Risk management of onsite transportation of hazardous materials

The US Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site has recently undergone a significant change in its mission. The focus of site-wide operations has been shifted from production to environmental restoration. As a result, there is a significant increase in quantities of the radioactive wastes and other hazardous materials to be packaged and transported onsite. In response to the elevated transportation activities, the operations and engineering contractor for the Hanford Site, Westinghouse Hanford Company (Westinghouse Hanford), is proposing an integrated risk assessment methodology and risk management strategy to further enhance the safe operations of the onsite packaging and transportation activities involving radioactive and other hazardous materials. This paper summarizes Westinghouse Hanford's proposed risk assessment and risk management methodology for onsite transportation of hazardous materials. The proposed Westinghouse Hanford risk assessment and management methodology for onsite packaging and transportation has three integral parts: risk assessment, risk acceptance criteria, and risk minimization process. The purposes are to ensure that the risk for each ongoing transportation activity is acceptable, and to further reduce the overall risk for current and future onsite transportation activities.