Interim Storage of RH-TRU 72B Canisters at the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation

This paper describes an evaluation performed by the Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Operations (ORO) office for potential interim storage of remote-handled (RH) transuranic (TRU) 72B waste canisters at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The evaluation included the conceptual design of a devoted canister storage facility and an assessment of the existing RHTRU waste storage facilities for storage of canisters. The concept for the devoted facility used modular concrete silos located on an above-grade storage pad. The assessment of the existing facilities considered the potential methods, facility modifications, and conceptual equipment that might be used for storage of 400 millisievert per hour (mSv/hr) canisters. The results of the evaluation indicated that the initial investment into a devoted facility was relatively high as compared to the certainty that significant storage capacity was necessary prior to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) accepting RH-TRU waste for disposal. As an alternative, the use of individual concrete overpacks provided an incremental method that could be used with the existing storage facilities and outside storage pads. For the concrete overpack concepts considered, the cylindrical design stored in a vertical orientation was determined to be the most effective