Long-range plan for buried transuranic waste studies at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory

Technical Report · Sun Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:6452739

Low, J O

This document presents a plan to perform detailed studies of alternatives considered for the long-term management of buried transuranic waste at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). The studies will provide the technical basis for DOE to make a decision on the future management of that waste. Although the waste is currently being handled in an acceptable manner, new solutions are continually being researched to improve management techniques. Three alternatives are being considered: (a) leave the waste as is; (b) improve in situ confinement of the waste; and (c) retrieve, process, and certify the waste for disposal at a federal repository. Fourteen studies are described in this plan for Alternatives 2 and 3. The leave-as-is alternative involves continuing present procedures for managing the buried waste. An ongoing environmental surveillance program, a low-level-waste stabilization program, and enhanced subsurface migration studies begun in FY-1984 at the INEL will provide data for the decision-making process for the INEL buried TRU waste. These ongoing studies for the leave-as-is alternative are summarized in this plan in limited detail. The improved-confinement alternative involves leaving the waste in place, but providing additional protection against wind, water penetration, erosion, and plant and animal intrusion. Several studies proposed under this alternative will examine special techniques to immobilize or encapsulate the buried waste. An in situ grouting study was implemented at the INEL starting in FY-1985 and will be completed at the end of FY-1986 with the grouting of a simulated INEL buried TRU waste trench. Studies of the third alternative will investigate improved retrieval, processing, and certification techniques. New equipment, such as industrial manipulators and excavating machinery, will be tested in the retrieval studies. Processing and certification studies will examine rapidly changing or new technologies.

• Research Organization: EG and G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-76ID01570
• OSTI ID: 6452739
• Report Number(s): EGG-2427; ON: DE86005010
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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