Resolution of the Long‐Term Performance Issues at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

Abstract

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a geological repository for disposal of U.S. defense transuranic radioactive waste. Built and operated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), it is located in the Permian age salt beds in southeastern New Mexico at a depth of 655 m. Performance assessment for the repository's compliance with the 10,000-year containment standards was completed in 1996 and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certified in 1998 that the repository meets compliance with the EPA standards 40 CFR 191 and 40 CFR 194. The Environmental Evaluation Group (EEG) review of the DOE's application for certification identified a number of issues. These related to the scenarios, conceptual models, and values of the input parameters used in the calculations. It is expected that these issues will be addressed and resolved during the first 5-year recertification process that began with the first receipt of waste at WIPP on March 26, 1999, and scheduled to be completed in March 2004.

Plutonium Disposition: Using and Explaining Complex Risk‐Related Methods

“…These federal standards, underscored by the 10,000‐year safety period, have steered risk modeling efforts in the direction of much more sophisticated PA analyses than otherwise might have been developed. The early WIPP PAs not only pushed development of risk assessment tools, but also made the U.S. government the responsible party (DOE), the regulator (EPA), and the model builder (Sandia National Laboratory; Helton, Anderson, Jow, Marietta, & Bashbivazo, 1999; Sandia, 1991; Silva, Rucker, & Chaturvedi, 1999; USEPA, 1985). Despite—or perhaps because of—their increased complexity, technically improved PAs have followed.…”