The certification of transuranic waste

Transuranic waste results from the Department of Energy's (DOE) national defense and energy research and development activities. Transuranic (TRU) waste, as defined by DOE-Order 5820.2, is material declared as having no significant economic value, and contaminated with alpha-emitting radionuclides of atomic number greater than 92 and half-lives greater than 20 years, in concentrations greater than 100 nCi/g. Since 1970 DOE's policy has been to retrievably store TRU waste at six DOE sites awaiting disposal. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), under construction in New Mexico, will be a Research and Development facility which will demonstrate the safe disposal of radioactive waste from defense activities. Prior to shipment to WIPP the waste must be certified as meeting the WIPP waste acceptance criteria. This paper provides a review of DOE TRU waste certification activities at waste generating and waste storage sites. These activities include development and documentation of certification procedures, integration of waste generator activities, and the development of nondestructive examination equipment. Real-time radiography is being utilized to nondestructively identify waste contents, ultrasonics is used for verifying container integrity of waste packages, and passive and active neutron measurements are used to assay the waste package