Technical Analysis of OnSite Disposal of Space Grade Plutonium Waste
The Risk Based End State Vision Report for the Savannah River Site includes a variance that proposes on-site near surface disposal of waste from the program to produce Pu-238 heat sources for deep space probes. On-site disposal would greatly reduce the risk to workers by eliminating the need to repackage the waste in order to characterize it and ship it to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Significant cost savings can also be realized. A legacy inventory of 6145 m3 containing 590,000 curies of Heat Source plutonium exists at the Savannah River Site. Our plan is to ship as much of this material as possible to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant using currently available facilities and equipment. We estimate that most of the volume can be safely packaged and transported to WIPP. The remainder, 1813 m3 containing 280,000 curies, is proposed to be disposed of at the SRS after demonstrating that all applicable environmental protection regulations can be met. A technical analysis has been done u sing the overall methodology developed for low-level waste disposal performance assessments. The results to date show that groundwater protection will be maintained, but that enhanced engineering measures are needed to meet the performance measures for protection of inadvertent intruders. The release criterion from 40 CFR 191 is achievable. This analysis provides a means of demonstrating the technical basis on-site disposal of Heat Source plutonium to management, stakeholders and regulators.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC09-96SR18500
- OSTI ID:
- 837319
- Report Number(s):
- WSRC-MS-2004-00613; TRN: US0501035
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management 2005, Tucson, AZ (US), 02/27/2005--03/03/2005; Other Information: PBD: 20 Dec 2004
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Acceleration of Los Alamos National Laboratory transuranic waste disposition
ACCELERATION OF LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY TRANSURANIC WASTE DISPOSITION