Multipurpose Storage/transport/disposal Packages for DOE Nuclear Low Level Wastes: An Emerging Need and a Regulatory Challenge

AbstractAs the United States embarks upon a major effort to clean up its nuclear defence facilities, a large quantity of low level waste (LLW) will be generated. This LLW must be managed and ultimately placed into final disposal. Much of this waste is expected to exceed certain limits defined in US regulations (Title 10, US Code of Federal Regulations, part 61) called Class C. The waste which exceeds Class C, called Greater-Than-Class-C (GTCC), poses a major challenge to waste managers. Each GTCC waste form must be placed into costly geologic disposal unless separate approval is obtained from the United States regulator to place it into less costly ‘near-surface’ land burial. Management of GTCC will also require, to some extent, storage and transport prior to its final disposal. A further LLW stream exists in the United States also stemming from the prior operations of United States defence facilities, viz. radioactively contaminated and irradiated scrap metal which has been accumulating over the past for...