PROGRAM AREA
OVERVIEW --
ENVIRONMENTAL
MANAGEMENT
http://www.em.doe.gov
With the end of the Cold War, the Department of Energy (DOE) is focusing
on understanding and eliminating the enormous environmental problems created by
the Department's historical mission of nuclear weapons production.
The DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM) seeks to eliminate
these threats to human health and the environment, as well as to prevent
pollution from on-going activities. The
goals for waste management and environmental remediation include meeting
regulatory compliance agreements, reducing the cost and risk associated with
waste treatment and disposal, and expediently deploying technologies to
accomplish these activities. While
radioactive contaminants are the prime concern, hazardous metals and organics,
as defined by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), are also
important.
The responsibilities of DOE's Office of EM include the remediation of
radioactive and toxic wastes to their original background levels and the
deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) of thousands of contaminated
facilities. With regard to site
remediation, DOE needs to locate and remediate contaminated plumes to prevent
groundwater contamination and potential off-site migration of the plume.
New or improved technologies are sought to address issues related to
materials for reactive barriers and for in
situ monitoring systems to facilitate the use of reactive barriers.
DOE also needs to reduce the volume of contaminated concrete and
associated waste streams, therefore, new or improved technologies are needed to
separate contaminates from concrete. Lastly,
DOE needs to reduce risks to workers from potential exposures associated with
decontamination and decommissioning activities; therefore, new or improved
technologies are sought for remote cutting or sizing technologies and for
multi-purpose remote platforms.
DOE’s inventory of transuranic and mixed wastes include about 155,000
cubic meters of waste stored on some 30 DOE sites and another 450,000 cubic
meters of buried waste – at least some of which is likely to require retrieval
in the course of DOE’s site cleanup program.
Most of the stored inventory is contained in 55-gallon drums or other
containers. Although some of the
buried waste is similarly packaged, knowledge of the condition of these
containers and their contents is limited. In
addition, some of the waste was buried in containers with limited or no
durability container (e.g., in plastic bags or cardboard boxes) or was buried
without containment.
The
following topic solicits grant applications for technologies to facilitate the
management of buried transuranic and mixed waste.
The subtopics provide more detailed descriptions of specific needs.
26. TECHNOLOGIES TO FACILITATE MANAGEMENT OF BURIED TRANSURANIC AND MIXED
WASTE
Land disposal of untreated, chemically contaminated wastes was
prohibited in the mid-1970s when the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
was enacted. However, prior to 1970,
the Department of Energy disposed of substantial quantities of transuranic (TRU)
waste in near-surface excavations (shallow land disposal).
Some of these wastes were buried in containers that may be retrievable;
some were buried in bulk. In
addition, a quantity of pond and lagoon sludges and associated soil remains
buried.
There are several options
for dealing with this waste, depending on the degree to which it endangers the
environment. Some of the waste
buried at individual DOE sites may be left in place and monitored during
long-term site stewardship programs. Other
buried waste may be retrieved for treatment and disposition as TRU or mixed
waste. Before decisions can be made,
research is needed to address the challenges involved in locating and
characterizing these materials. This
topic address three problem areas related to the management of buried TRU and
mixed wastes.
Grant applications are sought only in the following subtopics:
a.
Improved, Noninvasive Assessment Methods to Locate and Identify Buried
Waste and Determine Whether or Not it is Containerized –
The retrieval of buried waste and contaminated media generally involves
excavating the entire area where the material is known or expected to be, a very
time-consuming and expensive process. Before the waste can be retrieved it must
be located and a preliminary characterization (at least) must be made of its
condition. Research is needed on methods to improve object identification.
Therefore, grant applications are sought to develop new technologies for
locating and identifying specific objects (e.g., drums, gloveboxes) that are
below ground and determining if they need to be retrieved.
Areas of research interest include the improvement of object
identification and image resolution (to determine if the contaminated objects
are drums, boxes, rocks, etc), improvements in image analysis, and the
development identification models and software.
b.
Imaging Technology for Assessing the Condition of Buried Waste –After the buried waste is located, and
prior to retrieval, it will be necessary to determine the condition of
the waste or waste container. If the
drums or other containers are intact, they can be retrieved and handled using
processes developed for stored waste. The
retrieval of breached containers or non-containerized waste would be more
difficult. To minimize the number of
processing steps and to ensure worker safety, a more detailed characterization
of the waste containers and their content must be performed at the retrieval
site. Grant applications are sought
to develop imaging technology to identify and characterize objects below ground.
Of particular interest is the characterization of buried waste containers
and the determination of potential leakage.
Approaches could be nonintrusive (preferred) or intrusive and could be
coupled with chemical analysis. Nonintrusive
approaches may include ground penetrating radar, magnetometry, acoustics,
chemical sensing of near-surface air samples, neutron activation, radiological
surveys, etc. An example of a
minimally intrusive approach would be the utilization of small-diameter
bore-holes to emplace equipment or sensors or collect samples.
Grant applications are also
sought to develop methods to improve image resolution and object identification.
Sophisticated image analysis and identification models and software
should determine what waste is buried, the condition of the buried waste, the
potential contamination of the soil surrounding the buried waste, and whether or
not the buried waste is containerized or stabilized.
c.
Long-Life, Reliable Sensors that can be Remotely Interrogated for
Improved Monitoring of Buried Waste Disposal Sites – Smart
sensors can improve the monitoring of buried waste sites.
Grant applications are sought to develop smart sensors for
monitoring buried waste sites in order to determine changes in the conditions
(physical, chemical, radiological, or biological) of either the buried waste or
the soil surrounding the buried waste. State-of-the-art
improvements could make it possible to interrogate sensors from remote locations
and provide remote, standoff detection of both chemical and radiological
hazards. The sensors should be able
to detect the physical changes in either the containers or the soil surrounding
the buried wastes; or chemical, radiological, or biological changes in the
surrounding area, which could indicate that the buried waste is migrating
through the surrounding environment.
References:
1.
Cleanup
Tools: Behind the Scenes at a
Superfund Site,
U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/oerrpage/superfund/accomp/400/tools.htm)
2.
National Research Council, Characterization
of Remote-Handled Transuranic Wastes for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant,
Final Report, Washington,
DC: National
Academy
Press, 2002.
(Available at: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309084601/html/62.html)
3.
National Research Council, Research
Opportunities for Managing the Department of Energy’s Transuranic and Mixed
Wastes, Final Report, Washington, DC:
National Academy Press, 2002. (Available
at: http://search.nap.edu/nap-cgi/naptitle.cgi?Search=Research+Opportunities+for+Transuranic+and+Mixed+Wastes)
4.
EM:
U.S.
DOE Office
of Environmental Management, http://www.em.doe.gov
5.
EM Office of Science and Technology,
U.S.
DOE Office of Environmental Management's Office of Science and
Technology, http://apps.em.doe.gov/ost
6.
Performance
Management Plan for the Accelerated Cleanup of the Hanford
Site,
U.S.
DOE Richland Operations Office and Office of
River Protection, http://www.hanford.gov/docs/hpmp
7.
Accelerating
Cleanup of the INEEL, U.S. DOE Idaho
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, http://www.inel.gov/environment/