Alternative Radiological Characterization of Sealed Source TRU Waste for WIPP Disposal (LAUR-05-8776)

Conference · Sat Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2006

OSTI ID:21208735

Whitworth, J; Pearson, M; Feldman, A ^[1]; Vance, J; McAlpin, J ^[2]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), PO Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)
2. Vance and Associates, PO Box 997, Ruidoso, NM 88355 (United States)

The Offsite Source Recovery (OSR) Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory is now shipping transuranic (TRU) waste containers to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico for disposal. Sealed source waste disposal has become possible in part because OSR personnel were able to obtain Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and DOE-CBFO approval for an alternative radiological characterization procedure relying on acceptable knowledge (AK) and modeling, rather than on non-destructive assay (NDA) of each container. This is the first successful qualification of an 'alternate methodology' under the radiological characterization requirements of the WIPP Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) by any TRU waste generator site. This paper describes the approach OSR uses to radiologically characterize its sealed source waste and the process by which it obtained certification of this approach. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 13023, Tucson, AZ, 85732-3023 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 21208735
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--09-WM-06281
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ALPHA-BEARING WASTES
CONTAINERS
LANL
NEW MEXICO
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
SEALED SOURCES
SIMULATION
US EPA
WIPP