UN ITED STATES ENV I RONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY WAS H INGTON, D.C. 20460

Mr. J

. R. Strob le Manager. National TRU Program Carlsbad Field Office U.S. Department of Ene r gy P.O. Box 3090 Carlsbad, NM 8822 1 -3090 Dear Mr. Stroble : 

### FEB 1 1 2014 OFFICE OF AIR AND RADIATION

On August 15. 2013, the Carlsbad F ield Office (C BFO) requested that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (E PA ) approve , as a Tier I (T l ) c hange , the addition ofContact-Handled (C H) transuranic ( T RU) d ebris waste (S5000) from the Idaho National Laboratory (fNL) to the s upercompacted CH debris Waste Stream of the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory. T he app r oval request also in cluded characterizat ion of homogenou s solids (S30 0 0) at AMWT P. T he Ida ho Treat ment G roup (TTG) at AMWT P is respons ible fo r char acter izati on of CH TRU waste usi ng the EPA-approved C H TR U waste characte rizatio n processe s . The enclosed report (EPA Air Docket No

. A-98-49 ; H -A4- 1 80) discusses EPA's eval u a tion ofT! change information addressing acceptab le knowledge (AK) component of AMWTP's CH waste characterization program and our approval. As a resu lt , upon characterization. AMWTP may dispo se of the subject INL wastes at the Waste I solation Pilot Plant (W IPP).
I n October 2006, EPA initially approved the CH TRU waste characterization p rocesses at AMWTP (see EPA Docket No. A-98-49; U

- A4-66). S in ce then EPA ap pr oved AMWTP to c harac t e ri ze the f ollow ing sou rces of CH T R U wastes for WI PP d isposal : H anford (June 20 10, A-98-49; ll -A4-127). ANLE and MFC (J anuary 2013 , A-98-49; H-A4-169), INL-ex humed SDA deb r is as supe rcompacted BN

- 5 10 waste stream and sol ids (July 20 1 3. A-98-49; II

- A4-174). and LANL (September 2013. A-98-49; Il-A4-178). S inc e late 2011, lTG ha s been re spons ib l e for continued im p lementation ofthe E PA-appro ve d CH TRU waste characterization program at AMWTP for CH TRU waste for WIPP disposal. In April2013 , durin g a continued compliance in s pection , EPA verified that J TG comp l ies with E PA issue d a report which verified ITO 's continued compliance with EPA regu lations at 40 CFR 194.24 (see E PA Docket No. A-98-49; II -A4- l 73). I n 2012, th e Departme nt of E ne rgy deci d e d to utili ze AMWTP's CH TRU wa s te characterization program to process legacy waste from different TRU Sites to meet their court-ordered deadl i nes for cleanup of legacy waste. This change required Tl change requests. For these T I change-based wastes app ro va ls , EPA's focus ha s b een to evaluate acceptab le knowledge (A K) documentation that AMWTPI TG developed by incorporating AK and supporting hi s torical information pro vided by the host s i te (fo r exam ple, Hanford). EPA approvals allowed AMWTP-ITG to characterize the radiological and phys ical

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### contents of the above wastes i n accordance w ith the EPA-approved was te character izatio n prog ram. EPA may review pertine nt documents (for example, batch data reports) t o verify documentation and conformance during the next continued comp liance inspection. With past AMWTP Tl changes fo r add ing wastes from ot h er generator s ites, EPA received drafts of key AK documents (such as RPT-TRUW-05 thru 07 and 12). As a practice , EPA does not and cannot proceed with evaluation of draft documents whe n making approval dec isions

. Waste characterization personnel prepared drafts are s ubject to CCP and CBFO's review process and as a result , ma y change before being deemed as official public records. Therefore, we ex pect that CB FO ' s Tl change requests wi ll have acco mpanying final documents that are technica ll y accurate, properly vetted and can be relea sed as documents of record. If you hav e any questions regarding this approval , please contact Rajani Jo glekar at (202) 343-9462 or Ed Feltcorn at (202) 343-9422.

Enclosure cc: Electronic Distribution Doug Tonkay, DOE EM Alton Harris , DOE EM Joe Fr anco , CBFO Marcus Pinzel , C BFO NTP Tom Morgan, CBFO NTP Mark Pearcy , WTS

- CCP Ben Roberts, DOE ID Jerry Wel ls , DO E ID Dav e Haar, AMWTP-ITG George Byram , AMWTP- I TG Trai s Kliphuis , NMED Raymond Lee , E PA HQ Site Document s Si n cere l y,



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