RCRA Part B Permit Application for the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory - Volume 5 Radioactive Waste Management Complex

This section of the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) Part B permit application describes the waste characteristics Of the transuranic (TRU) mixed wastes at the RWMC waste management units to be permitted: the Intermediate-Level Transuranic Storage Facility (ILTSF) and the Waste Storage Facility (WSF). The ILTSF is used to store radioactive remote-handled (RH) wastes. The WSF will be used to store radioactive contact-handled (CH) wastes. The Transuranic Storage Area (TSA) was established at the RWMC to provide interim storage of TRU waste. Department of Energy (DOE) Order 5820.2A defines TRU waste as waste contaminated with alpha-emitting transuranium radionuclides with half-lives greater than 20 years in concentrations greater than 100 nanocuries per gram (nCi/g) o f waste material. The TSA serves generators both on and off the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). The ILTSF is located at the TSA, and the WSF will be located there also. Most of the wastes managed at the TSA are mixed wastes, which are radioactive wastes regulated under the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) that also contain hazardous materials regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Idaho Hazardous Waste Management Regulations. These wastes include TRU mixed wastes and some low-level mixed wastes. Accordingly, the TSA is subject to the permitting requirements of RCRA and the Idaho Administrative Procedures Act (IDAPA). Prior to 1982, DOE orders defined TRU wastes as having transuranium radionuclides in concentrations greater than 10 nCi/g, The low-level mixed wastes managed at the TSA are those wastes with 10 to 100 nCi/g of TRU radionuclides that prior to 1982 were considered TRU waste