UNIQUE RADIOANALYTICAL PROTOCOLS FOR CHARACTERIZATION AND VERIFICATION DURING DECONTAMINATION AND DECOMMISSIONING

Conference · Fri Jan 05 04:00:00 EST 2007

OSTI ID:897106

Diprete, C; David Diprete, D; Wooten Simpson, W

In order to successfully decontaminate, deactivate and decommission surplus Department of Energy (DOE) facilities throughout the Savannah River Site (SRS), a variety of characterizations must be completed to sufficiently identify and quantify potential contaminants of concern. The ultimate goal is to rapidly and efficiently characterize, decontaminate (if necessary), and verify that the remnants meet specified limits established by either an industrial worker model or a groundwater model. To meet this end, the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) developed a series of radioanalytical strategies and methodologies which can be used to characterize targeted facilities and prove that decontamination has been sufficient. To our knowledge, this is the first application of this novel methodology within the DOE complex. This methodology has been successfully utilized with nearly 1000 samples from over a dozen facilities. The application of this approach to just a single facility shortened the schedule by 30 days and resulted in non-labor dollar savings of over $60K. Cost savings for a second facility was determined to be $375K. Based on the success of this methodology at SRS, this approach will be valuable to other nuclear facilities in the USA and abroad involved with the decontamination and decommissioning process.

• Research Organization: SRS
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-96SR18500
• OSTI ID: 897106
• Report Number(s): WSRC-STI-2007-00005
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
DECOMMISSIONING
DECONTAMINATION
DOLLARS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT
SCHEDULES
VERIFICATION
WASTE MANAGEMENT