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At least 685 records · Page 38
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DOE OSTI2016

How the U.S. DOE's Environmental Management Program Engages the Public on Complex Issues - 16532

This paper provides an overview of how the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management (EM) program engages the public on complex cleanup issues. EM has made public participation a fundamental component of its cleanup mission and has found that the EM Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB) has contributed greatly to bringing community input regarding values and priorities to the cleanup decision-making processes. As such, the EM SSAB has a unique mandate to provide input regarding the cleanup of nuclear legacy sites in the United States. Public participation that involves ongoing community engagement has inherent challenges, including explaining technically complex cleanup issues and receiving input and advice on the community from a board of non-experts. This paper highlights ways that DOE works with the various local boards across the country to communicate these issues through new member orientations. DOE can use these tools to gain insight on how best to solicit input from the local community despite complex technical issues. (authors)

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DOE OSTI2016

Global Solutions Through Simulation For Better Decommissioning - 16457

Each nuclear facility is different due to their history and there is no rule for choosing a decommissioning strategy. There are three major decommissioning strategies. First, 'immediate dismantling', which means the decommissioning begins immediately after the transfer of waste and nuclear material. Second, 'deferred dismantling strategy', meaning the facility is maintained into a containment zone from thirty to one hundred years before being decommissioned. Finally, 'entombment', referring to the placement of the facility into a reinforced containment until the radionuclides decay and reach a level allowing the site release. When a strategy is decided many factors have to be taken into account. Into a major project such as a reactor decommissioning, there are many smaller projects and the decommissioning strategy can be different among these smaller projects. Very often, some entry data are not perfectly known, for example, the dosimetric activity has not been updated through time or after specific events. Because of uncertainties and/or hypothesis existing around projects and their high level of interdependency, global solutions are a good way to choose the best decommissioning strategy. Especially since each entry data has consequences on output results whether it is on costs, cumulated dose, waste or delays. Also the dose, delays or waste management, all have impact on costs. To obtain an optimal scenario into a special environment, it is necessary to deal with all these items together. This global solution can be implemented thanks to simulation in dedicated software which helps define the global strategy, optimize the scenario, and prevent contingencies. For a specific environment, when many scenarios have been developed and simulated, sensitivity studies are really important to choose the optimal decommissioning strategy. Sensitivity studies can be done with simulation tools by comparing results of scenarios directly into the software. This comparison helps to choose the optimal scenario according to which output data is considered as key determinant. (authors)

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DOE OSTI2013

Ten Years of Legacy Management: U.S. DOE Office of Legacy Management Accomplishments - 13246

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) established the Office of Legacy Management (LM) to provide a long-term, sustainable solution to environmental impacts that remain from nuclear weapons production during World War II and the Cold War. The production activities created adverse environmental conditions at over 100 sites. When LM was established on December 15, 2003, it became responsible for 33 sites where active environmental remediation was complete. Currently, LM is responsible for long-term surveillance and maintenance of environmental remedies, promotion of beneficial reuse of land and buildings, and management of records and information at 89 sites in 29 states and Puerto Rico. LM is also responsible for meeting contractual obligations associated with former contractor workers' pensions and post-retirement benefits. Effectively addressing this environmental and human legacy will continue to require a focused and well-managed effort. (authors)

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DOE OSTI2012

Prairie Island Nuclear Station Spent Filter Processing for Direct Disposal - 12333

This paper will discuss WMG's filter processing experience within the commercial nuclear power industry, specifically recent experience processing high activity spent filters generated by Xcel Energy's Prairie Island Nuclear Station (Prairie Island), located in Welch, MN. WMG processed for disposal eighty-four 55-gallon drums filled with varying types of high activity spent filters. The scope of work involved characterization, packaging plan development, transport to the WMG's Off-Site Processing location, shredding the filter contents of each drum, cement solidifying the shredded filter material, and finally shipping the solidified container of shredded filter material to Clive, Utah where the container was presented to EnergySolutions Disposal site for disposal in their Containerised Waste Facility. This sequence of events presented in this paper took place a total of nine (9) times over a period of four weeks. All 1294 filters were successfully solidified into nine (9) -WMG 142 steel liners, and each was successfully disposed of as Class A Waste at EnergySolutions Disposal Site in Clive, Utah. Prairie Island's waste material was unique in that all its filters were packaged in 55-gallon drums; and since the station packaged its filters in drums it was much easier to develop packaging plans for such a large volume of legacy filters. For this author, having over 20-years of waste management experiences, storing and shipping waste material in 55-gallon drums is not immediately thought of as a highly efficient method of managing its waste material. However, Prairie Island's use of 55-gallon drums to store and package its filters provided a significant advantage. Drums could be mixed and matched to provide the most efficient processing method while still meeting the Waste Class A limits required for disposal. (author)

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DOE OSTI2021

On-line Waste Library Supporting Information

The On-Line Waste Library is a website that contains information regarding United States Department of Energy-managed high-level waste, spent nuclear fuel, and other wastes that are likely candidates for deep geologic disposal, with links to supporting documents for the data. This report provides supporting information for the data for which an already published source was not available.

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DOE OSTI2017

Tritium Management Requirements and Approaches for UNF Reprocessing

Four radionuclides have been identified as being sufficiently volatile in reprocessing of nuclear fuel that their release to the environment needs to be controlled to meet U.S. regulatory requirements. These radionuclides are {sup 3}H, {sup 14}C, {sup 85}Kr, and {sup 129}I. While iodine has been the focus of a number of studies due to the high decontamination factor (DF) requirements on multiple escape pathways, it is clear from prior studies that the control of tritium will also be a significant issue for future reprocessing plants, especially if processing relatively short-cooled fuels (<10 yr post-reactor discharge). Tritium contained in a used nuclear fuel (UNF) matrix will be released into the liquid and off-gas streams during fuel reprocessing. The amounts released into the process streams are a function of the type and burnup of the fuel processed and the chemical processes employed within the reprocessing plant. Previous studies have examined the tritium capture requirements for the reprocessing facility assuming that all of the tritium contained in the fuel matrix is volatilized in the head-end operations; i.e., tritium pretreatment is employed and tritium is completely released from the cladding. This scenario tends to limit the release pathway to the headend off-gas stream. Previous studies by Jubin and Spencer examined the accumulation and distribution of tritium in an aqueous-based reprocessing plant.

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DOE OSTI2017

Project Basis for Automation of a Quality Assurance System in Radioactive Waste Management - 17317

A low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste management facility is required to comply with Regulation 1.16 of the Brazilian National Nuclear Energy Commission 'Quality Assurance for the Safety of Nuclear Power Plants and Other Facilities'. However, the text of this regulation is very generic and does not address the more specific controls necessary for the management of quality. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to identify such detailed controls in all applicable activities of the facility and to provide an implementation plan in the form of flowcharts, for further development of an automated system. This work takes as a basis the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the rules and procedures implemented by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Waste Management related to Quality Assurance. In such way, we intend to provide a more reliable implementation system of quality assurance for the management of radioactive waste in Brazil. Keywords: radioactive waste; quality assurance; automated system. (authors)

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DOE OSTI2014

ER Operations Installation of Three FLUTe Soil-Vapor Monitoring Wells (MWL-SV03 MWL-SV04 and MWL-SV05) at the Mixed Waste Landfill.

This installation report describes the May through July 2014 drilling activities performed for the installation of three multi-port soil-vapor monitoring wells (MWL-SV03, MWL-SV04, and MWL-SV05) at the Mixed Waste Landfill (MWL), which is located at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico (SNL/NM). SNL/NM is managed and operated by Sandia Corporation (Sandia), a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/National Nuclear Security Administration. The MWL is designated as Solid Waste Management Unit (SWMU) 76 and is located in Technical Area (TA) III (Figure 1-1). The locations of the three soil-vapor monitoring wells (MWL-SV03, MWL-SV04, and MWL-SV05) are shown in Figure 1-2

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DOE OSTI2013

Integrated System for Retrieval, Transportation and Consolidated Storage of Used Nuclear Fuel in the US - 13312

The current inventory of used nuclear fuel assemblies (UNFAs) from commercial reactor operations in the United States totals approximately 65,000 metric tons or approximately 232,000 UNFAs primarily stored at the 104 operational reactors in the US and a small number of decommissioned reactors. This inventory is growing at a rate of roughly 2,000 to 2,400 metric tons each year, (Approx. 7,000 UNFAs) as a result of ongoing commercial reactor operations. Assuming an average of 10 metric tons per storage/transportation casks, this inventory of commercial UNFAs represents about 6,500 casks with an additional of about 220 casks every year. In January 2010, the Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC) [1] was directed to conduct a comprehensive review of policies for managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle and recommend a new plan. The BRC issued their final recommendations in January 2012. One of the main recommendations is for the United States to proceed promptly to develop one or more consolidated storage facilities (CSF) as part of an integrated, comprehensive plan for safely managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. Based on its extensive experience in storage and transportation cask design, analysis, licensing, fabrication, and operations including transportation logistics, Transnuclear, Inc. (TN), an AREVA Subsidiary within the Logistics Business Unit, is engineering an integrated system that will address the complete process of commercial UNFA management. The system will deal with UNFAs in their current storage mode in various configurations, the preparation including handling and additional packaging where required and transportation of UNFAs to a CSF site, and subsequent storage, operation and maintenance at the CSF with eventual transportation to a future repository or recycling site. It is essential to proceed by steps to ensure that the system will be the most efficient and serve at best its purpose by defining: the problem to be resolved, the criteria to evaluate the solutions, and the alternative solutions. The complexity of the project is increasing with time (more fuel assemblies, new storage systems, deteriorating logistics infrastructure at some sites, etc.) but with the uncertainty on the final disposal path, flexibility and simplicity will be critical. (authors)

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DOE OSTI2021

Demonstration of the On-the-Fly Shielding Analysis Method: Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition

This report documents work performed supporting the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition (SFWD) Integrated Waste Management activities under work breakdown structure element 1.08.02.04.01, “Data and Tools Development, Validation, and Maintenance.” In particular, this report fulfills milestone M3SF-21OR020401016, “Implement on-the-fly dose analysis methodology in UNF-ST&DARDS” within work package SF-21OR02040101, “Commercial SNF Characterization - ORNL.” The Used Nuclear Fuel - Storage, Transportation & Disposal Analysis Resource and Data System (UNFST& DARDS) enables automated dose rate calculations for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) transportation packages and storage casks using a Monte Carlo radiation transport code. The explicit method uses a detailed model of the SNF system and its contents. Therefore, a dose rate calculation is required for each as-loaded transportation package or storage cask because the SNF assemblies within a canister typically have unique irradiation characteristics. An alternate method, referred to as the “on-the-fly” shielding analysis method, has been proposed that requires only a set of Monte Carlo dose rate calculations for each transportation packaging/storage cask design. The results of the Monte Carlo dose rate calculations are independent of the SNF assembly irradiation and decay characteristics. The dose rate values may then be combined with the radiation source strength of the SNF assemblies associated with a particular transportation packaging/storage cask design to determine actual dose rates. This report presents on-the-fly dose rate calculations for a representative SNF storage cask and verification of the on-the-fly dose rate calculation results by comparison with reference dose rate calculations using the explicit Monte Carlo dose rate calculation. The on-the-fly shielding analysis method was implemented in UNF-ST&DARDS. A Python program was developed to process the MAVRIC dose rate results obtained by source particle type, energy group, and fuel geometry region. A Python processor created binary files, which were saved as a special UNF-ST&DARDS library for on-the- fly shielding analyses. UNF-ST&DARDS uses the precalculated on-the-fly binary libraries generated by the Python data processor and directly executes the Python code for on-the-fly dose analysis. This Python code unzips the pre-generated binary files mentioned above, reads the data, and combines them with user-specified sources for dose and uncertainty calculations. The Python programs were verified using Excel calculations and by comparison with the values obtained with the MAVRIC post-processing utilities applied to the 3dmap files. This method can currently be used to determine dose rates for as-loaded HI-STORM FW storage casks. The UNF-ST&DARDS analysis wizard for on-the-fly shielding analysis is described in this report.

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DOE OSTI2020

Systematic Analysis of Drivers and Barriers of Cross-Sectorial Learning Between Nuclear and Oil and Gas Decommissioning Projects - 20139

Project and megaproject management in the energy sector have historically focused on the planning and delivery of the construction of infrastructure. Therefore, policies are predominantly oriented to support the construction of infrastructure rather than its decommissioning. However, globally, several facilities have reached (or will soon reach) their end-of-life and need to be decommissioned. These facilities span across the energy sector, including nuclear power plants and oil and gas rigs, whose decommissioning present unprecedented techno-socio-economic challenges. Moreover, globally, their decommissioning cost is estimated to reach hundreds of billions of US dollars and this budget keeps increasing, with limited knowledge-transfer across industries to mitigate the spiraling increase of this figure. Cross-sectorial knowledge-transfer is a way to tackle this matter and improve the planning and delivery of decommissioning and waste management projects. The aim of this research is to build a road-map based on cross-sectorial industrial experience, designed to promote the sharing of good practices between projects both within and across industries dealing with major decommissioning and waste management challenges. To reach this aim, the tacit knowledge of senior practitioners on several large scale nuclear and oil and gas decommissioning projects is made explicit by the means of semi-structured interviews, systematically analyzed through directed content analysis. The results of this analysis include a list of good practices that could and should be transferred to nuclear decommissioning projects, including the need to promote the adoption of incentives explicitly linked to the project deliverables, and to develop long-term plans to support smooth transition from operations to decommissioning. Suggestions about how the knowledge-transfer can be promoted within and across organizations are also discussed. In this way, this research provides practical guidance for project managers and policymakers on how to support the planning and delivery of projects with improved performance. (authors)

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DOE OSTI2017

Proposal of a Categorization of the Disused Sealed Radioactive Sources with a View to Safe - 17285

In the Nuclear and Energy Research Institute (IPEN-CNEN/Brazil) many works to improve and develop characterization of radioactive waste techniques have been deployed by the Radioactive Waste Management Department (IPEN-CNEN/SP). In this line, this work aims to suggest a new categorization of sealed sources, which considers their activities, as suggested by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but also the time required for the activity to decrease to a safe value. We considered the sealed sources categorization system suggested by the IAEA and we applied such categorization system to various sources currently stored by institutes of Brazilian Nuclear and Energy Commission (CNEN). Then, we also applied the categorization system defined herein, it follows that the categorization system presented by the IAEA has many applications and their use should not be abandoned. However, since the new proposed categorization systems allow to differentiate sources that in the IAEA system are in the same category, they can help define the long-term management of radioactive waste. (authors)

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DOE OSTI2013

Development of a specific methodology to assess suitable sites to receive a repository for L/ILW waste in the Portuguese territory

Portugal does not have nuclear power plants but records an increasing production of radioactive waste from medical, industrial and research applications of radioactive materials in the form of sealed and unsealed sources; the country totals include also the spent fuel of one nuclear reactor for research purposes. Since radioactive waste management policies and practices in Portugal will have to comply with the Council Directive 2011/70/Euratom and the IAEA Joint Convention, the search for scientific and technological solutions to deal with radioactive wastes produced in the country started some years ago. The research carried out recently under the scope of a national funded project (KADRWaste, PTDC/CTEGEX/ 82678/2006) represents a firm step in this commitment. Indeed, the transfer of methodologies tested and validated in this project allowed for improvement to a procedure to assess suitable sites to receive a near-surface repository for 'Low and Intermediate Level Waste, Short Live and Long Live' (LILWSL, LL) wastes in Portugal mainland. Although the main stages of the procedure can be of universal usage, details were designed according to the intrinsic geological, geomorphic and meteorological features of previously selected target-areas. All the requirements exhaustively listed in many reports of the IAEA were fulfilled and, in addition, the application of mineralogical, geochemical and textural criteria is strongly advised. The proposed procedure is based on a 5 key-steps approach preceded by clarification of the boundary conditions to be imposed, which are crucial to the inventory of various compulsory technical requirements. This analysis requires the adoption of stringent criteria, many of them of multidisciplinary nature, including tests of vulnerability and assessment of uncertainty, besides the environmental impact risk. As a result, priority targets that are not excluded will integrate different classes and, depending on the existing knowledge, it will be possible to select locations suitable for the repository installation, taking into account also the political, social and administrative dimensions behind this decision. (authors)

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DOE OSTI2017

Marine litter from beach-based sources: Case study of an Eastern Mediterranean coastal town

Highlights: • This paper reports and analyzes survey data for those interested in marine litter. • Bathing beach activities must be a high priority as a point of intervention. • Beach-goers must be encouraged to take an active role in keeping beaches clean. •Plastic fragments should be targeted as a first priority for prevention (& cleanup). • Non-plastic litter varies greatly from place to place along Mediterranean shores. - Abstract: Marine litter has been a serious and growing problem for some decades now. Yet, there is still much speculation among researchers, policy makers and planners about how to tackle marine litter from land-based sources. This paper provides insights into approaches for managing marine litter by reporting and analyzing survey results of litter dispersal and makeup from three areas along an Arab-Israeli coastal town in view of other recent studies conducted around the Mediterranean Sea. Based on our results and analysis, we posit that bathing beach activities should be a high priority for waste managers as a point of intervention and beach-goers must be encouraged to take a more active role in keeping beaches clean. Further, plastic fragments on the beach should be targeted as a first priority for prevention (and cleanup) of marine litter with plastic bottle caps being a high priority to be targeted among plastics. More survey research is needed on non-plastic litter composition for which amounts and geographic dispersal in the region vary greatly from place to place along Mediterranean shores. In general, findings of this study lead us to recommend exploring persuasive beach trash can design coupled with greater enforcement for short term waste management intervention while considering the local socio-economic and institutional context further for long-term efforts.

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DOE OSTI2012

Laboratory Report on the Removal of Pertechnetate From Tank 241-AN-105 Simulant using Purolite A530E

This effort falls under the technetium management initiative and will provide data for those who will make decisions regarding the handling and disposition of technetium. To that end, the objective of this effort is to challenge Purolite® A530E against a double-shell tank simulant from tank 241-AN-105 spiked with pertechnetate (TcO 4 - ). The Purolite® A530E is commercially available and is currently being used at the 200 West Pump and Treat Groundwater Treatment Plant to remove pertechnetate. It has been demonstrated that Purolite® A530E is highly effective in removing TcO 4 - from a water matrix. Purolite® A530E is the commercial product of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Biquat™ resin. Further work has demonstrated that technetium-loaded A530E achieves a leachability index in Cast Stone of 12.5 (RPP-RPT-39195, Assessment of Technetium Leachability in Cement-Stabilized Basin 43 Groundwater Brine).

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DOE OSTI2018

Maintenance Plan for the Composite Analysis of the Hanford Site, Southeast Washington.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) manuals for radioactive waste management, DOE M 435.1-1 Chg 21 and DOE-STD-5002-2017, require that the Hanford Site maintain site performance assessments and composite analyses (CAs). This document describes the plan for maintaining the CA that supports waste disposal and remedial actions for the Hanford Site. An initial CA of the site was issued in 1998, conditionally approved in 1999, received further analysis to satisfy conditions in an addendum in 2001, and was approved in 2002. This document meets the maintenance plan requirements described in DOE M 435.1-1 Chg 2 and DOE-STD-5002-2017 and implements the requirements of the disposal authorization related to the CA for the U.S. Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office, the responsible field office, and its contractors.

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DOE OSTI2018

FY2017 Savannah River Site composite analysis annual review

The FY2017 Department of Energy (DOE) Order 435.1, Radioactive Waste Management (DOE 1999c), Annual Review for the Savannah River Site (SRS) Composite Analysis (CA) is documented, herein.

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