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The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is one of two design laboratories in the United States Department of Energy’s weapons complex, with over 60 years of experience in handling radioactive materials, and, consequently, in managing radioactive waste. Actinide research and development is conducted at the Plutonium Facility, which has been in operation since 1978 and is the major source of radioactive waste at LANL. The Nuclear Materials Technology (NMT) Division is responsible for operating the Plutonium Facility and has a dedicated group of personnel who manage radioactive and hazardous waste, and address environmental regulations. The NMT Division also oversees analytical support operations in the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Facility. Operations at these two nonreactor nuclear facilities generate a wide variety of waste that may be generally classified as sanitary, hazardous, radioactive, and mixed (both radioactive and hazardous). The expedient, cost-effective, and regulatory-compliant management of radioactive waste has been a challenging task, given the propensity for rapid change in the regulatory environment. One major asset is the availability of information on waste generation and characteristics in electronic form. To do so, the Waste Inventory Tracking system (WITS) was developed 6 years ago to collect and store this information. To record waste information in the field, technicians use handheld Palm Pilots®. These units are then docked with personal computers to transfer the data to WITS. The primary use of WITS is the automated generation of waste package data reports, which are used to demonstrate compliance with waste acceptance criteria and gain acceptance for waste disposal. The WITS data are also used to evaluate various aspects of waste generation and handling, and to track performance indicators. The WITS is a fundamental part of waste management in the NMT Division.

Programmatic operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory Plutonium Facility (TA-55) involve working with various amounts of plutonium and other highly toxic, alpha-emitting materials. The spread of radiological contamination on surfaces, airborne contamination, and excursions of contaminants into the operator’s breathing zone are controlled through the radiological protection program. A key element of this program is the proper selection of protective clothing. Re-useable, launderable protective clothing has been the standard for several decades. Over the years, radioactive waste disposal costs have increased and disposal options have become more limited. This has prompted the development of single-use, dissolvable protective clothing. Single-use, dissolvable protective clothing is under evaluation as a replacement for launderable woven textile garments at TA-55. We examined re-useable, launderable and single-use, dissolvable protective clothing, addressed management issues (residual contamination, cost, environmental footprint, quality assurance), and waste minimization benefits. Replacement of launderable garments with single-use, dissolvable protective clothing improves the safety configuration of TA-55 by reducing LLW waste generation.

Programmatic operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory Plutonium Facility (TA-55) involve working with various amounts of plutonium and other highly toxic, alpha-emitting materials. The spread of radiological contamination on surfaces, airborne contamination, and excursions of contaminants into the operator’s breathing zone are prevented through use of a variety of gloveboxes (the glovebox, coupled with an adequate negative pressure gradient, provides primary confinement). Size-reduction operations on glovebox equipment are a common activity when a process has been discontinued and the room is being modified to support a new customer. The Actinide Processing Group at TA-55 uses one-meter or longer glass columns to process plutonium. Disposal of used columns is a challenge, since they must be size-reduced to get them out of the glovebox. The task is a high-risk operation because the glass shards that are generated can puncture the bag-out bags, leather protectors, glovebox gloves, and the worker’s skin when completing the task. One of the Lessons Learned from these operations is that Laboratory management should critically evaluate each hazard and provide more effective measures to prevent personnel injury. A bag made of puncture-resistant material was one of these enhanced controls. We have investigated the effectiveness of these bags and have found that they safely and effectively permit glass objects to be reduced to small pieces with a plastic or rubber mallet; the waste can then be easily poured into a container for removal from the glovebox as non-compactable transuranic (TRU) waste. This size-reduction operation reduces solid TRU waste volume generation by almost 2-1/2 times. Replacing one-time-use bag-out bags with multiple-use glass crushing bags also contributes to reducing generated waste. In addition, significant costs from contamination, cleanup, and preparation of incident documentation are avoided. This effort contributes to the Los Alamos National Laboratory Continuous Improvement Program by improving the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and formality of glovebox operations. In this report, the technical issues, associated with implementing this process improvement are addressed, the results discussed, effectiveness of Lessons Learned evaluated, and waste savings presented.