The inventory of transuranic (TRU) waste at ORNL continues to shrink with the shipment of nine containers of waste to the Transuranic Waste Processing Center (TWPC) this week.
TRU waste is transported from ORNL to TWPC routinely as storage space at the processing center becomes available from processing and shipping waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. As these transfers take place, TWPC advances its mission of eliminating ORNL’s remaining inventory of TRU waste stored onsite.
Years of defense-related research conducted primarily at ORNL generated the TRU material stored on the Oak Ridge Reservation. The waste from these processes makes up the ORNL legacy TRU waste inventory that TWPC has been working to disposition since the mid-2000s.
The remaining TRU waste inventory requires specialized waste processing to repackage and certify that the waste meets storage requirements. Implementing the new TWPC Documented Safety Analysis will allow for processing more waste containers. That will clear inventory space to accept TRU waste containers from ORNL storage for future treatment and disposal at WIPP.
When waste drums arrive at TWPC for processing, crews empty them to process, repackage, and characterize the waste for shipment and disposal, freeing up additional storage space for the remaining waste currently stored at ORNL.
To date, TWPC has shipped 94% of the contact-handled waste and 78% of remote-handled waste to WIPP for permanent emplacement in the underground repository.
