Risk Ranking of LANL Nuclear Material Storage Containers for Repackaging Prioritization.

The article asserts that the U.S. Department of Energy has no uniform requirements for packaging and storage of nuclear materials other than those declared excess and packaged to DOE-STD-3013-2000. The article describes a methodology for prioritizing nuclear material containers so that the highest risk containers are repackaged first. The methodology utilizes expert judgment to assign respirable fractions and reactivity factors to accountable levels of nuclear material at the U.S. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). A relative risk factor is assigned to each nuclear material container based on a calculated dose to a worker due to a failed container barrier and a calculated probability of container failure based on material reactivity and container age.