The development of release criteria for the West Valley Demonstration Project and Western New York Nuclear Service Center after decontamination and decommissioning
Technical Report
·
OSTI ID:121079
- and others
The West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) is located at the Western New York Nuclear Service Center (WNYNSC), 40 miles south of Buffalo, New York. The WNYNSC processed over 600 metric tons of irradiated fuel between 1966 and 1972, which also produced more than two million litres of high level wastes stored in sub-surface tanks. In 1980, Congress passed the West Valley Demonstration Project Act authorizing the Department of Energy to conduct a high level waste management project on the WNYNSC site. The two million litres of liquid wastes are to be processes and solidified by vitrification, then transported to a federal repository for storage. This paper demonstrates the approach taken in determining release criteria for the WVDP and the WNYNSC, after decontamination and decommissioning. The criteria development is unique because the WNYNSC is home to the only commercially licensed irradiated fuel reprocessing facility ever to operate within the United States. This process is more complex because the Department of Energy and the State of New York both have defined roles in the site decommissioning, through the 1980 Act and the Operating License. To complete this project, the Act requires the DOE to decontaminate and decommission facilities used for the WVDP to criteria prescribed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The DOE is evaluating a range of alternatives for project completion and identifying the release criteria that could be applied to each alternative. To terminate the operating license, New York State must also meet prescribed criteria set forth by the NRC. Since the NRC currently has no generic release criteria, the development and approval of site-specific criteria has been handled on a case-by-case basis. With respect to the WVDP, it is important to assure that the standards developed are applicable to the decommissioning responsibilities of the DOE and New York State, and that both parties are subject to manageable and realistic criteria.
- Research Organization:
- Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States). Coll. of Engineering and Mines; New Mexico State Univ., University Park, NM (United States); Waste-Management Education and Research Consortium (WERC), Las Cruces, NM (United States); USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 121079
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940225--Vol.2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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