VOLUME AND ACTIVITY OF BURIED TRANSURANIC-CONTAMINATED WASTES AT U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY FACILITIES

• Published in: Health physics (1958) Vol. 82; no. 1; pp. 4 - 13
• Main Authors: Peterson, John M, MacDonell, Margaret M, Longo, Thomas P, Harvill, Joe P, Drez, Paul E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hagerstown, MD Health Physics Society 01-01-2002; Lippincott
• Subjects: Applied sciences; ENERGY FACILITIES; ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY AND ECONOMY; Exact sciences and technology; GROUND DISPOSAL; MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES; MATERIALS; MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE; NATIONAL GOVERNMENT; NUCLEAR ENERGY; NUCLEAR WEAPONS; Pollution; Radioactive Waste; RADIOACTIVE WASTES; Refuse Disposal; Soil Pollutants, Radioactive - analysis; STORAGE; US DOE; VOLUME; Waste Disposal, Fluid; WASTES; United States; North America; America; USA; Nuclear safety; Heavy element; Human; Radioactive waste; Pollution; Uranium; Environmental policy; Pollution source inventory; Management; Plutonium; Public health
• ISSN: 0017-9078; 1538-5159
• DOI: 10.1097/00004032-200201000-00003

From the 1940’s through the 1970’s, radioactive wastes meeting the current definition of transuranic wastes were disposed of by shallow land burial and other techniques at a number of sites owned and operated by the federal government in support of the nuclear weapons program. After transuranic wastes were identified as a separate category of radioactive wastes (distinct from low-level wastes) in 1970 by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, they were generally segregated and placed in retrievable storage pending the availability of a geologic repository. Updated information on buried transuranic wastes was recently developed to support future decisions on how to manage these materials. This paper summarizes the approach used to develop this information for U.S. Department of Energy facilities and presents the volumes and transuranic activities of these wastes. The total volume of buried transuranic wastes at DOE sites is approximately 126,000 m with a much smaller volume (about 11,000 m) disposed of at intermediate depths. The reported transuranic activity in these previously disposed of wastes is about 28,000 TBq.