Observations From The Certification And Oversight Of The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

Abstract

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed environmental standards for the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) used by DOE for disposal of defense related transuranic wastes. EPA implements those standards for the deep geologic disposal system at WIPP, which has been operational for over 10 years. The general environmental standards applicable to WIPP are set forth in the EPA's 40 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 191 Environmental Radiation Protection Standards for the Management and Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel, High-Level and Transuranic Radioactive Wastes. The standards are established for a 10,000 year compliance period. Compliance with these standards is determined, in part, by performance assessments that develop numerical results that can be compared to a numerical limit. These standards are implemented by site-specific compliance criteria standards (40 CFR Part 194), with EPA oversight of DOE. With ten years of experience, there is a trend of increasing calculated radionuclide releases calculated in multiple performance assessments primarily as a result of changes to parameter values.