Performance assessment review for Department of Energy

The United State Department of Energy (US DOE) disposes of low-level radioactive waste in near-surface disposal facilities. Safety of the disposal operations is evaluated for operational safety as well as long-term safety. Operational safety is evaluated based on the perceived level of hazard of the operation and may vary from a simple safety assessment to a safety analysis report. Long-term safety of all low-level waste disposal systems is evaluated through the conduct of a radiological performance assessment. The US DOE has established radiological performance objectives for disposal of low-level waste. They are to protect a member of the general public from receiving over 25 mrem/y, and an inadvertent intruder into the waste from receiving over 100 mrem/y continuous exposure or 400 mrem from a single exposure. For a disposal system to be acceptable, a performance assessment (PA) must be prepared which must be technically accurate and provide reasonable assurance that these performance objectives are met. Technical quality of the performance assessments is reviewed by a panel of experts. A number of lessons have been learned from conducting several preliminary reviews of performance assessments. These lessons are shared among the various US DOE sites to improve the process of evaluating low-level waste disposal sites for long-term performance