[en] These proceedings are published to provide a record of the oral presentations made at the DOE Alpha-Contaminated Workshop held in Gaithersburg, Maryland, on August 10-13, 1982. The papers are transcriptions of these oral presentations and, as such, do not contain as significant detail as will be found in the reviewed papers to be published in the periodical Nuclear and Chemical Waste Management in the first issue for 1983. These transcriptions have been reviewed by the speakers and some illustrations have been provided, but these contain only the preliminary information that will be provided in the technical papers to be published in the periodical. These papers have been grouped under the following headings: source terms; disposal technology and practices for alpha-contaminated waste; risk analyses and safety assessments. These papers in addition to those dealing with legislative and regulatory aspects have been abstracted and indexed for the Energy Data Base

[en] The use of mathematical models in the calculation of dose commitments from transuranic wastes is discussed. The problems of uncertainties in raw data and variables in the application of models to the establishment of dose limits is also commented on

[en] The author reviews and discusses the history, approaches, and results of studies that have been carried out to define appropriate disposal limits for alpha-contaminated wastes, and the current regulatory situation. The results indicate: an emerging consensus within the technical community that transuranic waste limits should be raised to at least 100 nCi/g; parametric assumptions predicting maximum dose can be largely arbitrary; a wide range of results can be derived from reasonable assumptions; and the importance of the intruder scenario across the board

[en] The uses of energy, particularly electricity, to reduce human labor is discussed. Risks associated with energy production and consumption are considered. The real and perceived risks of nuclear wastes are emphasized along with suggestions for changing this perception

[en] This paper presents an overview on risk assessment, particularly as it applies to limits for alpha-contaminated waste. The general conclusions are: (1) no special characteristics of transuranic (TRU) waste justify its being a special category; (2) model calculations are largely subjective and can be influenced by the bias of the modeler; (3) ingrowth and concentration of TRU daughter products could be an important consideration in risk assessment. 13 figures

[en] During the safety analysis report (SAR) process at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), various release scenarios were analyzed to assess their impacts on the public health and safety. At the start of the project, it was determined that probabilistic risk assessment would not be used. Instead, consequence analyses assuming the probability of an event were performed. Three categories of analysis were used in preparing the WIPP SAR. These are: normal operating releases, accident releases, and long-term releases. Computer programs to evaluate the release scenarios are presented and results are discussed

[en] This paper discusses the concepts of confinement, particularly greater confinement of alpha-contaminated wastes of 10nCi/g background level, and presents cost estimates for greater confinement. One striking conclusion of the work at Nevada on greater confinement disposal is that the long-term cost of such disposal in a dry site with alluvial deposits and a deep water table may be comparable to the cost of near-surface disposal. 16 figures

[en] The author discussed cost-benefit methodology, based on an analog approach, for comparing the cost effectiveness of near-surface disposal and restrictive geologic isolation. Cost-benefit could be determined simply by dividing $3 million by the buried waste concentration (in nonocuries per gram). That calculation yields a value in dollars per man rem averted. Based on this, the TRU waste limit could easily be raised to 100 nCi/g

[en] An historical review is presented of radioactive waste manageent in the United States from the 1940's to the present. It covers waste generation, accidents, clean up operations, criteria for acceptable levels for materials released to the environment and focuses on the storage and disposal aspects of high-level and transuranic wastes

[en] In this presentation, the author reviewed risk assessment of the Savannah River project transuranic waste disposal, which indicates that the 100 nCi/g limit is reasonable and would provide a wide safety margin. Raising the limit to 100 nCi/g would, at that site, allow 10 to 30% of the stored waste to be diverted to near-surface disposal. He also noted that model complexity does not equal credibility. Model results must be considered relative rather than absolute. 20 figures