INFORMATION -- DOE Radioactive Source Recovery Project

["Grimm, Joel P." <jgrimm@doeal.gov>]

INFORMATION:  DOE RECOVERY AND PROCESSING OF RADIOACTIVE SOURCES

Many RADSAFE subscribers read a message earlier this week concerning the
U.S. Department of Energy's PuBe Neutron Source Recovery Project at Los
Alamos National Laboratory.  The message addressed a new program
strategy being developed by DOE's Office of Environmental Management.
Please be assured that the potential changes in the project being
considered are to enhance public health and safety.  By making the
project more robust and efficient, we can handle unwanted PuBe sources
faster than before.  In addition, DOE wishes to assure State and NRC
licensees that these changes will expedite DOE's capability to take in
unwanted AmBe, and other radioactive sources.

Funding for this program has not been curtailed.  Rather, DOE is
re-evaluating the value of costly source processing, when other more
cost-effective disposition options appear to be viable.  In fact, this
project is slated for a significant increase in the fiscal year 2000
budget.  DOE simply has postponed some Fiscal Year 1999 activities until
a comprehensive and long-term strategy has been developed.

For several years, DOE's Office of Defense Programs funded Los Alamos
National Laboratory to accept unwanted PuBe sources which were then
destroyed by chemical processing.  The rate at which sources were
recovered was limited by our processing capability: a process requiring
specially shielded gloveboxes and remote manipulation.  Processing is
very expensive, and further limited LANL's ability to accept more
sources.  As DOE reviewed its long-range plans for this work, it became
clear that sources must be recovered at a much higher rate to meet
program goals and to significantly reduce the public health and safety
risk posed by these materials.  Chemical processing also generates
problematic transuranic wastes which pose additional technical and
regulatory difficulties.  

Although the transition of this program effort has just begun, we hope
to meet our existing commitments to source owners, and in the coming few
months accelerating the rate of acceptance.  We hope to offer a more
robust program with numerous options, and removing many more unwanted
sealed sources from the private sector than previously planned.  We will
provide more information on progress soon, and will use RADSAFE as a
forum for broadcasting relevant progress.  In the meantime, if you
require further information about the program, you may call the LANL
Program Manager at (505) 667-2347, or DOE's Albuquerque Operations
Office, Waste Management Division, at (505) 845-5463 or 845-4421.

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