Transuranic wastes examples

Existing hazardous waste classification systems frequently include subclassifications of basic waste classes to facilitate waste management (see Sections 2.2.4, 4.1.2 and 6.6). Examples include Class-A, -B, and -C commercial low-level waste and remotely-handled and contact-handled transuranic waste. These waste subclassifications are not expected to be significantly affected by a risk-based classification system unless particular wastes would not be generally acceptable for the disposal using the intended technology. For example, there is no inherent incompatibility with the system... 

Large, complex facilities that process fissile materials present a special challenge to criticality safely specialists. As fissile materials pass through the process chain, failure of controls in one area may propagate to other areas. One such facility is the Transuranic Waste Treatment Facility (TWTF) planned for the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). This paper discusses the use of fault tree methods in the criticality assessment of such facilities by the example of the TWTF. 

A third source of aquatic plutonium is liquid effluent discharged from laboratory operations into ponds and streams. An example of this is a former waste pond at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pond 3513, that received liquid wastes with low concentrations of transuranic elements before it was retired. This impoundment has water quality similar to high pH natural ponds. 

Results on the first four examples given in Table 17.10 are from the literature [10, 30-32]. The last two provide the results on Ceramicrete waste forms. The transuranic (TRU) combustion residue was obtained originally from Rocky Flats. It was fully calcined for safe transport to ANL. Therefore, all organics and combustibles were completely incinerated, and that step enhanced the Pu concentration. The U-Pu oxide mixture was a... 

Hydrological models that treat fluid behavior in sedimentary environments that lie under some kilometers of overburden are likely to require much greater time spans than is customary in studying near-surface processes. The longer-lived isotopes of transuranic elements and their daughters present in buried radioactive waste will persist for several million years (Bredehoeft et al., 1978). An example of a substance that needs, in principle, to be retained indefinitely because of the strict limits set upon its allowable concentration in drinking water is nitrate, an anion that is unfortunately not adsorbed effectively by clays and other common subsurface minerals. 

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