Management Challenges in Developing Performance Assessments and Effectively Communicating Their Results - 13612

The end of the Cold War has left a legacy of approximately 37 million gallons of radioactive waste in the aging waste tanks at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS). A robust program is in place to remove waste from these tanks, treat the waste to separate into a relatively small volume of high level waste and a large volume of low-level waste, and to actively dispose of the low-level waste on-site and close the cleaned waste tanks and associated ancillary structures. To support performance-based, risk-informed decision making, performance assessments have been developed for the low-level waste disposal facility and for the SRS Tank Farms. Although these performance assessments share many similar features, the nature of the hazards and associated containments differ. As a management team, we are challenged to effectively communicate both the similarities and differences of these performance assessments, how they should be used to support sound decision making for treatment, disposal and waste tank cleaning decisions, and in defending their respective assumptions to the regulatory community and the public but, equally important, to our own corporate decision makers and operations personnel. Effective development and defense of these performance assessments, and effective interpretation and communication ofmore » the results are key to making cost-effective, pragmatic decisions for the safe disposal of the low-level waste and stabilization and operational closure of the cleaned tanks and associated structures. This paper will focus on the importance and challenges in communicating key attributes, conclusions and operational implications within a company. (authors)« less