ENGINEERING SPECIALTY ASSESSMENT OF TANK WASTE COMPATIBILITY REPORTING

This Engineering Specialty Assessment was conducted to review the Tank Farm Waste Transfer Compatibility Program to assess whether the program meets the needs of accelerated retrieval and closure and waste feed delivery and to identify areas and methods for streamlining the program. The assessment was conducted in June 2003 and resulted in two findings and thirteen observations. The assessment results indicate that significant opportunities exist for streamlining the program by reducing the number of criteria requiring evaluation from 21 to 11, with only six of the criteria requiring evaluation for the majority of transfers. The assessment identified areas where existing criteria require strengthening to ensure that the risks of undesirable solids precipitation, from either waste mixing or waste transfer, are minimized. The assessment further identified opportunities for using existing engineering tools to simplify the calculations involved with preparation of waste compatibility assessments. The need to ensure that a revision to the waste compatibility program is prepared to align the program criteria with those that will be implemented with the DSA approval was also identified. Finally, the assessment identified that corrective actions are required to implement a tank-by-tank PCB inventory within the Best Basis Inventory and to ensure that sample data from external waste generators is entered into the TWINS database