application or in tandem with another application. It provides force module data that allow you to display and modify movement requirements, as well as to display the requirement line numbers (RLNs) for both detail and parent hierarchy. The primary purpose of ETEdit is to make changes to TPFDDs. Because it has been designed as a separate application, you can apply the ETEdit capabilities for use with other models.

While developing a method to measure pressure in totally sealed stainless steel containers holding spent nuclear fuel at the U.S. DOE Hanford Site, Vista Engineering Technologies, LLC (Vista Engineering) personnel adapted the central concept to corrosion monitoring techniques for the same containers. The ability to monitor corrosion within vessels containing spent nuclear fuel, plutonium and other hazardous materials is imperative for safe storage. Vista Engineering personnel have devised a way to monitor corrosion in a totally sealed stainless steel container using a Magnetically Coupled Corrosion Gauge (MCCG) Patent Pending. The MCCG can be used to detect corrosion as well as measure corrosion rate and does not require any penetration of the containment vessel, which minimizes pressure boundary surface area and sensitive weld materials in the vessels.

The purpose of this design calculation is to estimate radiation doses received by personnel in the Remediation Facility performing operations to receive, prepare, open, repair, recover, disposition, and correct off-normal and non-standard conditions with casks, canisters, spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies, and waste packages (WP). The specific scope of work contained in this calculation covers both collective doses and individual worker group doses on an annual basis, and includes the contributions due to external and internal radiation. The results of this calculation will be used to support the design of the Remediation Facility and provide occupational dose estimates for the License Application.

One of the major challenges involved in closing the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS) is the disposal of extremely large pieces of contaminated production equipment and building debris. Past practice has been to size reduce the equipment into pieces small enough to fit into approved, standard waste containers. Size reducing this equipment is extremely expensive, and exposes workers to high-risk tasks, including significant industrial, chemical, and radiological hazards. RFETS has developed a waste package using a Polyurea coating for shipping large contaminated objects. The cost and schedule savings have been significant.

Various international and national bodies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, the European Commission, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission have put forward proposals or guidance documents to regulate the ''clearance'' from regulatory control of very low level radioactive material, in order to allow its recycling as a material management practice. All these proposals are based on predicted scenarios for subsequent utilization of the released materials. The calculation models used in these scenarios tend to utilize conservative data regarding exposure times and dose uptake as well as other assumptions as a safeguard against uncertainties. None of these models has ever been validated by comparison with the actual real life practice of recycling. An international project was organized in order to validate some of the assumptions made in these calculation models, and, thereby, better assess the radiological consequences of recycling on a practical large scale.

The nuclear fuel cycle is designed to be very international, with some specialist activities (e.g. fuel fabrication, reprocessing, etc.) being confined to a few countries. Nevertheless, political and public opposition has in the past been faced by proposals to internationalise the back-end of the cycle, in particular waste disposal. Attitudes, however, have been changing recently and there is now more acceptance of the general concept of shared repositories and of specific proposals such as that of Pangea. However, as for national facilities, progress towards implementation of shared repositories will be gradual. Moreover, the best vehicle for promoting the concept may not be a commercial type of organization. Consequently the Pangea project team are currently establishing a widely based Association for this purpose.

Ferrite rods are installed inside the flying-wire cavity of the Recycler Ring and at entrance and exit beam pipes in order to absorb high-frequency electromagnetic waves excited by the beam. However, these rods may also deteriorate the vacuum pressure of the ring. An investigation is made to analyze the necessity of the ferrite rods at the entrance and exit beam pipes.

This paper describes and presents the findings from two studies undertaken for the European Commission to assess the long-term impact upon the environment and human health of non-radioactive contaminants found in various low level radioactive waste streams. The initial study investigated the application of safety assessment approaches developed for radioactive contaminants to the assessment of nonradioactive contaminants in low level radioactive waste. It demonstrated how disposal limits could be derived for a range of non-radioactive contaminants and generic disposal facilities. The follow-up study used the same approach but undertook more detailed, disposal system specific calculations, assessing the impacts of both the non-radioactive and radioactive contaminants. The calculations undertaken indicated that it is prudent to consider non-radioactive, as well as radioactive contaminants, when assessing the impacts of low level radioactive waste disposal. For some waste streams with relatively low concentrations of radionuclides, the potential post-closure disposal impacts from non-radioactive contaminants can be comparable with the potential radiological impacts. For such waste streams there is therefore an added incentive to explore options for recycling the materials involved wherever possible.

Classified transuranic material that cannot be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is stored in Greater Confinement Disposal boreholes in the Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site on the Nevada Test Site. A performance assessment was completed for the transuranic inventory in the boreholes and submitted to the Transuranic Waste Disposal Federal Review Group. The performance assessment was prepared by Sandia National Laboratories on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office using an iterative methodology that assessed radiological releases from the intermediate depth disposal configuration against the regulatory requirements of the 1985 version of 40 CFR 191 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The transuranic materials are stored at 21 to 37 m depth (70 to 120 ft) in large diameter boreholes constructed in the unsaturated alluvial deposits of Frenchman Flat. Hydrologic processes that affect long- term isolation of the radionuclides are dominated by extremely slow upward rates of liquid/vapor advection and diffusion; there is no downward pathway under current climatic conditions and there is no recharge to groundwater under future ''glacial'' climatic conditions. A Federal Review Team appointed by the Transuranic Waste Disposal Federal Review Group reviewed the …

The bitumenized waste drum facility (ERFB) is built on the Marcoule site and is intended to handle the historic bitumenized waste of the site, that were conditioned in metallic drums. The purpose of the facility is to retrieve the drums stored in pits, condition them in stainless steel overpacks and produce packages ready to be shipped to the multipurpose interim storage (EIP) facility. The ERBF includes a mobile frame structure capable to shift from one pit to another. It is used to recover drums and characterizes them (weight, radiological properties, etc.) and to repack them according to their state. The first operation results are provided.

We have been developing a radioactive waste package made of high-strength and ultra low-permeability concrete (HSULPC) for geological disposal of TRU wastes, which is expected to be much more impervious to water than conventional concrete. In this study, basic data for the HSULPC regarding its the impervious character and the thermodynamics during cement hydration were obtained through water permeability measurements using cold isostatic pressing (CIP) and adiabatic concrete hydration experiments, respectively. Then, a prediction tool to find concrete package construction conditions to avoid thermal cracking was developed, which could deal with coupled calculations of cement hydration, heat transfer, stress, and cracking. The developed tool was applied to HSULPC hydration on a small-scale cylindrical model to examine whether there was any effect on cracking which depended on the ratio of concrete cylinder thickness to its inner diameter. The results were compared to experiments. For concrete with a compressive strength of 200MPa, the water permeability coefficient was 4 x 10{sup 19} m/s. Dependences of activation energy and frequency factor on degree of cement hydration had a sharp peaking due to the nucleation rate-determining step, and a gradual increase region due to the diffusion rate-determining step. From analyses of the small-scale cylindrical model, …

This paper describes recent developments in the field of nuclear waste management in Canada with a focus on management of nuclear fuel waste. Of particular significance is the April 2001 tabling in the Canadian House of Commons of Bill C-27, An Act respecting the long-term management of nuclear fuel waste. At the time of finalizing this paper (January 15, 2002), Bill C-27 is in Third Reading in the House of Commons and is expected to move to the Senate in February. The Nuclear Fuel Waste Act is expected to come into force later in 2002. This Act requires the three nuclear utilities in Canada owning nuclear fuel waste to form a waste management organization and deposit funds into a segregated fund for nuclear fuel waste long-term management. The waste management organization is then required to perform a study of long-term management approaches for nuclear fuel waste and submit the study to the federal government within three years. The federal government will select an approach for implementation by the waste management organization. The paper discusses the activities that the nuclear fuel waste owners currently have underway to prepare for the formation of the waste management organization. As background, the paper reviews …

The Subsurface Contaminants Focus Area (SCFA), a DOE-HQ EM-50 organization, is hosted and managed at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina. SCFA is an integrated program chartered to find technology and scientific solutions to address DOE subsurface environmental restoration problems throughout the DOE Weapons Complex. Since its inception in 1989, the SCFA program has resulted in a total of 269 deployments of 83 innovative technologies. Until recently, the primary thrust of the program has been to develop, demonstrate, and deploy those remediation technology alternatives that are solutions to technology needs identified by the DOE Sites. Over the last several years, the DOE Sites began to express a need not only for innovative technologies, but also for technical assistance. In response to this need, DOE-HQ EM-50, in collaboration with and in support of a Strategic Lab Council recommendation directed each of its Focus Areas to implement a Lead Laboratory Concept to enhance their technical capabilities. Because each Focus Area is unique as defined by the contrast in either the type of contaminants involved or the environments in which they are found, the Focus Areas were given latitude in how they set up and implemented the Lead Lab Concept. The …

The Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC) conducted research and development projects on uranium exploration in Japan from 1956 to 1987. Several mine facilities, such as waste rock yards and a mill tailing pond, were retained around Ningyo-toge after the projects ended. Although there is no legal issue in the mine in accordance with related law and agreements at present, JNC has a notion that it is important to reduce the burden of waste management on future generations. Thus, the Ningyo-toge Environmental Engineering Center of JNC proposed a reclamation plan for these facilities with fundamental policy, an example of safety analysis and timetables. The plan has mainly three phases: Phase I is the planning stage, and this paper corresponds to this: Phase II is the stage to perform various tests for safety analysis and site designing: Phase III is the stage to accomplish measures. Preliminarily safety analyses suggested that our supposed cover designs for both waste rock and m ill tailing are enough to keep dose limit of 1mSv/y at site boundaries. The plan is primarily based on the Japanese Mine Safety Law, also refers to ICRP recommendations, IAEA reports, measures implemented overseas, etc. because this is the first case …