A Planning Tool for Estimating Waste Generated by a Radiological Incident and Subsequent Decontamination Efforts - 13569

Conference · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013

OSTI ID:22225130

Boe, Timothy ^[1]; Lemieux, Paul ^[2]; Schultheisz, Daniel; Peake, Tom ^[3]; Hayes, Colin ^[4]

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1. Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711 (United States)
2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711 (United States)
3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC 20460 (United States)
4. Eastern Research Group, Inc, Morrisville, NC 26560 (United States)

Management of debris and waste from a wide-area radiological incident would probably constitute a significant percentage of the total remediation cost and effort. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Waste Estimation Support Tool (WEST) is a unique planning tool for estimating the potential volume and radioactivity levels of waste generated by a radiological incident and subsequent decontamination efforts. The WEST was developed to support planners and decision makers by generating a first-order estimate of the quantity and characteristics of waste resulting from a radiological incident. The tool then allows the user to evaluate the impact of various decontamination/demolition strategies on the waste types and volumes generated. WEST consists of a suite of standalone applications and Esri{sup R} ArcGIS{sup R} scripts for rapidly estimating waste inventories and levels of radioactivity generated from a radiological contamination incident as a function of user-defined decontamination and demolition approaches. WEST accepts Geographic Information System (GIS) shape-files defining contaminated areas and extent of contamination. Building stock information, including square footage, building counts, and building composition estimates are then generated using the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) Hazus{sup R}-MH software. WEST then identifies outdoor surfaces based on the application of pattern recognition to overhead aerial imagery. The results from the GIS calculations are then fed into a Microsoft Excel{sup R} 2007 spreadsheet with a custom graphical user interface where the user can examine the impact of various decontamination/demolition scenarios on the quantity, characteristics, and residual radioactivity of the resulting waste streams. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9-332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22225130
• Report Number(s): INIS-US-13-WM-13569; TRN: US14V0711046085
• Resource Relation: Conference: WM2013: Waste Management Conference: International collaboration and continuous improvement, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 24-28 Feb 2013; Other Information: Country of input: France; 8 refs.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BUILDINGS
COMPUTER CODES
CONTAMINATION
DECONTAMINATION
DEMOLITION
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
PATTERN RECOGNITION
PLANNING
RADIATION ACCIDENTS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOACTIVITY
REMEDIAL ACTION
US FEMA