Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
8/7/2015
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) intends to resubmit to the Department of Energy (DOE) Field Office the Evaluation of the Safety of the Situation/Justification for Continued Operations (ESS/JCO) concerning safety basis limits at the Area G nuclear waste disposal site, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) spokesman Al Stotts told NS&D Monitor. The original submission was made in May. “The [ESS/JCO] has not been resubmitted because testing processes are being developed and executed to determine a better, more appropriate figure for the ‘Damage Ratio.’ This revised figure will be used to update the ESS/JCO,” Stotts said by email. He did not specify a date for the new submission.
A Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) site representative report released last week noted that LANL “is expected to withdraw and resubmit a revised ESS/JCO in mid-July” since its original submission “proposed crediting [pipe overpack containers (POC)] with a damage ratio of zero.” A site rep report from May noted that the ESS/JCO proposed “continuing operations through exclusively receiving [POCs] and assuming the contents of these containers . . . are unaffected by the wildland fire and seismic event.” However, personnel from NNSA, Department of Energy, and LANL found that this damage ratio assessment of POCs that hold radioactive waste is “inappropriate” and “not technically defensible,” the latest report said, although “the Transuranic Waste Storage Facility, currently under construction, had planned to use a [damage ratio] of zero.” The damage ratio, as defined by DOE, refers to the portion of material that could be affected by an accident, resulting in the release of radiation.
