ESTABLISHING A CONTACT HANDLED TRANSURANIC WASTE SHIPPINGPROGRAM AT THE WEST VALLEY DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

摘要

The West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) Act of 1980 authorized the Department of Energyrn(DOE) to among other things, solidify the high-level liquid radioactive waste (HLW) present at the WestrnValley site, along with disposing of the low-level and transuranic (TRU) wastes. Since the completion ofrnHLW solidification in 2002, the WVDP has turned its attention to decontamination and decommissioningrnof Project facilities and disposing of the wastes generated throughout performance of the Project.rnThe TRU waste generated over the course of the Project has been placed into safe storage and is managedrnby the West Valley Nuclear Services Company (WVNSO) for the DOE. To address DOE’s goal tornaccelerate site cleanup and TRU waste disposition, a strategy was developed to gain approval to shiprnwaste to a designated DOE facility which already has the capability to characterize and certify TRUrnwaste.rnThe WVDP evaluated various options for the development of a WVDP TRU Waste Program. The chosenrnoption resulted in a program that utilizes the existing characterization and shipping program at the WVDPrnto interface with both the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Central Characterization Project (CCP) forrnutilization of TRUPACT-II shipping containers and a WIPP-certified DOE facility. It is this interface thatrnenables WVDP TRU waste to be characterized for shipment, transported to a WIPP- certified facility forrnfinal characterization, and ultimately shipped to WIPP for disposal. The following paper discusses thernsteps taken to develop the WVDP TRU Waste Program.