NDA Challenges during Cleanup of the Hanford 618-10 Burial Ground Trenches - 15542

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

OSTI ID:22824419

Gillespie, Bruce; Southworth, Timothy ^[1]; Haggard, Daniel ^[2]

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1. Canberra Industries Inc - AREVA Group (United States)
2. Polestar Technical Services, Inc. (United States)

The 618-10 Burial Ground on the Hanford Reservation was an early trench waste site used for the disposal of waste from the 300 Area at Hanford. Much of this waste consisted of residues from evaluations of failed fuel as well as various process and separations studies associated with the Department of Energy (DOE) mission which were performed in the 300 Area between March 1954 and September 1963. Much of this waste contained significant concentrations of fission products as well as Transuranic (TRU) radionuclides. Waste forms consist of drums and boxes which were disposed of in the trenches. Many of the drums are shielded containers, cemented sludge, or cemented debris. There are no identifying marks on the containers to correlate them to a specific waste stream. In addition there is some waste in the trenches which came from other locations outside of the 300 area. Cleanup of the 618-10 burial ground is covered under the Washington Closure Hanford (WCH) contract. Due to the proximity of the 618-10 site to the Columbia River, waste is being removed from the 618-10 site, stabilized, and disposed of into either the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF) if the containers are determined to be LLW or transferred to the Hanford Central Waste Complex (CWC) if the containers are suspected to be TRU waste. In order to determine the correct disposal path Non Destructive Assay (NDA) must be performed on all of the containers excavated from the trenches. The NDA of these containers is performed using germanium gamma spectroscopy with an In Situ Object Counting System (ISOCS) and with a neutron slab counter. Due to the challenges associated with these difficult waste streams, matrices, and lack of information to associate these containers with a particular process, the NDA program has had to develop a more robust process to ensure the correct disposition of the waste. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22824419
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--19-WM-15542
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ALPHA-BEARING WASTES
CEMENTS
COLUMBIA RIVER
CONTAINERS
FISSION PRODUCTS
FUEL ELEMENT FAILURE
GAMMA SPECTROSCOPY
GE SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
HANFORD RESERVATION
NEUTRON DETECTORS
NONDESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
SLUDGES
WASTE FORMS