TRU Drum Headspace Gas Analysis System
The Savannah River Site (SRS) has approximately 10,000 Transuranic (TRU) waste drums whose final disposition is the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Each drum, prior to shipment to WIPP, must be inspected and tested to certify that is meets the WIPP requirements for acceptance. One, of many requirements, is the analysis of the TRU drum vapor space for hydrogen, methane, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The DOE Carlsbad Area Office has published two documents specifying the analytical methodologies and the quality assurance requirements for analyzing TRU drum vapor space.The Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) was contracted by the Solid Waste Division of SRS to specify, assemble, and test a system that would satisfy the WIPP requirements for drum headspace gas analysis. Since no single vendor supplies a complete system, analytical instrumentation and supporting components were integrated into a configuration that performed that required analyses. This required both software and hardware design and modifications. The major goal of the design team was to integrate commercially available instrumentation and equipment into a seamless production process. The final output of the process is an analytical report formatted to the specifications outlined in the WIPP Quality Assurance Program Plan (QAPP). SRTC has assembled the necessary analytical instrumentation and installed it in a mobile trailer to perform the TRU drum vapor space analyses. This mobile trailer had previously housed instrumentation for reactor tank inspections. As a cost savings it was decided to renovate and install the instrumentation in this trailer to eliminate the need of building or modifying permanent structures. This also allows for portability to meet future analytical needs on or off site.This task was divided into three sub tasks: headspace gas sampling, gas analysis and system component integration, and sample canister cleaning. The following sections describe how each of the sub tasks was accomplished by SRTC while meeting the Quality Assurance Objectives of the WIPP program.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC09-96SR18500
- OSTI ID:
- 4945
- Report Number(s):
- WSRC-MS-98-00705; ON: DE00004945
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Environmental Management: 2000 and Beyond, Martinez, GA (USA), 5-5 Nov 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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