Staff Reports
WC Monitor
12/18/2015
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management expects to need about 240 of the first-of-a-kind containers designed for storing some of the remote-handled transuranic wastes that have been processed and certified at the Transuranic Waste Processing Center in Oak Ridge but can’t be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant because of the continued shutdown of the disposal site in New Mexico.
Mike Koentop, executive officer of the Oak Ridge EM Office, said about 90 containers have been purchased so far, and are being manufactured by three companies in Tennessee, Colorado, and Idaho. He declined to specify how much they cost because the procurement process is still underway and DOE doesn’t want to impact the competition.
Koentop said the storage containers were designed by Wastren Advantage Inc., the former managing contractor at the Transuranic Waste Processing Center, because after the WIPP shutdown became prolonged officials realized there were no suitable storage containers available on the market for the RH solid wastes produced by operations at Oak Ridge.
Koentop said the containers are called “remote-handled overpacks,” or ROPs. About nine of them have already been loaded with waste and put into storage at a facility managed by URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), DOE’s Oak Ridge cleanup manager.
The containers were designed to provide shielding and protection from the highly radioactive TRU debris that will eventually be sent to WIPP. “The ROP is specially designed to safely and securely store processed remote-handled transuranic debris until it can be shipped for final disposal,” Koentop said in a statement responding to questions.
“The ROP includes layers of steel, concrete, and a thermoplastic inner liner, which is required to be water tight. After the ROP is closed, it is secured using steel bolts,” he said.
After the transuranic wastes are loaded into the containers at the processing facility, the containers are transported to the UCOR site west of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The high-rad wastes will reportedly remain in storage there until they are approved for shipment to WIPP.
“A lot of work went into putting the plans in place to allow for the storage,” Koentop said. “It’s a great example of an innovative solution to a challenge, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the partnerships we have in Oak Ridge.”
North Wind Solutions recently replaced Wastren Advantage as managing contractor at the Transuranic Waste Processing Center. The plan is to continue processing TRU wastes at the site, even though there is no date set for WIPP’s reopening. The uncertainty at WIPP is why the new waste containers were designed for potentially long-term storage.
