DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM

This paper presents the overview of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Transportation Program (NTP). The program was recently restructured to meet the Department's projected needs for packaging and transporting a large volume of hazardous radioactive waste and materials. DOE's office of Environmental Management (EM) is proposing a strategy to accelerate site cleanup and to increase efficiency (DOE 1997). The strategy has a particular focus on completing as much of this process as possible in the next I 0 years. Integral to the successful implementation of EM's cleanup strategy, is the safe and economical transfer of radioactive and hazardous materials and wastes. Several types of materials and wastes, including spent nuclear fuel, uranium. plutonium. transuranic-waste (TRU), low-level waste, mixed low-level waste, and hazardous waste, will be packaged and shipped on-site, intersite, or to disposal. The safety of radioactive waste and material shipments is an important issue to stakeholders and workers at the sites and along potential routes. The NfP addresses crosscutting issues, including transportation and packaging logistic management, routing of shipments, emergency preparedness, and impacts along the shipping corridors.