30 research outputs found
Validation of the transportation computer codes HIGHWAY, INTERLINE, RADTRAN 4, and RISKIND
The computer codes HIGHWAY, INTERLINE, RADTRAN 4, and RISKIND were used to estimate radiation doses from the transportation of radioactive material in the Department of Energy Programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Programs Environmental Impact Statement. HIGHWAY and INTERLINE were used to estimate transportation routes for truck and rail shipments, respectively. RADTRAN 4 was used to estimate collective doses from incident-free transportation and the risk (probability {times} consequence) from transportation accidents. RISKIND was used to estimate incident-free radiation doses for maximally exposed individuals and the consequences from reasonably foreseeable transportation accidents. The purpose of this analysis is to validate the estimates made by these computer codes; critiques of the conceptual models used in RADTRAN 4 are also discussed. Validation is defined as ``the test and evaluation of the completed software to ensure compliance with software requirements.`` In this analysis, validation means that the differences between the estimates generated by these codes and independent observations are small (i.e., within the acceptance criterion established for the validation analysis). In some cases, the independent observations used in the validation were measurements; in other cases, the independent observations used in the validation analysis were generated using hand calculations. The results of the validation analyses performed for HIGHWAY, INTERLINE, RADTRAN 4, and RISKIND show that the differences between the estimates generated using the computer codes and independent observations were small. Based on the acceptance criterion established for the validation analyses, the codes yielded acceptable results; in all cases the estimates met the requirements for successful validation
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Radiation Doses to the Public From the Transport of Spent Nuclear Fuel
This paper reviews issues that have been raised concerning radiological risks and safety of the public exposed to shipments of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to a Yucca Mountain repository. It presents and analyzes the contrasting viewpoints of opponents and proponents, presents facts about radiological exposures and risks, and provides perspective from which to observe the degree of risk that would devolve from the shipments. The paper concludes that the risks to the public's health and safety from being exposed to radiation from the shipments will not be discernable
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Analysis of Maximum Reasonably Foreseeable Accidents for the Yucca Mountain Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)
Accidents could occur during the transportation of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. This paper describes the risks and consequences to the public from accidents that are highly unlikely but that could have severe consequences. The impact of these accidents would include those to a collective population and to hypothetical maximally exposed individuals (MEIs). This document discusses accidents with conditions that have a chance of occurring more often than 1 in 10 million times in a year, called ''maximum reasonably foreseeable accidents''. Accidents and conditions less likely than this are not considered to be reasonably foreseeable
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Radioactive Waste Management Complex performance assessment: Draft
A radiological performance assessment of the Radioactive Waste Management Complex at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory was conducted to demonstrate compliance with appropriate radiological criteria of the US Department of Energy and the US Environmental Protection Agency for protection of the general public. The calculations involved modeling the transport of radionuclides from buried waste, to surface soil and subsurface media, and eventually to members of the general public via air, ground water, and food chain pathways. Projections of doses were made for both offsite receptors and individuals intruding onto the site after closure. In addition, uncertainty analyses were performed. Results of calculations made using nominal data indicate that the radiological doses will be below appropriate radiological criteria throughout operations and after closure of the facility. Recommendations were made for future performance assessment calculations
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Understanding the processes governing climate variability and change, climate predictability and the probability of extreme events
The purpose of Research Theme 4 (RT4) was to advance
understanding of the basic science issues at the heart of the
ENSEMBLES project, focusing on the key processes that
govern climate variability and change, and that determine the
predictability of climate. Particular attention was given to
understanding linear and non-linear feedbacks that may lead to
climate surprises,and to understanding the factors that govern
the probability of extreme events. Improved understanding of
these issues will contribute significantly to the quantification
and reduction of uncertainty in seasonal to decadal predictions
and projections of climate change.
RT4 exploited the ENSEMBLES integrations (stream 1)
performed in RT2A as well as undertaking its own
experimentation to explore key processes within the climate
system. It was working at the cutting edge of problems related
to climate feedbacks, the interaction between climate variability
and climate change � especially how climate change pertains to
extreme events, and the predictability of the climate system on
a range of time-scales. The statisticalmethodologies developed
for extreme event analysis are new and state-of-the-art. The
RT4-coordinated experiments, which have been conducted with
six different atmospheric GCMs forced by common timeinvariant
sea surface temperature (SST) and sea-ice fields
(removing some sources of inter-model variability), are
designed to help to understand model uncertainty (rather than
scenario or initial condition uncertainty) in predictions of the
response to greenhouse-gas-induced warming. RT4 links
strongly with RT5 on the evaluation of the ENSEMBLES
prediction system and feeds back its results to RT1 to guide
improvements in the Earth system models and, through its
research on predictability, to steer the development of methods
for initialising the ensemble
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Office of Saline Water Reports
Rpeort describing the electrodialysis process as a possible practical means for demineralizing saline waters. The tests described in the report are used to determine the effects of operating the process under field conditions, to provide estimates of the cost of demineralizing brackish waters on a large scale, and as a means of planning further needed research in this field