  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Integrated Waste Management is
planning for the eventual transportation, storage, and disposal of spent
nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) from nuclear power
plant and DOE sites. The Stakeholder Tool for Assessing Radioactive
Transportation (START) is a web-based, geospatial decision-support tool
developed for evaluating routing options and other aspects of transporting SNF
and HLW, covering rail, truck, barge, and intermodal infrastructure and
operations in the continental United States. The verification and validation
(V&V) process is intended to independently assess START to provide confidence
in the ability of START to accurately provide intended results. The V&V process
checks the START tool using a variety of methods, ranging from independent hand
calculations to comparison of START performance and results to those of other
codes. The V&V activity was conducted independently from the START development
team with opportunities to provide feedback and collaborate throughout the
process. The V&V analyzed attributes of transportation routes produced by
START, including route distance and both population and population density
captured within buffer zones around routes. Population in the buffer zone,
population density in the buffer zone, and route distance were all identified
as crucial outputs of the START code and were subject to V&V tasks. Some of the
improvements identified through the V&V process were standardizing the
underlying population data in START, changing the projection of the population
raster data, and changes to the methodology used for population density to
improve its applicability for expected users. This collaboration also led to
suggested improvements to some of the underlying shape file segments within
START.
