Packaging design criteria (onsite) project W-520 immobilized low-activity waste transportation system

Abstract

A plan is currently in place to process the high-level radioactive wastes that resulted from uranium and plutonium recovery operations from Spent Nuclear Fuel at the Hanford Site, Richland, Washington. Currently, millions of gallons of high-level radioactive waste in the form of liquids, sludges, and saltcake are stored in many large underground tanks onsite. This waste will be processed and separated into high-level and low-activity fractions. Both fractions will then be vitrified (i.e., blended with molten borosilicate glass) in order to encapsulate the toxic radionuclides. The immobilized low-activity waste (ILAW) glass will be poured into LAW canisters, allowed to cool and harden to solid form, sealed by welding, and then transported to a double-lined trench in the 200 East Area for permanent disposal. This document presents the packaging design criteria (PDC) for an onsite LAW transportation system, which includes the ILAW canister, ILAW package, and transport vehicle and defines normal and accident conditions. This PDC provides the basis for the ILAW onsite transportation system design and fabrication and establishes the transportation safety criteria that the design will be evaluated against in the Package Specific Safety Document (PSSD). It provides the criteria for the ILAW canister, cask and transport vehicles and defines normal and accident conditions. The LAW transportation system is designed to transport stabilized waste from the vitrification facility to the ILAW disposal facility developed by Project W-520. All ILAW transport will take place within the 200 East Area (all within the Hanford Site).