Decontamination and Decommissioning - doe-std-1136-20040197

DOE-STD-1136-2004

Guide of Good Practices for Occupational Radiation Protection in Uranium Facilities

10.0 DECONTAMINATION AND DECOMMISSIONING

At the end of the useful life of a facility, activities are undertaken to restore the facility to non-

contaminated status and permit its unrestricted use. These activities are typically termed

decontaminatio n and decommissioning (D&D).

Although uranium facilities are no longer useful and operational activities are no longer conducted,

measures must be continued to control the residual radioactivity. The decision may be made to undertake a

D&D program to minimize or eliminate long-term institutional control. This may be done in a variety of

ways, most of which may be termed D&D. The exception is converting the facility to some other nuclear

use. With the elimination of the DOE weapons production mission, more uranium-contaminated facilities

will require D&D in the near future.

This section provides guidance on establishing and implementing an effective D&D program. Major

topic areas include regulations and standards, design features, D&D program, D&D techniques, and D&D

experience. The following subsections concentrate on the radiation protection aspects of D&D at uranium-

contaminated DOE facilities.

10.1 REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS

The standards that apply to the decommissioning of a uranium-contaminated facility include

virtually all of those that were applicable during facility operations, plus some additional ones. The

occupational safety and radiation protection regulations, radioactive and hazardous chemical disposal

regulations, and transportation requirements are unaffected by the activity to which they apply.

No single DOE regulation covers all D&D requirements due to the wide variety of issues

encompassed by D&D. These issues include project management, environmental surveillance, health and

safety of workers and the public, engineering design, characterization survey techniques, D&D techniques,

waste management, and waste transport. The primary DOE Orders pertaining to D&D activities are DOE O

435.1,Ch.1, Radioactive Waste Management (DOE 2001b); DOE O 231.1A Environment Safety and

Health Reporting (DOE 2003d); DOE O 420.1A Facility Safety (DOE 2002). The DOE operations offices

may have implementation procedures corresponding to these Orders with which contractors will also need

to comply.

Section 5 of DOE O 435.1,Ch.1, Radioactive Waste Management, is the primary DOE Order dealing

with decommissioning of radioactively contaminated facilities. It requires that DOE organizations develop

and document their programs to provide for the surveillance, maintenance, and decommissioning of

contaminated facilities. Requirements are divided into the following categories: general, facility design,

post-operational activities, decommissioning project activities, and quality assurance. These categories are

discussed below in Section 10.3.

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