Waste Management


Remotely processing a waste box full of jumpers can take more than a week’s time. Pictured below is
just one of the 42 jumpers recently emptied onto the floor of the RHWF Work Cell during the processing of Waste Box J-1. The box contained equipment removed from the Chemical Process Cell in the mid-1980s. To process this type of material, the jumpers are sorted out and each one is lifted individually and brought to the work station for survey.

Waste Shipment Activities
Waste Management


In-cell analysis determines if there are hot spots needing decontamination. If so, in-cell tooling is used to operate a brush to remove loose contamination. Lead counterweights are cut off the
jumpers and segregated as mixed waste. The remaining piece of decontaminated equipment is packaged as low-level waste. While this task is tedious, processing the jumpers in this manner allows a
large portion of the debris to be disposed as LLW.


One of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) missions at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) is to dispose of project generated low-level radioactive waste at an off-site disposal facility.  During the period of 1987 until 1997, all low-level radioactive waste was packaged and stored on site with the majority of the waste stored in various storage facilities.  In 1997, the WVDP began shipping Class A low-level radioactive waste by truck to the Envirocare disposal facility in Utah.  In 1999, WVDP started to transport the Class A low-level radioactive waste by a combination of truck and rail.  Upon refurbishment of the rail line to the WVDP, a shipment was made solely by rail in September 2000.  WVDP has gained approval and is disposing of project-generated low-level radioactive waste at the Nevada Test Site.

The first shipment of low-level waste by railroad from the WVDP to Envirocare in Clive, Utah on November 30, 2000.
WVDP_Ariel


Additionally, DOE supports waste minimization and pollution prevention activities by reducing the generation of solid, hazardous, and radioactive waste; improving energy efficiency; reducing the use of ozone-depleting substances, and emission of greenhouse gases; buying items with recycled content; and increasing vehicle fleet efficiency and use of alternative fuel.