National Laboratories Voice Support for DOE's Proposed HLW Interpretation
ECA Staff | 6/6/2019
On March 25, six national laboratories sent a letter of support and assessment of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) proposed interpretation of high-level radioactive waste (HLW).
The letter, signed by the Directors of each laboratory, was sent to Energy Secretary Rick Perry and senior DOE leadership.
The letter reads, "The national laboratories are supportive of a revised interpretation for high-level radioactive waste and [are] willing to provide any resources to ensure successful implementation of the final policy."
The assessment concludes: "Based on the perspective of the DOE’s Environmental Management National Laboratory Network, the HLW interpretation provides the best path to accelerating the safe long‐term stabilization and disposition of a wide variety of reprocessing waste streams that exist across the DOE complex. The interpretation would provide immediate benefit to the health and safety of the worker, the surrounding
communities, and the environment, and would establish consistent, risk‐based approaches to the disposition of radioactive waste generated from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. In short, we strongly support the HLW interpretation."
Among their findings:
"The proposed HLW interpretation has the following technical attributes:
- Considers the waste’s radiological characteristics (which determine risk) and the potential disposal facility capabilities, consistent with settled Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) and IAEA policies and guidance;
- Requires deep geologic disposal for reprocessing waste with high levels of radiation and long-lived radionuclides consistent with NRC regulations and IAEA guidelines; and
- Reduces the risk profile to human health and environment because additional processing for removal of radionuclides from waste that already meets the criteria for safe transportation and disposal presents additional hazards and risk.
"Enactment of the proposed HLW interpretation provides significant benefits to safe disposition of legacy waste, including:
- Expands the number of disposition paths by basing the disposal method on the hazard level of the material;
- Utilizes existing licensed disposal sites with approved performance assessments to mitigate the risk from prolonged interim storage in aging facilities and structures across the DOE complex;
- Preserves scarce deep geological disposal resources for truly highly radioactive waste; and
- Recognizes the significant technological advances in waste characterization, waste form formulations, and the understanding of the performance of radiological constituents of concern in different disposal environments since enactment of the NWPA. These advances allow for more effective processing without compromising the safety of the environment."
View the letter and assessment here.
Read ECA's early review of the Federal Register Notices here in yesterday's ECA Update here.
For additional information, visit DOE's new web page on the HLW interpretation, which includes links to the Federal Register Notices and other useful resources.
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