E AREA LOW LEVEL WASTE FACILITY DOE 435.1 PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
This Performance Assessment for the Savannah River Site E-Area Low-Level Waste Facility was prepared to meet requirements of Chapter IV of the Department of Energy Order 435.1-1. The Order specifies that a Performance Assessment should provide reasonable assurance that a low-level waste disposal facility will comply with the performance objectives of the Order. The Order also requires assessments of impacts to water resources and to hypothetical inadvertent intruders for purposes of establishing limits on radionuclides that may be disposed near-surface. According to the Order, calculations of potential doses and releases from the facility should address a 1,000-year period after facility closure. The point of compliance for the performance measures relevant to the all pathways and air pathway performance objective, as well as to the impact on water resources assessment requirement, must correspond to the point of highest projected dose or concentration beyond a 100-m buffer zone surrounding the disposed waste following the assumed end of active institutional controls 100 years after facility closure. During the operational and institutional control periods, the point of compliance for the all pathways and air pathway performance measures is the SRS boundary. However, for the water resources impact assessment, the point of compliance remains the point of highest projected dose or concentration beyond a 100-m buffer zone surrounding the disposed waste during the operational and institutional control periods. For performance measures relevant to radon and inadvertent intruders, the points of compliance are the disposal facility surface for all time periods and the disposal facility after the assumed loss of active institutional controls 100 years after facility closure, respectively. The E-Area Low-Level Waste Facility is located in the central region of the SRS known as the General Separations Area. It is an elbow-shaped, cleared area, which curves to the northwest, situated immediately north of the Mixed Waste Management Facility. The E-Area Low-Level Waste Facility is comprised of 200 acres for waste disposal and a surrounding buffer zone that extends out to the 100-m point of compliance. Disposal units within the footprint of the low-level waste facilities include the Slit Trenches, Engineered Trenches, Component-in-Grout Trenches, the Low-Activity Waste Vault, the Intermediate-Level Vault, and the Naval Reactor Component Disposal Area. Radiological waste disposal operations at the E-Area Low-Level Waste Facility began in 1994. E-Area Low-Level Waste Facility closure will be conducted in three phases: operational closure, interim closure, and final closure. Operational closure will be conducted during the 25-year operation period (30-year period for Slit and Engineered Trenches) as disposal units are filled; interim closure measures will be taken for some units. Interim closure will take place following the end of operations and will consist of an area-wide runoff cover along with additional grading over the trench units. Final closure of all disposal units in the E-Area Low-Level Waste Facility will take place at the end of the 100-year institutional control period and will consist of the installation of an integrated closure system designed to minimize moisture contact with the waste and to serve as a deterrent to intruders. Radiological dose to human receptors is analyzed in this PA in the all-pathways analysis, the inadvertent intruder analysis and the air pathway analysis, and the results are compared to the relevant performance measures. For the all-pathways analysis, the performance measure of relevance is a 25-mrem/yr EDE to representative members of the public, excluding dose from radon and its progeny in air. For the inadvertent intruder, the applicable performance measures are 100-mrem/yr EDE and 500 mrem/yr EDE for chronic and exposure scenarios, respectively. The relevant performance measure for the air pathway is 10-mrem/yr EDE via the air pathway, excluding dose from radon and its progeny in air. Protection of groundwater resources is addressed by comparing calculated compliance point concentrations in groundwater with the relevant performance measure, which was determined to be the Safe Drinking Water Act MCLs for beta-gamma and alpha-emitting radionuclides, and for radium and uranium. Radon fluxes for each disposal unit are calculated and compared to the average flux of 20 pCi/m{sup 2}/s upper limit specified in the relevant performance objective. Thirty-five parent radionuclides are addressed in the groundwater transport calculations, 15 radionuclides in the air pathway calculations, and 78 parent radionuclides in the intruder analysis for all disposal units. Radon-222 fluxes are also evaluated for all disposal units.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC09-96SR18500
- OSTI ID:
- 934527
- Report Number(s):
- WSRC-STI-2007-00306; TRN: US0803873
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Groundwater and Intruder Radionuclide Screening
Groundwater and Intruder Radionuclide Screening