Remote-Handled Transuranic Waste Retrieval at Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)
- Weston Solutions, Inc., 6565 Americas Parkway NE, Suite 200, Albuquerque, NM 87110 (United States)
- Department of Energy Los Alamos Site Office, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)
Since the 1970's, transuranic (TRU) wastes generated by nuclear weapon programs and other operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) have been stored at Technical Area 54 (TA-54), Material Disposal Area G (MDA-G) in anticipation of disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). LANL has a Legacy Waste Project whose goal is to dispose of all legacy mixed low-level (MLLW) and TRU wastes located at MDA-G by 2010 so that environmental corrective actions (closure) can be completed by 2015. One component of the legacy waste in interim storage at MDA-G consists of approximately 95 cubic meters of remote-handled (RH)-TRU waste placed in 60 shafts. One of the storage configurations for this RH-TRU waste at MDA-G consists of 16 capped shafts that contain hot cell debris wastes in 55-gallon drums. Three 55-gallon drums were emplaced in welded and vented stainless steel canisters designed to be transported in the RH-72B cask. In anticipation of the New Mexico Environment Department's (NMED's) approval of the WIPP hazardous waste permit modification allowing RH TRU waste to be accepted at the WIPP, the Department of Energy (DOE) and LANL are preparing for the retrieval of the 16 canisters from the shafts at MDA-G for their transport to the WIPP. This paper discusses the cooperative efforts of the DOE Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO), the DOE Los Alamos Site Office (LASO), LANL, and their subcontractors to obtain a determination of acceptable knowledge (AK) sufficiency for the waste, remove the caps and retrieve the canisters from the shafts, and load the canisters into RH-72B casks in preparation for shipment to the WIPP. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 13023, Tucson, AZ, 85732-3023 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21210703
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-09-WM-06435; TRN: US09V1131081165
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management 2006 Symposium - WM'06 - Global Accomplishments in Environmental and Radioactive Waste Management: Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Waste Management Professionals, Tucson, AZ (United States), 26 Feb - 2 Mar 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France; 11 refs
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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