DEMONSTRATING ONSITE SAFETY FOR RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL PACKAGING AND TRANSPORT SYSTEMS

Packaging and transportation systems used to transfer radioactive materials and wastes onsite (e.g., within Site boundaries where public access is restricted and controlled) must provide an equivalent degree of safety to onsite workers, the general public, and the environment as would be achieved by meeting national standards. These standards are issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and are generally applied to shipments in intrastate and interstate commerce. The U.S. Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office (RL), and its prime contractor, Fluor Hanford, are developing new performance-based and risk-based standards for the design and approval of these onsite packaging systems used within the 1,450 km2 Site located in Washington State. The Hanford standards parallel national standards, but are tailored to fit the unique transport environment of the Hanford Site. The new system applies a graded approach to ensure high-risk and high-dose-consequence payloads are packaged and transported in packagings built with the necessary rigor to withstand normal and accident conditions, yet with enough flexibility to achieve operational efficiencies and cost savings. When package performance standards are not technically feasible or cost effective, a risk/dose consequence methodology is used to demonstrate equivalency to the national standards.