LANL TRU Feasibility Study

Location: LANL, WIPP

Client: US Department of Energy, Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center

In March 2017, Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) issued a task order to Sundance Consulting, Inc./Applied Nuclear Services, Inc. (ANSi) Joint Venture (SUNSi JV, LLC) to perform a Feasibility Study. The Feasibility Study examines options for managing Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) transuranic (TRU) waste currently stored at the Waste Control Specialists LLC (WCS) facility near Andrews, Texas. The purpose of the Feasibility Study is to investigate the viability of different options for managing, storing, treating, and preparing the waste for transport and disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico.

On February 14, 2014, a drum of radioactive waste from LANL underwent an exothermic reaction, ruptured, and released radiation into the WIPP underground facility; disposal operations at WIPP were then suspended pending investigation. WIPP is the nation’s only disposal facility for defense-generated TRU waste; WIPP’s operation is critical to remediating DOE sites across the country.

The reactive drum of waste at WIPP was generated at LANL and was from the same parent waste stream as the waste now in storage at WCS. The waste population was determined to be Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) D001-ignitability and D002‑corrosivity coded waste that poses significant health and safety hazards including the potential for severe exothermic reaction. With the application of these RCRA codes, the waste cannot be transported and disposed of as-is at WIPP, cannot be easily transported to another DOE site for treatment, and cannot remain in storage at WCS. There are 113 drums of this waste in storage at WCS.

The Feasibility Study examines:

·         Six options for management, storage, treatment, transportation, and ultimate disposal of the waste.

·         An initial engineering analysis of each option’s potential to accomplish the safe handling, opening, extraction, examination,                        treatment, and transportation of the TRU waste stored at WCS.

·         Feasibility of the implementation, the pros and cons, regulatory framework, and stakeholder involvement for each option.

·         Rough order of magnitude estimates of schedule and costs for each option.