NDA Analysis of Legacy INL Wastes for disposal at WIPP

摘要

Legacy transuranic wastes from Rocky Flats have been buried at Idaho National Laboratory sincern1960. To partially fulfill an agreement between the United States Department of Energy and thernState of Idaho, the wastes from Pit 4 at INL are to be unearthed and packaged for shipment to thernWaste Isolation Pilot Plant at Carlsbad. It is anticipated that some 30,000 drums will be producedrnand analyzed during this campaign.rnBefore the wastes can be shipped, they must be characterized by an approved Nondestructive assayrn(NDA) measurement system in compliance with the contact-handled waste acceptance criteriarndefined in DOE /WIPP-02-3122, known familiarly as the CH-WAC. Four NDA instruments arernused in this campaign to make these measurements, including a High Efficiency Neutron Counter,rnWaste Assay Gamma System, Segmented Gamma Ray Spectrometer, and Tomographic GammarnScanner.rnData from the four NDA instruments are analyzed in several stages, including initial review, expertrnanalysis, independent technical review, and assembly of the batch data reports. This paper willrninclude the history of the waste, retrieval techniques, data acquisition and analysis. Specialrnemphasis will be put on the NDA techniques used for characterizing this waste.rnAs the project unfolds, there will be increased collaboration with waste assay groups at other sitesrnso that analysis and data review techniques become more uniform. This will facilitate informationrninterchange, and allow analysts to move between sites with minimal retraining.