The Impact of Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Policy on Biomedical Research in the United States (2001)
Chapter: Appendix A: Cost Trade off Analysis
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APPENDIX A
Cost Trade off Analysis
A decision to dispose of waste directly or to process it before disposal is principally an economic decision. For the biomedical-waste generator, decisions to proceed with treatment and disposition, including disposal and recycling can be governed by simple relationships. The decision to dispose directly is governed by:
DDC (V1) < fm {WTC (V1) + TDC (V2) − TTC (V1 − V2)} + OMC
Where:
|
DDC |
= direct radioactive material disposal costs for initial volume, V1 |
|
WTC |
= treatment costs to treat V1 |
|
TDC |
= disposal costs for reduced volume, V2 |
|
TTC (V1 − V2) |
= reduction in transportation costs by shipping the smaller volume |
|
fm |
= modifying factors that weight treatment options for institutional goals, policies or requirements. For an analysis based strictly on financial drivers, fm = 1. If an institution has limited storage space and offsite disposal is restricted, then fm < 1. If onsite storage is not restricted or if access to disposal capacity is not an issue then fm > 1 |
|
OMC |
= other institutional LLRW management costs |
|
V1 |
= is the untreated volume |
|
V2 |
= is the treated (reduced) volume |
This equation, no matter how complex the treatment option, allows for evaluation of direct disposal of LLRW versus treatment.
In reality the situation is more complex. Treatment may result in disposal of a reduced volume of radioactive material, recycle of some non-radioactive material, disposal of some non-radioactive materials
DDC (V1) < fm {WTC (V1) + TDC (V2) + TTCr (V1 − V2) + ODC (V3) + TTCnr (V3) + OMC − RMV (V4)}
Where:
|
DDC |
= direct radioactive material disposal costs for initial volume, V1 |
|
WTC |
= treatment costs to treat V1 |
|
TDC |
= disposal costs for reduced volume, V2 |
|
ODC |
= disposal cost for waste disposed as non-radioactive waste (V3) |
|
TTCr |
= reduction in transportation costs by shipping the smaller volume |
|
TTCnr |
= transportation costs for non-radioactive waste shipping |
|
fm |
= modifying factors that weight treatment options for institutional goals, policies or requirements. For an analysis based strictly on |
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financial drivers, fm = 1. If an institution has limited storage space and offsite disposal is restricted, then fm < 1. If onsite storage is not restricted or if access to disposal capacity is not an issue then fm > 1 |
|
|
OMC |
= other institutional LLRW management costs |
|
RMV |
= recycle metal value V4 |
|
V1 |
= is the untreated volume |
|
V2 |
= is the treated (reduced) volume |
|
V3 |
= is the non radioactive disposed volume |
|
V4 |
= is the recycled volume |
The relationship among the options of:
Direct disposal;
Evaluation and release for recycle with direct disposal of ONLY those materials not meeting the criteria without treatment;
Evaluation and release for recycle with direct disposal of ONLY those materials not meeting the criteria with aggressive treatment to minimize what is disposed as radioactive material; and
Costs for treatments, transportation, direct disposal, measurement and assessment of materials, and management should be carefully assessed and included in the analyses.
