Programmatic Requirements
DATABASE/MODEL For the purposes of planning their transportation safety programs, states will need to be able to analyze data on shipment numbers, modes, routes, route characteristics, and other transportation program parameters. Early in the development of the transportation system, OCRWM worked on a comprehensive database and model for internal use to help the program evaluate alternative scenarios. In the 2000s, attempts were made to broaden the scope and application of the model to assist states in their own evaluation of routes and the potential impacts on communities. Those efforts were shelved as a result of program redirection and termination of funding. In the early 1980s, OCRWM used separate models to determine routes: HIGHWAY for truck shipments and INTERLINE for rail and barge shipments. Both models were developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with HIGHWAY dating back to 1979 (Johnson 2003, p. 1). In 1989, OCRWM reported at a meeting of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) on its plans to add graphics capabilities to these models so as to make it possible to“see” the routes, which would enhance OCRWM’s ability to share information with the public (NWTRB 1989, pp. 287-288). Upon questioning by the NWTRB members, the OCRWM officials at the meeting confirmed that the models, at the time, did not include data on accidents, tunnels, bridges (ages and capacities), or sensitive surroundings like lakes. The officials did express hope that they would be able to add that functionality to the models someday (NWTRB 1989, pp. 287-288). Christopher Kouts, one of the OCRWM officials presenting at the meeting, also reported that, in addition to the routing models, OCRWM had a “transportation systems data base…and a wealth of knowledge associated with the assumptions that we would operate the system under” (NWTRB 1989, p. 466). The two routing models provided information on population statistics, which were then used to assess transportation risks with the computer program RADTRAN —“a nationally accepted standard program and code for calculating the risks of transporting radioactive materials” (Weiner et al. 2008, p. 9). DOE’s Sandia National Laboratory created and maintains RADTRAN, which OCRWM used to calculate all transportation-related risk estimates in its environmental impact statements on the Yucca Mountain repository. In 2003, DOE’s Oak Ridge office succeeded in combining the old HIGHWAY and INTERLINE models into a single model — “Transportation Routing Analysis Geographic Information System,”
or TRAGIS —which is a GIS-based system capable of calculating primary and alternate routes by truck, train, or barge and displaying the results graphically. The decision to merge the two models came about as the result of a “Baseline Requirements Assessment Session” involving DOE and other users of the HIGHWAY and INTERLINE models (Johnson 2003, p. 1). Like the original models, TRAGIS provided population statistics and generated input data for assessments of shipment risk using RADTRAN. Paul Johnson, one of the principal developers of the model, observed that there was a need“to continually review and update the routing networks” in TRAGIS as a result of infrastructure changes like “new road construction, highway renumbering, rail abandonment, and changes of rail ownership (ibid., p. 2). TRAGIS was a definite improvement over the old dual-model system, but it provided only limited information on route characteristics that might be of help to state personnel interested in evaluating and comparing the state- specific impacts of shipments along different routes. In September 2004, at the TEC/WG meeting, Dean Jones reported on OCRWM’s Investment Planning Model, which was intended to be “the first of three modules of the Logistics Modeling effort to support planning, development and operation of a safe, secure and efficient transportation system for the RW Office of National Transportation” (TEC 2004, p. 24). Rather than serve as an assessment tool for the states and tribes affected by OCRWM’s shipments, the model was intended to be “a resource investment planning strategy to address the utility allocations and repository disposal target volumes while considering the total cost” (ibid.). The 2004 TEC/WG meeting marked the first and last time OCRWM reported to the states on its progress in developing the Investment Planning Model. OCRWM never indicated any intention of expanding the model to be the type of tool that states could use
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