Title:
Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR) Citation
Determination
Facility:
Hanford, Office of River Protection, Savannah River Site,
South Carolina, West Valley Demonstration Project
Point of contact:
Bill Hewitt, ORP
(509-539-7629),
Sonny Goldston/Jim McNeil (803-507-1310), Savannah River
Nuclear Solutions, Bob Petras (803-208-8091), Savannah River
Remediation, Laurene Rowell, West Valley Environmental
Services
Brief Description of Best Practice:
As a result of its nuclear materials production missions,
Hanford, SRS, and West Valley generated large quantities of
HLW. This waste resulted from spent nuclear fuel
reprocessing, that is, dissolution of spent reactor fuel and
nuclear targets and chemical processing to recover the
valuable isotopes. During management and processing of HLW,
a variety of tools, equipment, and materials come into
contact with the waste in some fashion. Through this
incidental contact, these items become contaminated to
varying extent with radionuclides in the HLW. The waste
incidental to reprocessing process in DOE Manual 435.1-1 was
established to determine whether such equipment and material
can be managed as LLW or TRU waste instead of HLW.
These three DOE Facilities developed a comprehensive risked
based Waste Incidental
to Reprocessing (WIR) Citation Determination procedure
that establishes an efficient process for making additional
determinations by the citation process that other materials
and equipment contaminated by HLW from site spent nuclear
fuel reprocessing are not HLW.
Why the best practice was used:
The SRS had been operating to a WIR Citation Determination
procedure that was out dated and cumbersome to use.
Updating the procedure with a sound technical basis
and an efficient process saved time and money in making WIR
citation determination.
West Valley was without an efficient WIR Citation
Determination as well.
What are the benefits of the best practice?
The benefits include: providing
employees with a procedure that is easy to use; a solid
technical and regulatory basis for making citation
determinations; saves time and money; and approved by the
DOE.
What problems/issues were associated with the best practice?
The WIR process is a highly
sensitive area at SRS and within the DOE Complex.
Since SRS had an existing WIR procedure, it was
somewhat difficult to get management priority to revise the
procedure. In
addition, two major contractors had to approve the procedure
that has different contract arrangements, responsibilities
and priorities.
How the success of the best practice was measured:
Success of the WIR process is
measured by the fact that waste that had been in storage at
SRS for years has been properly disposed.
In addition, the procedure was used at the West
Valley Demonstration Project to develop a similar procedure
for their site.
Description of
process experience using the best practice:
Consideration was
given to waste incidental to reprocessing procedures used at
the other DOE
sites that manage HLW. Only one site (Hanford) had updated
its procedure to reflect the lessons
learned in implementation of the DOE Manual 435.1-1
requirements and the DOE Guide 435.1-1
guidance.
In 2008, the DOE
Office of River Protection issued an integrating procedure
for waste incidental
To reprocessing
determinations (Hanford 2008). This procedure identified a
broad category of materials under the citation process that
routinely meet the criteria for disposal as non-HLW. It used
the evaluation process to demonstrate the technical basis
for use of the citation process for these materials.
In 2001, SRS
prepared waste incidental to reprocessing evaluations for
two types of equipment wetted by HLW in underground waste
tanks. One evaluation involved three slurry pumps used in
Tank 40
(WSRC 2001a).
The other involved a
telescoping transfer jet used in Tank 41 (WSRC 2001b).
Both evaluations
were approved by DOE-SR (DOE 2001) were use as part of the
basis for the SRS citation determination process procedure.
In April, 2010, DOE approved the SRS Citation
Determination and it was implemented to dispose of over 100
items of equipment, pipes, and pumps that were in legacy
storage.
In May, 2011, West Valley approved their WIR Citation
Procedure allowing for disposal of the balance of its
equipment.
Criteria at SRS
and other sites that manage HLW make it clear that most
secondary waste streams were not produced in reprocessing of
spent nuclear fuel, are not highly radioactive (i.e., will
meet waste acceptance criteria for disposal as LLW of TRU
waste), and do not require long-term geologic isolation and
are therefore not HLW.
ISM Core Function
2: Analysis the Hazard
