Modeling the design and operations of the federal radioactive waste management system

Many configuration, transportation and operating alternatives are available to the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) in the design and operation of the Federal Radioactive Waste Management System (FWMS). Each alternative has different potential impacts on system throughput, efficiency and the thermal and radiological characteristics of the waste to be shipped, stored and emplaced. A need therefore exists for a quantitative means of assessing the ramifications of alternative system designs and operating strategies. We developed the Systems integration Operations/Logistics Model (SOLMOD). That model is used to replicate a user-specified system configuration and simulate the operation of that system -- from waste pickup at reactors to emplacement in a repository -- under a variety of operating strategies. The model can thus be used to assess system performance with or without Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS), with or without consolidation at the repository, with varying shipping cask availability and so forth. This simulation capability is also intended to provide a tool for examining the impact of facility and equipment capacity and redundancy on overall waste processing capacity and system performance. SOLMOD can measure the impacts on system performance of certain operating contingencies. It can be used to test effects on transportation and waste pickup schedules resulting from a shut-down of one or more hot cells in the waste handling building at the repository or MRS. Simulation can also be used to study operating procedures and rules such as fuel pickup schedules, general freight vs. dedicated freight. 3 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs