Abstract
To support the Hanford Site clean-up mission, radioactive waste must be retrieved from underground storage tanks and immobilized. The nearly empty storage facilities in the tank farm operable units must be closed in a manner that is safe, environmentally sound, and cost effective. The Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (Ecology et al., 1996) established milestones for completing specified activities to carry out this mission that includes the closure of all 149 single-shell tanks (SST). Evaluating alternatives for waste tank closure and determining readiness for closure requires assessment of the long-term risk to public health and the environment from any residual waste left in the tanks and surrounding soil. Assessment of risk will be based on 1) estimates of the chemical and radionuclide inventory at the tank site; 2) predictions of the transport of contaminants; and 3) identification of closure performance criteria. This paper describes the technical approach for the initial phase of residual waste characterization at a representative Hanford SST (241-AX-104) in which waste has been removed to the degree practicable by past-practice sluicing, was known to contain highly mobile radionuclides, and is assumed to have leaked. Through the Hanford Tanks Initiative (HTI)1 (Root etal., 1997), technologies will be deployed and methods will be developed to estimate the residual waste inventory of analytes left in the tank. The initiative will also determine the location and inventory of tank waste that may have leaked into the vadose zone. Estimates of the variance on waste volume and mean analyte concentration measurements will be obtained to determine a confidence interval for the estimate of the analyte inventories. Results will provide input that is critical for establishing an acceptable approach for defining end-state conditions for tanks through technology applications, performance assessment, and risk analyses.
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Noonan, A.F. et al. (1998). Technical Approach to Characterization of Residual Waste at Hanford Tank Sites in Support of Waste Retrieval and Tank Closure Alternatives. In: Schulz, W.W., Lombardo, N.J. (eds) Science and Technology for Disposal of Radioactive Tank Wastes. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1543-6_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1543-6_9
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