Criticality safety analysis for contact handled waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

Technical Report · Wed Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1988

OSTI ID:6725700

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a facility designed to store transuranic (TRU) waste underground in a mined salt bed. All fissile nuclides except U/sup 235/ are considered TRU nuclides. The waste material will be contained in 55 gallon steel drums and steel boxes. In general the fissile waste material is mainly surface contamination on clothing, wipes, wrappings, tools, etc., or mixed in evaporator heels and resins. Other fissile material may be contained in absorbent mixtures. As a result, the fissile material will typically be spread over a large fraction of the volume in most storage drums and boxes. Typical isotopic content of the fissile material is shown. This analysis will analyze the waste storage configurations at the WIPP site to show that up to 200 grams of fissile material per box can be stored at the site. 5 refs., 26 figs., 5 tabs.

• Research Organization: Westinghouse Electric Corp., Carlsbad, NM (USA). Waste Isolation Div.
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-86AL31950
• OSTI ID: 6725700
• Report Number(s): DOE/WIPP-88-014; ON: DE89002775
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
053000 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Environmental Aspects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ALPHA-BEARING WASTES
CONTAINERS
CRITICALITY
EVALUATION
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
PILOT PLANTS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SALT DEPOSITS
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
VOLUME
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WIPP