[en] The potential impacts associated with the transportation of hazardous materials are important to shippers, carriers, and the general public. This is particularly true for shipments of radioactive material. The shippers are primarily concerned with safety, security, efficiency, and equipment requirements. The carriers are concerned with the potential impact that radioactive shipments may have on their operations--particularly if such materials are involved in an accident. The general public has also expressed concerns regarding the safety of transporting radioactive and other hazardous materials through their communities. Because transportation routes are a central concern in hazardous material transport, the prediction of likely routes is the first step toward resolution of these issues. In response to these routing needs, several models have been developed over the past fifteen years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The HIGHWAY routing model is used to predict routes for truck transportation, the INTERLINE routing model is used to predict both rail and barge routes, and the AIRPORT locator model is used to determine airports with specified criteria near a specific location. As part of the ongoing improvement of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Environmental Management Transportation Management Division's (EM-261) computer systems and development efforts, a Baseline Requirements Assessment Session on the HIGHWAY, INTERLINE, and AIRPORT models was held at ORNL on April 27, 1994. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the existing capabilities of the models and data bases and to review enhancements of the models and data bases to expand their usefulness. The results of the Baseline Requirements Assessment Section will be discussed in this report. The discussions pertaining to the different models are contained in separate sections

[en] Over the past several years, planning associated with the National Waste Terminal Storage (NWTS) program assumed the use of one or two large, centrally located repository facilities. Recently, an alternative approach has been proposed which consists of the use of multiple, smaller regional repositories. In this report, several regional concepts were studied and the transportation requirements for the shipment of spent fuel to the regional repositories were estimated. In general, the transportation requirements decrease as the number of repositories increase. However, as far as transportation is concerned, the point of diminishing returns is reached at approximately one repository in each of three to four regions. Additional savings beyond this point are small. A series of sensitivity studies is also included to demonstrate the impact on the total transportation requirements of varying cask capacity, rail speed, or truck speed. Since most of the projected fuel shipments are to be made by rail, varying the capacity of the rail cask or varying average rail transport speed will have a major effect on overall transportation requirements

[en] This report presents a preliminary analysis of possible highway and rail transportation routes within Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico for shipments of spent fuel to the candidate repository site in Deaf Smith County, Texas. Two cases are examined for highway shipments. The initial case analyzes shipments following the Department of Transportation's HM-164 regulations for shipment of spent fuel. The second case analyzes normal commercial routes. Three rail cases are also examined. Each case analyzes potential routes that would be used based for different access spurs into the repository site. Two appendices are included which examine additional scenarios generated by restricting routes from passing through various metropolitan areas. The major finding is that most shipments to the Deaf Smith site will pass through Amarillo, Texas. There are few, if any, feasible alternative routes which would significantly reduce the amount of traffic passing through Amarillo

[en] Mathematical modeling of the logistics of waste shipment is an effective way to provide input to program planning and long-range waste management. Several logistics models have been developed for use in parametric studies, contingency planning, and management of transportation networks. These models allow the determination of shipping schedules, optimal routes, probable transportation modes, minimal costs, minimal personnel exposure, minimal transportation equipment, etc. Such information will permit OWI to specify waste-receiving rates at various repositories in order to balance work loads, evaluate surge capacity requirements, and estimate projected shipping cask fleets. The programs are tailored to utilize information on the types of wastes being received, location of repositories and waste-generating facilities, shipping distances, time required for a given shipment, availability of equipment, above-ground storage capabilities and locations, projected waste throughput rates, etc. Two basic models have been developed. The Low-Level Waste Model evaluates the optimal transportation policy for shipping waste directly from the source to a final destination without any intermediate stops. The Spent Fuel Logistics Model evaluates the optimal transportation policy for shipping unreprocessed spent fuel from nuclear power plants (1) indirectly, that is, to an Away-From-Reactor (AFR) storage facility, with subsequent transhipment to a repository, or (2) directly to a repository

[en] The Department of Energy has identified nine potential sites for a repository to permanently dispose of radioactive wastes. DOE has released several sets of maps and tables identifying expected transportation routes between nuclear reactors and repository sites. More recently, the DOE has announced three potential Monitored Retrievable Storage Facility (MRS) sites in the state of Tennessee. Obviously, if a large portion of the spent fuel is routed to Tennessee for consolidation and repackaging, there will be significant changes in the estimated routes. For typical scenarios, the number of shipments in the vicinity of the repository will be reduced. For example, with direct reactor to repository shipments, 995 highway and 262 rail shipments are expected to arrive at the repository annually. With a MRS these numbers are reduced to 201 and 30, respectively. The remaining consolidated fuel would be transported from the MRS in 22 dedicated trains (each train transporting five casks). Conversely, the MRS would result in an increase in the number of spent fuel shipments traveling through the eastern part of Tennessee. However, the operation of a MRS would significantly reduce the number of shipments through the central and western parts of the state

[en] A computerized transportation routing model has been developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to be used for predicting likely routes for shipping radioactive materials. The HIGHWAY data base is a computerized road atlas containing descriptions of the entire Interstate System, the federal highway system, and most of the principal state roads. In addition to its prediction of the most likely commercial route, options incorporated in the HIGHWAY model can allow for maximum use of Interstate highways or routes that will bypass urbanized areas containing populations greater than 100,000 persons. The user may also interactively modify the data base to predict routes that bypass any particular state, city, town, or specific highway segment

[en] This presentation consists of the following visual aids; (1) detailed routing capabilities of truck, rail, barge; (2) legislative data base for hazardous materials; and (3) emergency response of accident site Eddyville, Kentucky (airports in vicinity of Eddyville, KY)

[en] A report is given of several theoretical expressions based on mass transport phenomena that relate the radioactivity escaping from such solids to diffusion, dissolution processes, surface conditions, and radioactive decay. Representative available data for radioactive waste solids incorporated in cement, asphalt, ceramic, and glass media are analyzed using the theoretical expressions presented. These analyses show that an expression taking into account diffusion and concentration-dependent dissolution gives good agreement with the data for most of the products considered. In the main, these products can be categorized as waste solids of low solubility incorporated in inert matrices. The effective diffusivities obtained are in the range of mid 10^-17 to mid 10^-12 cm²/sec, the dissolution rate constants are in the range of high 10^-9 to low 10^-7 sec^-1, and the surface transfer constants are in the range of low 10^-4 to low 10^-3 sec^-1 for the products analyzed. Once determined, such parameters can be used to compare various waste products and to estimate releases from these products, in particular, long-term releases

[en] A mathematical model was formulated to describe the isothermal, steady-state diffusion and reaction of steam in a graphite matrix. A generalized Langmuir-Hinshelwood equation is used to represent the steam-graphite reaction rate. The model also includes diffusion in the gas phase adjacent to the graphite matrix. A computer program, written to numerically integrate the resulting differential equations, is described. The coupled nonlinear differential equations in the graphite phase are solved using the IBM Continuous System Modeling Program. Classical finite difference techniques are used for the gas-phase calculations. An iterative procedure is required to couple the two sets of calculations. Several sample problems are presented to demonstrate the utility of the model. (U.S.)

[en] In order to assess the impact of Away-From-Reactor (AFR) siting on the spent fuel transportation system, five different sites were studied: Argonne, Oak Ridge, Savannah River, Idaho Falls, and Richland. Transportation costs, cask fleet sizes, and radiation exposures received by transportation workers and the general public were calculated for each site. Results show that the eastern three sites are best. 5 figures, 5 tables