Estimated discard limits for plutonium-238 recovery processing in the plutonium processing building

This manual is intended as a basis for plutonium-238 recovery costs and as a guide for removal of plutonium-bearing wastes from the gloveboxes to be safely and economically discarded. Waste materials contaminated with plutonium-238 are generated from in-house production, analytical, process development, recovery and receipts from off-site. The contaminated materials include paper, rags, alpha-box gloves, piping, valves, filters, etc. General categories for all types of plutonium waste have been established by the ERDA and are reflected in this manual. There are numerous processes used in plutonium recovery, such as dissolution, ultrasonic cleaning, ion exchange, etc. One or more of these processes are needed to extract the plutonium-238 from waste materials, purify it and convert it to an oxide acceptable for reuse. This manual is presented in two parts: Part I gives a breakdown and brief explanation of the direct costs for plutonium-238 I recovery, derived from budget data. Direct costs include direct labor (operating personnel), operational materials and supplies, health physics direct labor, calorimetry labor, analytical labor, and engineering direct labor (total costs for Method I). Budgeted costs for labor and material were used in the derivation of discard limits. The data presented is then used to calculate the cost per hour for recovery, as it applies to the three different methods of calculating discard limits referred to, in this manual, as Method I (calculation stated above), Method II and Method III. The cost for Method II is derived by adding to the cost of Method I, payroll related expenses. Method III is then calculated by adding over-head expenses to the total cost of Method II