An overview of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory waste-handling and packaging plant

Conference · Sat Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1988 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA)

OSTI ID:7082478

Turner, D W; Stewart, R S; Moore, J W

The Waste-Handling and Packaging Plant (WHPP) has been proposed as a fiscal year (FY) 1993 capital line-item project to be built at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The mission of this project is to retrieve, receive, repackage, certify, and ship remotely handled (RH) and special case transuranic (TRU) waste. Approximately 90% of the inventory of RH TRU stored at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites is stored at ORNL, and all of this waste requires repackaging before it can be shipped. The WHPP may also process TRU waste from other DOE sites, such as the Hanford, Washington, facilities; the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory; and the Argonne National Laboratory. The certified TRU waste would be shipped from WHPP to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) located near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The WHPP has been proposed to provide processing, packaging, and certification to the waste acceptance criteria for WIPP. All waste-handling activities will be remotely operated in shielded hot cells. Figure 1 is a conceptual design sectional view of the WHPP. A key design feature is the large double-lid transfer system for transferring the solid waste into the process cell. The RH TRU waste will require a facility qualified for alpha containment with shielding for gamma and neutron radiation doses up to 1500 rem/h. Waste will be loaded into inner containers, or liners, and then loaded into type A drums. The drums will be checked for contamination, decontaminated if necessary, and then certified as required. The certified packages will be loaded into type B shipping casks and shipped to WIPP.

• OSTI ID: 7082478
• Report Number(s): CONF-891103--
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA), Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA) Vol. 60; ISSN TANSA; ISSN 0003-018X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052001* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Processing
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ANL
CONTAINMENT
CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS
DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS
DESIGN
DOSES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ENGINEERED SAFETY SYSTEMS
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
GAMMA RADIATION
HANFORD RESERVATION
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
IDAHO NATIONAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY
INTERMEDIATE-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NEUTRON FLUX
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ORNL
PACKAGING
PILOT PLANTS
RADIATION DOSES
RADIATION FLUX
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADIATIONS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REMOTE HANDLING
SHIELDING
TRANSPORT
TRANSURANIUM COMPOUNDS
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
VOLATILITY
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WIPP