§ 60.131 - General design criteria for the geologic repository operations area.

§ 60.131 General design criteria for the geologic repository operations area.

(a) Radiological protection. The geologic repository operations area shall be designed to maintain radiation doses, levels, and concentrations of radioactive material in air in restricted areas within the limits specified in part 20 of this chapter. Design shall include:

(1) Means to limit concentrations of radioactive material in air;

(2) Means to limit the time required to perform work in the vicinity of radioactive materials, including, as appropriate, designing equipment for ease of repair and replacement and providing adequate space for ease of operation;

(3) Suitable shielding;

(4) Means to monitor and control the dispersal of radioactive contamination;

(5) Means to control access to high radiation areas or airborne radioactivity areas; and

(6) A radiation alarm system to warn of significant increases in radiation levels, concentrations of radioactive material in air, and of increased radioactivity released in effluents. The alarm system shall be designed with provisions for calibration and for testing its operability.

(b) Protection against design basis events. The structures, systems, and components important to safety shall be designed so that they will perform their necessary safety functions, assuming occurrence of design basis events.

(c) Protection against dynamic effects of equipment failure and similar events. The structures, systems, and components important to safety shall be designed to withstand dynamic effects such as missile impacts, that could result from equipment failure, and similar events and conditions that could lead to loss of their safety functions.

(d) Protection against fires and explosions.

(1) The structures, systems, and components important to safety shall be designed to perform their safety functions during and after credible fires or explosions in the geologic repository operations area.

(2) To the extent practicable, the geologic repository operations area shall be designed to incorporate the use of noncombustible and heat resistant materials.

(3) The geologic repository operations area shall be designed to include explosion and fire detection alarm systems and appropriate suppression systems with sufficient capacity and capability to reduce the adverse effects of fires and explosions on structures, systems, and components important to safety.

(4) The geologic repository operations area shall be designed to include means to protect systems, structures, and components important to safety against the adverse effects of either the operation or failure of the fire suppression systems.

(e) Emergency capability.

(1) The structures, systems, and components important to safety shall be designed to maintain control of radioactive waste and radioactive effluents, and permit prompt termination of operations and evacuation of personnel during an emergency.

(2) The geologic repository operations area shall be designed to include onsite facilities and services that ensure a safe and timely response to emergency conditions and that facilitate the use of available offsite services (such as fire, police, medical, and ambulance service) that may aid in recovery from emergencies.

(f) Utility services.

(1) Each utility service system that is important to safety shall be designed so that essential safety functions can be performed, assuming occurrence of the design basis events.

(2) The utility services important to safety shall include redundant systems to the extent necessary to maintain, with adequate capacity, the ability to perform their safety functions.

(3) Provisions shall be made so that, if there is a loss of the primary electric power source or circuit, reliable and timely emergency power can be provided to instruments, utility service systems, and operating systems, including alarm systems, important to safety.

(g) Inspection, testing, and maintenance. The structures, systems, and components important to safety shall be designed to permit periodic inspection, testing, and maintenance, as necessary, to ensure their continued functioning and readiness.

(h) Criticality control. All systems for processing, transporting, handling, storage, retrieval, emplacement, and isolation of radioactive waste shall be designed to ensure that nuclear criticality is not possible unless at least two unlikely, independent, and concurrent or sequential changes have occurred in the conditions essential to nuclear criticality safety. Each system must be designed for criticality safety assuming occurrence of design basis events. The calculated effective multiplication factor (k_eff) must be sufficiently below unity to show at least a 5 percent margin, after allowance for the bias in the method of calculation and the uncertainty in the experiments used to validate the method of calculation.

(i) Instrumentation and control systems. The design shall include provisions for instrumentation and control systems to monitor and control the behavior of systems important to safety, assuming occurrence of design basis events.

(j) Compliance with mining regulations. To the extent that DOE is not subject to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, as to the construction and operation of the geologic repository operations area, the design of the geologic repository operations area shall nevertheless include provisions for worker protection necessary to provide reasonable assurance that all structures, systems, and components important to safety can perform their intended functions. Any deviation from relevant design requirements in 30 CFR, chapter I, subchapters D, E, and N will give rise to a rebuttable presumption that this requirement has not been met.

(k) Shaft conveyances used in radioactive waste handling.

(1) Hoists important to safety shall be designed to preclude cage free fall.

(2) Hoists important to safety shall be designed with a reliable cage location system.

(3) Loading and unloading systems for hoists important to safety shall be designed with a reliable system of interlocks that will fail safely upon malfunction.

(4) Hoists important to safety shall be designed to include two independent indicators to indicate when waste packages are in place and ready for transfer.

[48 FR 28222, June 21, 1983, as amended at 61 FR 64269, Dec. 4, 1996]