Analysis of accident sequences and source terms at treatment and storage facilities for waste generated by US Department of Energy waste management operations

Abstract

This report documents the methodology, computational framework, and results of facility accident analyses performed for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Waste Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (WM PEIS). The accident sequences potentially important to human health risk are specified, their frequencies assessed, and the resultant radiological and chemical source terms evaluated. A personal-computer-based computational framework and database have been developed that provide these results as input to the WM PEIS for the calculation of human health risk impacts. The WM PEIS addresses management of five waste streams in the DOE complex: low-level waste (LLW), hazardous waste (HW), high-level waste (HLW), low-level mixed waste (LLMW), and transuranic waste (TRUW). Currently projected waste generation rates, storage inventories, and treatment process throughputs have been calculated for each of the waste streams. This report summarizes the accident analyses and aggregates the key results for each of the waste streams. Source terms are estimated, and results are presented for each of the major DOE sites and facilities by WM PEIS alternative for each waste stream. Key assumptions in the development of the source terms are identified. The appendices identify the potential atmospheric release of each toxic chemical or radionuclide for each accident scenario studied. They also discuss specific accident analysis data and guidance used or consulted in this report.