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The Challenge of Management of RDD Waste from Early Phase Decontamination
Citation:
Boe, T., P. Lemieux, D. Schultheisz, T. Peake, AND C. Hayes. The Challenge of Management of RDD Waste from Early Phase Decontamination. To be Presented at US-IS RDD Symposium, Washington, DC, May 16 - 17, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
In the planning and preparedness stages for a response to a radiological incident, it is important to include waste management considerations when developing the decontamination/demolition/cleanup approach because waste management can be a driver for time and cost for return to normalcy. Waste management is also inextricably linked to the geography and urban footprint of the impacted area. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Waste Estimation Support Tool (WEST) is a novel application based on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazus-MH software. WEST enables users to estimate the characteristics, amount, and residual radioactivity of waste generated from remediation and cleanup activities after a radiological incident, including incidents caused by radiological dispersal devices and improvised nuclear devices, as well as nuclear power plant accidents. These waste estimates are generated as a function of user-defined decontamination strategies and are specific to a geographic location. This presentation will highlight the importance of considering waste early on during recovery, the recently released version 3 update to WEST, and how differences in geography and urban footprints can impact the waste that is generated.
Description:
Slide Presentation