Clearance of materials from accelerator facilities

A new Technical Standard that supports the clearance of materials and equipment (personal property) from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) accelerator facilities has been developed. The Standard focuses on personal property that has the potential to be radiologically impacted by accelerator operations. It addresses material clearance programs and protocols for off-site releases without restriction on use. Common metals with potential volumetric activation are of main interest with technical bases provided in Appendices of the Standard. The clearance protocols in the Standard include three elements: 1) clearance criteria, 2) process knowledge, and 3) measurement methods. This paper presents the technical aspects of the new Standard, discusses operational experience gained in clearance of materials and equipment from several accelerator facilities at SLAC and examples as to how this Standard can be applied to benefit the entirety of the DOE Accelerator Complex. The clearance program requirements and protocols prescribed by the DOE Technical Standard have been used for recycling and reuse of large amounts of metals at several DOE accelerator facilities. At SLAC, approximately 2,000 tons of metals have been recycled. The types of materials released include cables, pipes, magnets, vacuum chambers and support structures for the accelerators and detectors. These recycling projects create values to DOE and SLAC and avoid costs of disposing the metals as radioactive waste