Alternatives evaluation and decommissioning study on shielded transfer tanks at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Technical Report · Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10180081· OSTI ID:10180081

DeVore, J R; Hinton, R R

The shielded transfer tanks (STTs) are five obsolete cylindrical shipping casks which were used to transport high specific activity radioactive solutions by rail during the 1960s and early 1970s. The STTs are currently stored at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory under a shed roof. This report is an evaluation to determine the preferred alternative for the final disposition of the five STTs. The decommissioning alternatives assessed include: (1) the no action alternative to leave the STTs in their present location with continued surveillance and maintenance; (2) solidification of contents within the tanks and holding the STTs in long term retrievable storage; (3) sale of one or more of the used STTs to private industry for use at their treatment facility with the remaining STTs processed as in Alternative 4; and (4) removal of tank contents for de-watering/retrievable storage, limited decontamination to meet acceptance criteria, smelting the STTs to recycle the metal through the DOE contaminated scrap metal program, and returning the shielding lead to the ORNL lead recovery program because the smelting contractor cannot reprocess the lead. To completely evaluate the alternatives for the disposition of the STTs, the contents of the tanks must be characterized. Shielding and handling requirements, risk considerations, and waste acceptance criteria all require that the radioactive inventory and free liquids residual in the STTs be known. Because characterization of the STT contents in the field was not input into a computer model to predict the probable inventory and amount of free liquid. The four alternatives considered were subjected to a numerical scoring procedure. Alternative 4, smelting the STTs to recycle the metal after removal/de-watering of the tank contents, had the highest score and is, therefore, recommended as the preferred alternative. However, if a buyer for one or more STT could be found, it is recommended that Alternative 3 be reconsidered.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Engineering Div.
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 10180081
• Report Number(s): ORNL/ER-239; ON: DE94018409; TRN: AHC29420%%6
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: Aug 1994
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RAIL TRANSPORT
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
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COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
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050900
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TRANSPORT, HANDLING, AND STORAGE
HEALTH AND SAFETY
WASTE MANAGEMENT