A STRUCTURED METHODOLOGY FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT FACILITY ACCIDENT ANALYSIS

Guidance from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the performance of accident analysis in support of environmental impact assessments ca lls for a graded approach that considers frequencies as well as conseq uences of accidents, focuses on high-risk scenarios, and avoids boundi ng analyses that can obfuscate comparisons of alternative actions. Thi s guidance reflects the fact that at the heart of an environmental imp act statement is a comparative analysis of alternatives, including the proposed action; this analysis should address the environmental impac ts in proportion to their potential significance, avoid addressing ins ignificant impacts in detail, and focus analysis resources to be as co st-effective as possible. Accordingly, a probabilistic risk analysis-b ased methodology to satisfy DOE guidance was developed and implemented for the DOE Waste Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statem ent (WM PEIS). The methods are described and illustrated, and an outli ne of the computational framework is presented. This methodology, alth ough developed for the WM PEIS, is, of course, applicable to general s afety analyses. The implementation of the methods for the WM PEIS is s ummarized, and the extension of the methods to site-specific applicati ons is explained.