Open AccessA facility design for repackaging ORNL CH-TRU legacy waste in Building 3525
Author(s) -
T.J. Huxford,
Richard Cooper,
Lynn E. Davis,
Al Fuller,
W.A. Gabbard,
Roberta H. Smith,
Kenneth P. Guay,
L.C. Smith
Publication year - 1995
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/82479
Subject(s) - oak ridge national laboratory , waste management , radioactive waste , environmental science , national laboratory , mixed waste , engineering , physics , engineering physics , nuclear physics
For the last 25 years, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has conducted operations which have generated solid, contact-handled transuranic (CH-TRU) waste. At present the CH-TRU waste inventory at ORNL is about 3400 55-gal drums retrievably stored in RCRA-permitted, aboveground facilities. Of the 3400 drums, approximately 2600 drums will need to be repackaged. The current US Department of Energy (DOE) strategy for disposal of these drums is to transport them to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico which only accepts TRU waste that meets a very specific set of criteria documented in the WIPP-WAC (waste acceptance criteria). This report describes activities that were performed from January 1994 to May 1995 associated with the design and preparation of an existing facility for repackaging and certifying some or all of the CH-TRU drums at ORNL to meet the WIPP-WAC. For this study, the Irradiated Fuel Examination Laboratory (IFEL) in Building 3525 was selected as the reference facility for modification. These design activities were terminated in May 1995 as more attractive options for CH-TRU waste repackaging were considered to be available. As a result, this document serves as a final report of those design activities