Load planning in the dark: RH-TRU waste container load planning at Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico - 15116

Conference · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2015

OSTI ID:22822676

Humphrey, B. J.; Bland, J. J. ^[1]; Salyer, R. L.; Spoerner, M. T.; Strong, W. R. ^[2]

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1. Weston Solutions, Inc. 3840 Commons Ave. N.E., Albuquerque, NM 87109 (United States)
2. Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico, P.O. Box 5800, Albuquerque, NM 87185-1151 (United States)

Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) performed several sets of experiments during the 1970's and 1980's with fresh and irradiated mixed oxide (MOX) and uranium oxide (UO{sub 2}) materials designed to simulate various fuel responses under varying reactor conditions. These research materials were from light water and breeder mixed oxide reactors. The experimental vessels and extraneous piece parts resulting from the experiments were identified as eligible for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) as remote-handled (RH) transuranic (TRU) waste. Once Sandia received the approval to dispose at WIPP, discussions began with the Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) and Nuclear Waste Partnerships, LLC (NWP) to provide Central Characterization Program (CCP) support for certified acceptable knowledge, visual examination, and dose-to-curie for the repackaging effort. In addition to the WIPP support, Sandia was required to prepare a load plan describing the configuration of the parent containers and how they could be repackaged to meet WIPP and other regulatory requirements. However, all of these containers were packaged as material twenty (20) or thirty (30) years ago and the records of the packaging process and configuration were not documented as waste. Therefore, it seemed that the load plans were prepared with limited information regarding parent container configuration, hence in the dark. The design of the Auxiliary Hot Cell Facility (AHCF) in technical area (TA) V, where the repackaging was to take place, along with the shipping requirements for the RH 72-B cask, limited the options for repackaging. This configuration required that 0.114 m{sup 3} (30-gallon) containers be packaged in the hot cell, removed and placed into 0.208 m{sup 3} (55-gallon) containers to mitigate contamination issues. The material had been tracked as accountable nuclear material and Sandia had verified Material Control and Accountability (MC and A) data on each parent container. Based on the MC and A data, scaling factors could be determined and sampling and analysis was not required. However, it meant that parent containers could not be split into two daughter containers, though two or more parent containers could be combined into one daughter. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22822676
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--19-WM-15116
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ALPHA-BEARING WASTES
BREEDER REACTORS
CONTAMINATION
HOT CELLS
MIXED OXIDE FUELS
NEW MEXICO
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
PLANNING
SAMPLING
SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
SPENT FUEL CASKS
SPENT FUELS
URANIUM DIOXIDE
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
WIPP