S-35 Decay-in-Storage Waste Surveys

["Sue M. Dupre" <DUPRE%PUCC.bitnet@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu>]

A pleasant Friday afternoon to you all!  We're preparing to request a license
amendment from the NRC to add S-35 to the isotopes we can put through our
decay-in-storage facility.  Our waste is presently stored in closed 4 mil thick
plastic bags (approx. 5 gallon sized bags).  When we're ready to do the final
survey, we pull a bag out of its storage container, flatten it as much as we
can, then do a slow G-M survey of the bag.  That's what we'd like to do with
the bags of S-35 waste too; we'd rather not have to remove the waste from the
bag to do the survey.  What do others do?  Do you worry that attenuation by the
bag will prevent you from seeing S-35 remaining in the waste?  Do your regula-
tors worry about that and so make you survey S-35 waste differently?

Thanks for your suggestions or comments.

Sue Dupre
Health Physicist/Princeton University
dupre@princeton.edu   or   (609)258-6252