title: Health physics challenges involved with opening a "seventeen-inch" concrete waste vault.
abstract: This paper describes the various activities involved with opening a sealed legacy "Seventeen-inch" concrete vault and the health physics challenges and solutions employed. As part of a legacy waste stream that was removed from the former Hazardous Waste Management Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory, the "Seventeen-inch" concrete vault labeled 1-95 was moved to the new Waste Management Facility for ultimate disposal. Because the vault contained 239Pu foils with a total activity in excess of the transuranic waste limits, the foils needed to be removed and repackaged for disposal. Conventional diamond wire saws could not be used because of facility constraints, so this project relied mainly on manual techniques. The planning and engineering controls put in place enabled personnel to open the vault and remove the waste while keeping dose as low as reasonably achievable.
authors.affiliation: Radiological Control Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory, PO Box 5000, Building 860, Upton, NY 11973, USA. sulli@bnl.gov
authors.forename: Patrick T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pizzulli
mesh_terms: D003666:Decontamination / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis / Q000379:methods; D006283:Health Physics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D011850:Radioactive Waste / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D012307:Risk Factors; D017751:Safety Management / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D014481:United States; D018505:Waste Management / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D011850:Radioactive Waste