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TRU Waste Characterization and Decontamination

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TTP#: AL0-8-DD21; Tech ID: 2203
Project Overview
The Los Alamos Large Scale Demonstration and Deployment Project (LSDDP) addresses the characterization, decontamination and volume reduction of oversized metallic transuranically contaminated (TRU) waste currently in storage at the Los Alamos National Laboratory's (LANL) storage and disposal area, TA-54. The Los Alamos LSDDP reflects the cooperative interest of industry, government and academia to bring collaborative expertise and strength to DOE's TRU decontamination and decommissioning program at LANL and elsewhere within the DOE complex. The principal funding agency for this LSDDP is the Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) Focus Area of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science and Technology. This project supports the mission of the D&D Focus Area to develop, demonstrate, and deploy improved technologies and systems that solve customer-identified needs to decontaminate and decommission DOE's radiologically contaminated surplus facilities and their contents. LSDDP projects facilitate the acceptance, approval, transfer, commercialization, and implementation of the demonstrated technologies and systems.

The major objectives of this LSDDP are to:

  • Identify technologies that are ready for deployment for the characterization, decontamination and volume reduction of TRU waste/TRU contaminated metallic objects

  • Identify technologies that are ready for demonstration

  • Demonstrate those technologies with potential to reduce cost, risk, and schedule and that are amenable for direct field application at Los Alamos and elsewhere in the DOE complex

  • To the extent possible, compare technologies "side by side" with baseline approaches to evaluate their advantages (cost, risk, and schedule) and to refine or validate baseline assumptions

  • Capitalize on the combined corporate management and technical strength of private industry, government, and academia

  • Demonstrate a leveraged funding pool of federal and private monies via cost sharing to address issues of national importance

  • Provide ready access to demonstration results through an aggressive communication program.

Technology Description
The following technologies have been completed:

  • AeroGo Air Lift Pallet System (Tech ID 2396), which includes air casters, an air hose, and a pressure manifold distribution control box to 'float' loads on a virtually frictionless film of air;
  • Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System (VACIS) (Tech ID 2912), a highly penetrating gamma ray imaging system that provides a means to non-invasively image crate contents prior to crate disassembly;
  • Mega-Tech Blade Plunging Cutter (Tech ID 2953), to remove legs from plutonium glove boxes;
  • NT Vision System (Tech ID 3069), incorporated into LANL's newly developed security camera system within the PermaCon enclosure in Building TA-54, for record keeping during LLW packaging tasks; and
  • Mobile Characterization System (MCS) (Tech ID 2959), a mobile NDE system for large (up to 77' high, 77' wide, and 133' long) crates.

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