US Department of Energy acceptance of commercial transuranic waste

Technical Report · Fri Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:5288507

Taboas, A L; Bennett, W S; Brown, C M

Contaminated transuranic wastes generated as a result of non-defense activities have been disposed of by shallow land burial at a commercially operated (NECO) facility located on the Hanford federal reservation, which is licensed by the State of Washington and by the NRC. About 15,000 ft/sup 3/ of commercial TRU waste have been generated each year, but generation for the next three years could triple due to decontamination and decommissioning scheduled to start in 1980. Disposal at other commercial burial sites has been precluded due to sites closing or prohibitions on acceptance of transuranic wastes. The State of Washington recently modified the NECO-Hanford operating license, effective February 29, 1980, to provide that radioactive wastes contaminated with transuranics in excess of 10 nCi/g will not be accepted for disposal. Consistent with the state policy, the NRC amended the NECO special nuclear material license so that Pu in excess of 10n Ci/g cannot be accepted after February 29, 1980. As a result, NRC requested DOE to examine the feasibility of accepting these wastes at a DOE operated site. TRU wastes accepted by the DOE would be placed in retrievable storage in accordance with DOE policy which requires retrievable storage of transuranic wastes pending final disposition in a geologic repository. DOE transuranic wastes are stored at six major DOE sites: INEL, Hanford, LASL, NTS, ORNL, and SRP. A specific site for receiving commercial TRU waste has not yet been selected. Shipments to DOE-Hanford would cause the least disruption to past practices. Commercial TRU wastes would be subject to waste form and packaging criteria established by the DOE. The waste generators would be expected to incur all applicable costs for DOE to take ownership of the waste, and provide storage, processing, and repository disposal. The 1980 charge to generators for DOE acceptance of commercial TRU waste is $147 per cubic foot.

• Research Organization: Rockwell International Corp., Golden, CO (USA). Rocky Flats Plant
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP03533
• OSTI ID: 5288507
• Report Number(s): RFP-3110
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ACTINIDES
COST
ELEMENTS
HANFORD RESERVATION
LICENSING
MANAGEMENT
METALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
PACIFIC NORTHWEST REGION
PLUTONIUM
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
STORAGE
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
USA
WASHINGTON
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE STORAGE
WASTES