Readiness Assessments for the Shipment of TRU from West Jefferson, Ohio

From 1943 through 1986, Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI) performed research and development work at its own facilities for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies. The most highly contaminated facilities, comprising BMI's Nuclear Sciences Area, are located on 11 acres in West Jefferson, Ohio. Three buildings in this area were used to study nuclear reactor fuels, fuel element components, reactor designs, and radiochemistry analyses: one building contained nuclear hot cells, a second building contained a critical assembly and radiochemistry laboratory, and a third building once housed a nuclear research reactor. The Columbus Environmental Management Project (CEMP), one of the DOE Ohio Field Office's radioactive cleanup sites, oversees the Battelle Columbus Laboratories Decommissioning Project (BCLDP) for the decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of BMI's Nuclear Sciences Area. The BCLDP mission is to decontaminate the Nuclear Sciences Area to a condition that is suitable for use without restrictions and to dispose of or store the associated radioactive waste at a suitable DOE-approved facility. During decontamination work, the CEMP is expected to generate approximately 120, 55-gallon drums of transuranic (TRU) waste, or about 20 truckloads. This TRU waste will be transported to DOE's Hanford nuclear facility in Washington State for temporary storage, prior to its ultimate disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). This paper presents a detailed approach for conducting readiness assessments for TRU waste shipments from any DOE site. It is based on demonstrating satisfaction of the 18 core requirements contained in DOE Order 425.1B, Startup and Restart of Nuclear Facilities, that are derived from the seven guiding principles of DOE's integrated safety management system