Methodology for integrated evaluation of alternative siting and treatment, storage, and disposal strategies for U.S. Department of Energy waste management

摘要

A computational model named WASTE-MGMT has been developed by Argonne National Laboratory in support of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (EM) Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) to assist in the analysis of alternative approaches to the management of existing and future radioactive wastes at DOE facilities. Input to the model includes waste inventory and characterization data at each DOE site; unit operations data for the facilities used for treatment, storage and disposal (TSD) of the wastes; and information about the alternative approaches for the TSD of the wastes and for the siting of such TSD facilities. The quantities calculated by the model include the air emissions of radionuclides and hazardous chemicals during operation of the TSD facilities, the quantities and characteristics of the wastes processes annually at these facilities, and the quantities and characteristics of the waste shipped among sites. These quantities are then used as input to calculate the cost and the environmental and socioeconomic impacts resulting from the TSD of the DOE wastes under various alternative management approaches considered in the EM PEIS.