Revision to the Record of Decision for the Department of Energy's Waste Management Program: Treatment and Storage of Transuranic Waste

Riepilogo

The Department of Energy (DOE), pursuant to 10 CFR 1021.315, is revising the Record of Decision for the Department of Energy's Waste Management Program: Treatment and Storage of Transuranic Waste (63 FR 3629) issued on January 23, 1998. The Department has now decided to establish the capability at WIPP to prepare for disposal up to 1,250 cubic meters of contact-handled transuranic (CH-TRU) waste out of about 7,000 cubic meters expected to be received annually for disposal at WIPP. In addition, DOE has decided to increase the time that CH-TRU waste may be stored above ground at WIPP to one year and to increase the total above-ground storage capacity at WIPP by 25 percent, for a total of 152 cubic meters. Implementation of these decisions is contingent on regulatory approval from the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). Previously in its Record of Decision (ROD), based on the analysis in the Waste Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, DOE/EIS-0200-F, May 1997 (WM PEIS), DOE had decided (with one exception) that each DOE site would prepare its own TRU waste for disposal and store it on-site until it could be shipped to WIPP for disposal.