Alternatives for Long-Term Management of Defense High-Level Radioactive Waste:Idaho Chemical Processing Plant,Idaho Falls,Idaho.

摘要

This document presents alternatives for the long-term treatment and disposition of high-level radioactive defense wastes presently stored as solids in bins at the Idaho Chemical Process Plant (ICPP) area of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. These defense wastes were generated by defense and test programs as opposed to wastes from commercial nuclear power programs. Presently,all high-level waste produced at the ICPP is converted to a granular solid (calcine) by a calcination process. The calcine is stored in stainless steel bins which in turn are contained in underground,reinforced-concrete vaults. This storage mode has been demonstrated to be safe. Consistent with ERDA policy,alternatives for long-term management of high-level wastes are being evaluated. These methods,using the existing calcine as starting material,are described in the parent document. The document first describes the existing waste management facilities and processes in use at the ICPP (Section 2). The alternatives for disposition and processing are discussed in Section 3. The technology pertaining to the various alternatives being considered for the ICPP waste is described in Section 4. In Section 5,the risks associated with the various alternatives are evaluated. Costs are presented in Section 6,and the costs and risks are evaluated in Section 7. (ERA citation 03:014054)