A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN NUCLEAR SOCIETY THE MAGAZINE OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT AND FACILITY REMEDIATION MARCH/APRIL 2007 High-Level Waste Artifact to Analogue Also in this issue: • Power Plant Decommissioning Update • WM '06 Best Paper WMShow ’07 Winners Issue SOLUTIONS by PatentPatent# # 7073676 7073676 PatentPatent# # 7073676 7073676 Patent#’s 5098364, 5110005 LiftPac™ RailPac® Transliner® We manufacture packaging.We engineer solutions. OverPac PacTank® LSA/SCO Wraps (800) 272-2832 www.pactecinc.com Spill Berms · Bladder Bags · Dewatering Filters · Lift Bags · Railcar Liners and Tarps · Overpacks LSA/SCO Wraps · Container Liners · Tarpaulins Editorial Staff A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN NUCLEAR SOCIETY Betsy Tompkins Publisher Advertising sales representatives Nancy J. Zacha Chicago: Kingwill Company, Inc., 664 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 201, Editor Prospect Heights, Illinois 60070 (Tel: 847/537-9196; Fax: 847/537-6519) Rhonda Carpenter Palmdale: Kenneth Jordan, 3210 Twincreek Ave., Palmdale, California 93551 Copy Editor (Tel: 661/273-5733; Fax: 661/273-5744) Chris Salvato Houston-Dallas: Jobson/Jordan/Harrison & Schulz, Inc., 18103 Mahogany Forest Dr., Spring, Texas 77379 (Tel: 281/376-2368; Fax: 281/251-8555) Desktop Editor San Francisco: Jobson/Jordan/Harrison & Schulz, Inc., 818 Fifth Ave., Suite 301, Jeff Mosses San Rafael, California 94901 (Tel: 415/721-0644; Fax: 415/721-0665) Advertising & Circulation Sales Manager New York, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C.: Media Marketing, Inc., 19359 Laurel Dr., Fairway Suite, Walton Hills, OH 44146 Erica McGowan (Tel: 800/237-3783; Fax: 440/232-8676) Advertising/Production Assistant Boston: Northeast Media Sales, 50 Monument Square, Boston, Massachusetts Bess Weglarz 02129-3415 (Tel: 617/242-3202; Fax: 617/242-8749) Circulation Assistant U.K., Europe: Andrew Baker, 59 Hillside Road, Ashtead, Surrey KT21 1RZ, U.K. (Tel: +44 01372 278411; Fax: +44 01372 278412) Europe: Doris Weinberg, Paris, France American Nuclear Society (Tel: 33 1 39 64 14 50; Fax: 33 1 39 64 14 50) Administration Radwaste Solutions (ISSN 1529-4900), Volume 14, Harold F. McFarlane Number 2. Published bi- President monthly (January, March, May, July, September, No- Editorial correspondence: Nancy J. Zacha, Radwaste Solutions, 1004 Langhorne Rd., Donald C. Hintz vember) by the American Lynchburg, VA 24503; 434/384-3305; fax Vice President/President Elect Nuclear Society, Inc., with business, executive, and editorial offices at 555 434/385-0751; e-mail: [email protected]. William Naughton N. Kensington Ave., La Grange Park, Ill. 60526. Subscription rate for 2007 is $42 for indi- Advertising correspondence: Jeffery R. Treasurer vidual members of the American Nuclear Mosses, Advertising Sales Manager, Rad- waste Solutions, 555 N. Kensington Ave., La Roger Tilbrook Society and $460 for libraries, companies, departments, and other corporate sub- Grange Park, IL 60526; tel. 708/579-8225; Chair, Publications Steering scribers (includes Class C online access; add fax 708/352-6464. Committee $140 for Class B online access); overseas subscribers should add $30 for additional ANS Headquarters: all numbers are in the 708 Harry Bradley postage and special handling. Single copy area code; accounting, 579-8205; data process- Executive Director price is $75 plus $10 for overseas customers, ing, 579-8223; executive director, 579-8200; as available. Inquiries about the distribution member services, 579-8266; officer and board and delivery of Radwaste Solutions and services, 579-8284; procurement, 579-8207; change-of-address information should be public communications, 579-8265; scientific Editorial Advisory Board directed to the American Nuclear Society. publications, 579-8216; standards, 579-8268. Allow six weeks for a change to become ef- ANS Headquarters–General Information Donald E. Clark fective. Postmaster, please send changes of address to Radwaste Solutions, 555 N. Kens- phone: 708/352-6611 A. Scott Dam ington Ave., La Grange Park, IL 60526. fax: 708/352-0499 or 708/352-6464 Ramesh Dayal Nonprofit periodicals postage is paid at La e-mail: [email protected] Audeen Fentiman Grange, Ill., and additional mailing offices. ANS Web Site: http://www.ans.org Martin N. Haas Copyright © 2007 by the American Nuclear Society. David W. Hayes Opinions expressed in this publication are Gerald P. Motl those of the authors and do not necessarily Ken Powers reflect the opinions of the publisher, the ed- Reprints of articles that appear in Rad- Michelle R. Rehmann itor, the American Nuclear Society, or the or- ganizations with which the authors are affil- waste Solutions can be purchased by contacting Wayne Witek, Procurement James S. Tulenko iated, nor should publication of the authors’ Supervisor, American Nuclear Society, Ruth F. Weiner points of view be construed as endorsement (708) 579-8207; fax (708) 352-0499. Ali Yazdi by the American Nuclear Society. 2 Radwaste Solutions March/April 2007 A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN NUCLEAR SOCIETY Volume 14, Number 2 March/April 2007 Wetlands management is now part of the continuing legacy of the old Fernald Feed Features Materials Production Center. The article beginning on page 54 looks at the role of public involvement in the Fernald site Cover Stories—High-Level Waste/Spent Fuel cleanup and restoration. Artifact to Analogue: Archeology of Arid Environments Points to Management Options for Yucca Mountain 22 Departments Archeology has a lot to tell us about the potential behavior of materials and structures during a high-level waste repository’s first 10 000 years. Editor’s Note 4 Comments on this issue Full Burnup Credit in Transport and Storage Casks— Benefits and Implementation 32 Headlines 6 Industry news Allowing for full burnup credit of spent nuclear fuel during transport can allow higher density packing of transport casks, leading to savings for high-capacity systems. Radwaste Solutions Subscription Information 15 Looking into the Yucca Mountain Controversy—A Book Review 44 Moving Up 76 A review of Uncertainty Underground: Yucca Mountain and the Nation’s High- People in the news Level Nuclear Waste. Index to Advertisers 77 ANS Membership Application 79 Other Feature It’s Business 81 A Decommissioning Wrapup: Commercial Reactor Contracts, business news, etc. Decommissioning Status in 2006 46 Calendar 83 The current status of the commercial reactor decommissioning projects in the United Meetings of interest States and the major milestones achieved over the past 12 months. On the Cover: Waste Management ’06 Best Papers What can a three thousand- Changing Public Participation at Fernald: Not an Easy (or Popular) Task 54 Fernald’s transition to the Office of Legacy Management will likely be more difficult year-old Egyptian glass than at other cleanup sites, in part because area stakeholders have 20 years already cosmetic bottle tell us about committed to this project. the potential performance of Science, Technology, and Workforce Innovations: Keys to a Successful D&D an underground nuclear waste of Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant 60 repository? The article D&D work at PFP is met with innovative approaches based on new science and beginning on page 22 give us technology and also on the creativity and motivation of the workforce. some clues. (Photo copyright: British Museum, London) Meeting Reports Whatever Happened to TMI-2, and Other Nuclear Waste Issues 68 Next Issue: A report from the American Nuclear Society’s Winter Meeting in Albuquerque, N.M. Low-Level Waste Waste in Its Proper Place 73 A report from the American Nuclear Society’s Winter Meeting in Albuquerque, N.M. March/April 2007 Radwaste Solutions 3 Comments on this issue ▼ Department Editor’s Note Too Many Choices? Shortly after the November U.S. bearably stressful. Need a box of ce- elections, which put the Democratic real for breakfast? The typical West- Party in control of both houses of ern grocery store offers a whole aisle Congress for the first time in a dozen of cereal choices: corn flakes, oat- years, I asked a colleague what would meal, shredded wheat, Wheaties, be the impact of having Sen. Harry Chex, Cheerios, plain cereal, sugar- Reid of Nevada, the champion oppo- coated cereal, chocolate-flavored cold nent of the U.S. Department of En- cereal, maple-flavored hot cereal. ergy’s Yucca Mountain Project, serve How does one used to dealing with as the Senate Majority Leader. My one or two choices of cereal make a colleague replied that I was asking the selection from so many offerings? wrong question. So, does the prospect of reprocess- The real threat to the Yucca Moun- ing, for example, take away from the tain Project, my colleague continued, need for a geologic high-level waste was not a little high-level opposition repository? The most sensible answer at the congressional level. Rather, he would be that, no, reprocessing does- said, it was the sudden increase in the n’t remove the need for the reposito- number of alternatives to a high-lev- ry, although it may delay that need. el waste/spent fuel repository. He But in the case of Yucca Mountain, listed onsite spent fuel storage, cen- which has suffered from so many de- tralized spent fuel storage, spent fuel lays already, does the prospect of reprocessing, and the Global Nuclear even more delays sound the death Energy Partnership (GNEP) project, knell? Is that the fear of the people among others. Are we going to store who have already given up to a quar- Have We spent fuel for a while, or aren’t we? ter of a century to the project? Are we going to reprocess the back- Editorial writers can seem unbear- log of spent fuel, or aren’t we? Are we ably smug, sounding as if they have Lost Sight going to reprocess future spent fuel, all the answers, pretending to be the or aren’t we? It’s these questions, and voice of reason amidst the din of of Our the uncertainties surrounding them, chaos. In truth, we editorial writers he concluded, that give those in- don’t have all the answers—in some volved in the Yucca Mountain Proj- cases not even a single proposal.