PROCEDURE FOR PACKAGE ACCEPTANCE

This procedure is applied up and down the transport operation, by computer (most of the waste generators are connected directly to ANDRA through software designed specifically for this purpose).

It is broken down into four steps.

I.I Acceptance of individual package

In order, for a package, to be accepted by ANDRA, the waste generator gives it a specific number when it is made. This number corresponds to a file on the computer network which is created for the package, and contains the following information :

- its designation :

- its composition :

origin (ex. : process waste produced by the operation of industrial facilities) identification number

volume weight

waste nature (ex. : plastics, cotton, filters, ...) embedding (ex. : concrete, bitumen,...) - its radiological characteristics : * spectrum, date

* total activity

* activity of each isotope

* dose rate

ANDRA's computer checks that all these data are in accordance with specifications, and if this is the case, ANDRA accepts the package.

1.2 Validation of the shipment

When the waste generator has enough of the same type of package, to organize a shipment, he sends the list of packages included in the shipment to ANDRA.

ANDRA's computer then verifies that every package designated on this list has been previously accepted, and if so, validates the shipment.

1.3 Confirmation of the shipment

When the packages have been loaded on to the vehicle, the waste generator confirms to ANDRA that he is ready to proceed to the shipment.

The information related to the carriage is transmitted at the same time by the central computer, located at the headquarters of ANDRA, to the disposal center (both of the disposal centers are connected with this computer). That is to say :

- the reference of the shipment, - the waste generator,

- the packages : quantity and numbers,

- the characteristics of each package : weight, nature of waste, origin, spectrum, activity.

Furthermore, the transport documents, where all this information appears, are given to the driver.

Each package bears a double identification : - a clear identification (numerical), - a bar code label.

1.4 Contrôle of the packages upon arrival

Upon arrival at the disposal facility, each package is subjected to three checks :

- a physical check, in order to verify that the package has not been damaged during the transport, - a radiological check (dose rate, contamination), in accordance with the regulations for the safe

transport of radioactive material,

- an identification check (by reading the bar code with a laser system), to make sure that no mistake occured during the loading.

The storage of a package will not be authorized if any of these three checks reveals an anomaly.

This individualized and computerized tracking of the waste packages guarantees maximum safety, because :

- it allows ANDRA to verifiy, before storage, that each package respects the radioactive limits authorized for long life radioisotopes,

- it permits ANDRA to make different statistics about the level of radioactive stored (whole radioactivity for each waste generator, for each disposal structure, etc ...).

H. QUALIFICATION PROCEDURE FOR CARRIERS

In order to get the highest level of safety in road transports, ANDRA established a qualification procedure for carriers. Only the carriers qualified by ANDRA are allowed to carry the wastes to the disposal centers.

When a carrier proposes its collaboration, ANDRA supplies him with a file reminding it of the applicable regulations and as well ANDRA's own requirements, in particular :

- driving personnel (training - in France a special licence is required for driving vehicles loaded with radioactive material -, medical and radiological surveillance),

- vehicles (general condition, maintenance),

- specific equipment (securing, stowing, protection, intervention),

- transport conditions,(instructions for loading and unloading, accompanying documents, itineraries), - special instructions in case of a road accident.

An audit is then carried out by an approved organisation in the presence of ANDRA. If the carrier satisfies the obligations specified in the qualification file, he receives a certificate valid for one year.

ANDRA reviews each carrier prior to renewal of the certificate. Unscheduled verifications take place during the year.

Moreover, according to new regulations published by the International Atomic Energy Agency concerning the transport of radioactive material, quality assurance programs have been established by the carriers for transport operation. To assist them, ANDRA has drafted a quality assurance standard based on the ISO norm 9002, and on the French regulations for the transport of dangerous goods.

What are, in detail, these requirements that must be complied with ? n.l Drivers'training

This one week training is provided by the specialists of the French Atomic Energy Commission. It has been obligatory since 1979. The main subjects covered include :

- Basic knowledge about radioactivity. The different radiations.

- The regulations about the transport of radioactive material. The different types of packagings.

- The obligations of the loader concerning the preparation of the packages (dose rates, contamination levels, labelling, transport declaration).

- The obligations of the carriers (equipment of the vehicles, stowing rules, instructions in case of an accident).

At the end of this training, an examination is carried out. If successful, a four years licence is delivered to the driver. When this licence expires, he must take follow another training course.

n.2 Vehicle's characteristics

According to the qualification procedure, the vehicles which have to transport radioactive waste have to be equipped, firstly, in accordance with the general conditions required for all transport of dangerous goods, and, secondly, in accordance with specific conditions necessary for the transport of radioactive material. The former are :

- an uncontaminable platform,

oo

- a protective barrier between the cabin and the packages (lead screen), stowing schemes, specific to each kind of package transported,

two special fire-extinguishers (powder) - one for the engine and another for the carnage, - an emergency signals which include, mainly, lamps, chains and stakes for demarking a safety area

m case of the loss of packages, and panels ("Emergency - Radioactive" and "Accident - Don't approach")

113 Instructions for transport

The driver must have the following documents with him during the transport

- Instructions for loading and unloading (addresses, phone numbers of the loader and the consignee) - Instructions for completing the accompanying documents

- Instructions concerning itineraries and stops

- Instructions in case of an accident (concerning the signalization of the vehicle and also the notification procedure)

n.4 Quality Assurance

According to the regulations for transport of radioactive material published in 1985 by I A E A

"Quality assurance programmes shall be established for transport operations to ensure compliance with the relevant provisions of these regulations"

So, ANDRA set up a specific document for the earners which defines the requirements in this field The different items of this "standard" are

1 Generalities 2 - Definitions 3 - Scope of application 4 - Reference documents

5 Legislative and regulatory responsibilities 6 - Quality system requirements

Management responsabihties Quality system

Contract rewiew

Mastering of the documents Purchasing

Control of the transport's preparation Verifications, maintenance, checks Treatment of anomalies

Incidents -Accidents Transport documents

Handling - Storage of transport vehicles Internal quality - Control audits

In 1994, all the carriers qualified by ANDRA have a quality system in operation

Beyond that, ANDRA plays an important part of safety by maintaining a permanent staff, on duty night and day This staff knows the loading details of every vehicle and is able to give any necessary information about possibility and conditions of an intervention in the case of an incident or accident (every year, about 80 000 packages of low level wastes are carried in France)

INITIAL ESTIMATES OF SAMPLES AND RESIDUES REQUIRING TRANSPORT ARISING FROM THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY'S ANALYTICAL SERVICES PROGRAM

R.B. POPE, A BISARIA, R.D. MICHELHAUGH Oak Ridge National Laboratory,

Oak Ridge, Tennessee M.J. CONROY

United States Department of Energy, Germantown, Maryland

United States of America Abstract

This paper addresses initial estimates of materials to be packaged and shipped in the U S. as a result of the taking of hazardous, or potentially hazardous, samples for the purpose of analyzing the levels and extent of hazard posed by specific water, soils, materials, etc. at each site the U S. Department of Energy is responsible for The taking of such samples is required to facilitate remediation of these sites. The sampling process requires that samples be shipped to analytical laboratories and that unused portions of samples, residues from sample analyses, and any secondary waste streams also be transported away from the laboratories. Although the planning for and tracking of such shipments has not been completed, it appears from the data assembled to date that tens of thousands of shipments per year of samples to laboratories and associated shipments from laboratories following analyses can be expected. Many of this shipments will be mixed wastes. A number of packaging and operational issues have been identified and are discussed in the paper

INTRODUCTION

The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) has created the Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (EM) to address the diverse complex problems associated with the remediation of DOE sites The remediation requires the taking and analyzing of samples of hazardous materials, and then storing or disposing of the unused portions of samples, residues from sample analyses, and any secondary waste streams

Included in the EM office are two companion divisions that are playing vital roles in preparing for and monitoring and implementing the remediation process. These divisions are the Transportation Management Division (TMD) and the Laboratory Management Division (LMD) Because significant use of commercial sector laboratories is envisioned for performing the laboratory analyses [1], a large number of shipments

to and from the laboratories will be required The materials to be shipped will be generally hazardous, and many of them will be radioactive

The LMD has proceeded in its efforts and has issued detailed plans for proceeding further. This includes the development of a five year plan [1 ], and progress toward the scoping of sample needs on a site-by-site basis (e.g , see Reference 2). As a result, the packaging and transportation planning by TMD, in support of LMD, has now begun in earnest. The first step has been to start to define packaging and transportation requirements to guide the development of packagings for the future.

The initial efforts and findings, in terms of initial estimates of materials to be shipped are provided in this paper In addition, some of the major issues relating to package design which have been identified are briefly discussed

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MATERIALS TO BE SHIPPED

The scoping of the characteristics and quantities of samples needed for analysis and the resulting residues from the analyses is under way. The first estimates for the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), have been issued [2]. Data for the other DOE sites is not yet available, although some early estimates for a second site, the Hanford site in Richland, Washington are available, and limited estimates of numbers of transuranic (TRU) samples to be taken are also available.

A wide variation is being identified in the types of samples to be obtained, packaged, and transported to analytical laboratories The INEL study categorized the sample sources as "routine," "waste," and "other" as follows [2)1.

Routine Monitoring: samples made to satisfy air and water monitoring requirements. The INEL report indicated that these samples will be typically nonhazardous and, specifically, nonradioactive.

Hazardous Waste- nonradioactive samples that contain either toxic, corrosive, flammable or reactive chemicals or polychlormated biphenyls (PCBs) above limits defined by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Radioactive Waste: radioactive samples that contain source, special nuclear, or by-product materials These are further categorized into low-level wastes (LLW), contact handled transuranic (CHTRU) wastes, remote handled transuranic (RHTRU), and high-level wastes (HLW).

Mixed Waste: radioactive samples that also contain chemically and/or physically hazardous materials. These are further categorized into mixed LLW, mixed CHTRU wastes, mixed RHTRU wastes, and mixed HLW

Other: samples required by remediation that are not covered by the previous categories

The hazardous, radioactive and mixed waste samples are, of course, uncharactenzed and may or may not hazardous; their exact characteristics can only be ascertained after shipment to and analysis by a laboratory Because of their origin and until they are properly analyzed, conservative approaches generally will be necessary in handling, packaging, and transporting them by the sampling sites. If there is even

o\o the slightest potential of hazardous materials being in the samples, personnel at the sampling site will need to assume the materials are hazardous and will therefore handle, package and transport them using a conservative approach. This will result in many of the samples being presumed to be of the mixed hazardous category.

In addition to the shipment of samples from the sampling site to an analytical laboratory, there will also be significant transport of materials from the laboratory to storage or disposal sites. Generally, the (1) unused portions of samples, (2) residues from sample analyses, and (3) any secondary waste streams will all need to be returned to the originating site or to some other site for storage or disposal. Because the materials resulting from the sample analyses will be known as a result of the analysis, the proper packaging requirements will be readily established for them. It is expected that many of these will be of the mixed waste category. Also, the contents of the unused portion of the samples will have be known as a result of the characterization, and the proper packaging and transportation requirements will be readily established for them.

ESTIMATED QUANTITIES AND TYPES OF MIXED WASTES AND OTHER MATERIALS TO BE SHIPPED

As noted above, the estimating of the quantities and characteristics of sample analyses to be requested by various U.S. DOE sites is under way. To date, first estimates for only one site, the INEL, have been documented. This evaluation for the INEL provides a first perspective of the magnitude of the challenge to be faced.

The report for the INEL notes that "the annual number of analytical requests from the INEL programs may be biased low." [2] That is, the number of analytical requests will probably be higher than those shown in the report. The following three subsections, which summarize the perspective for the INEL site, are derived from Ref.

2; preliminary, unpublished data for the Hanford site; and preliminary, unpublished data for all shipments of TRU wastes, DDE-wide.

Quantities for the INEL

Reference 2 documents the number of analytical sample requests, not the number of samples requiring shipment. It is expected that multiple analyses will be made from a single sample. Hence, the number of samples that will be shipped will generally be significantly smaller (possibly, on average, by about a factor of 10) than the number of analytical requests.

The data from the INEL evaluation can be used at this time only as an indicator of the magnitude of the task. The INEL study, which provides projected analytical sample requests per year, over a 10-year period for this one site, are summarized in Table 1.

These data demonstrate that, during the next 10 years, about 1.3 million analytical sample requests can be expected for the INEL site alone. Of these, 89 % (1,126,428 requests) will be categorized hazardous waste, either radioactive or mixed.

These are expected to be:

Table 1. Ten-year summary of projected number of analytical sample requests to be made by the INEL [2]

Radioactive,

Thus, from these data it can be readily seen that, at least for this one DOE site, the majority of the analytical requests are projected to be categorized as mixed waste and that the majority of these mixed waste samples will be mixed TRU wastes. The data illustrate that the number of potential samples that must be packaged and transported to analytical laboratories is certainly significant. The samples may be sent to DOE laboratories on the sampling site, to DOE laboratories away from the sampling site, or to commercial laboratories.

As noted previousry, many analyses may be obtained from a single sample. Also, multiple samples may be shipped in a single package. Considering the need for timely analyses and the need to ship unused portions of samples and secondary waste streams from the analytical laboratories, the hazardous/mixed/radioactive waste-material shipments involved in the sampling program for the INEL site alone could approach 100,000 over the next 10-years (i.e., about 10,000 shipments per year). This compares with 1992 DOE nationwide shipping activity of 23,000 shipments of all hazardous materials. Thus, the burden on the DOE packaging and transportation system imposed by sample analysis will result in a significant increase over current activities and capabilities.

Quantities for the Hanford Site

Data for the Hanford site have been obtained informally which show that the number of analytical sample requests for the Hanford site will grow from about 1 million in 1993 to 2 million in 1998. The radioactive nature of the samples for these determinations in 1998 is projected to be approximately:

Number of

<10 mrem/h and <100 nCi/g;

10 to 200 mrem/h and < 100 nCi/g;

> 200 mrem/h;

>100nCi/gof TRU.

Again, because multiple analyses may be obtained from a single sample and multiple samples may be shipped in a single package, the number of shipments involved in the sampling program for the Hanford site will be significantly less than the number of sample requests. Thus, as with the INEL, it can be projected that the number of shipments per year for the Hanford site associated with samples and analytical residues arising from analyses could number in the tens of thousands per year.

In addition to the samples required for the remediation of the Hanford site in general, an additional challenge concerns the shipment of core samples from the HLW tanks to analytical laboratories for characterization. These samples will generally require shipment in shielded casks unless the samples continue to be handled under special arrangements, on-site, at Hanford. The core samples are currently transported in 0.48 m (19-in.) segments. A minimum of two full cores are to be taken from each tank. Thus, if future shipping utilizes the 0.48 m core segments, and there are an average of five 0.48 m core segments per core sample, a minimum of about 1,770 core segments will require packaging and shipping for the 177 tanks at Hanford.

These shipments are projected to occur by 1998. In addition to the core segment shipments, the unused portions of the samples and the analytical residues also will require shipment from the analytical laboratories. In all cases, these shipments will be categorized as mixed wastes.

Quantities of TRU Waste Samples to be Shipped

Based upon preliminary, undocumented data obtained by the working group, the number of required TRU field samples required will grow from about 2300 per year in 1993 (based upon the 5,487 analytical sample requests shown in Table 1, where it is assumed that approximately two analyses are obtained per sample, all from the INEL) to more than 20,000 per year beginning in about 2003 (projected to come from multiple sites throughout the U.S. including the Hanford, INEL, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Rocky Flats, and Savannah River sites.

Thus, it appears that one of DOE'S major challenges will be the shipment of TRU waste samples.

ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN SHIPPING MIXED WASTES RESULTING FROM SAMPLING ACTIVITIES

A number of significant issues relating to the packaging and transportation of the samples, their residues, and secondary waste streams have been identified. A few of the key issues are discussed here.

Need for Efficient Chilled Sample Packages

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) imposes a requirement (40 CFR Part 136) [3] upon many samples that, from the time they are obtained until they are tested, they must be maintained at 4°C Lt_2°C). This requirement is imposed to allow for the evaluation of the presence of volatiles in the sample.

The samples, many of which could be mixed waste, must therefore be

The samples, many of which could be mixed waste, must therefore be

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