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The DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) partners with industry, small business, universities, and other stakeholders to identify and invest in emerging technologies with the potential to create high-quality domestic manufacturing jobs and enhance the global competitiveness of the United States
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Radioactive Waste Management Limited (RWM), the developer and future operator of a geological disposal facility (GDF) in the United Kingdom, operates a disposability assessment process to minimise the risk that current conditioning and packaging of higher activity wastes (HAW) will result in packages incompatible with geological disposal in the future. Specialists in nuclear and environmental safety from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and the Environment Agency (EA) in 2013/14 completed an inspection of the RWM's process of disposability assessment. The inspection gave the regulators confidence that RWM has in place a systematic process to provide an important means of reducing risks associated with waste packaging in advance of an operational GDF and that the process of disposability assessment is providing the necessary information for licensees to assure future HAW disposal to the GDF. This work forms part of our continuing programme to review RWM's work related to geological disposal of higher activity radioactive waste (HAW). (authors)
The Environmental Management Disposal Facility (EMDF) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is a proposed U.S. Department of Energy low-level Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) waste disposal facility with an operational start in the early 2020's. As a DOE low-level waste disposal facility, it is subject to DOE Order 435.1, requiring a composite analysis and possibly a performance assessment. The Source Term Integrated EMDF Data Base - SORTIE DB - provides source term estimates used in these assessments. An Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) Federal and Contractor team developed this state-of-the-art descriptive analytics and visualization schema. DOE OREM senior management has recognized complementary beneficial uses of SORTIE DB in decisions for accelerating clean-up progress, dealing with conflicting sequencing and budget priorities, and enhancing stakeholder and regulatory interfaces. SORTIE DB is designated as an OREM planning tool. SORTIE DB contains estimated forecast waste volumes and masses for over 800 Decontamination and Decommissioning (D and D) and Remedial Action (RA) sequenced baseline packages over the next 25+ years. Available characterization data, radionuclide identification and concentrations, and data from safety basis and emergency management documents are incorporated into SORTIE DB. (authors)
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of missions for the H-Canyon facility at the Savannah River Site, as its capabilities are being recognized as an increasingly important asset for the Department of Energy (U.S. DOE). The sustainability of that asset was called into question in 2011, when funding from U.S. DOE's Environmental Management (EM) program became insufficient to sustain processing. Through the acquisition of new customers, funding was restored and H Canyon missions have seen new life. (authors)
The Savannah River Site (SRS) began publishing the yearly SRS Environmental Report over 50 years ago. The report was first made available to the public in 1959. SRS has always tried to be very clear about the impact of its operations on neighboring communities. However, environmental reporting depends on public understanding for its success. The scientific nature of environmental information often makes it difficult to communicate information in lay terms and a meaningful manner. Over the past two years, SRS has focused its efforts on improving the readability of these documents using plain language techniques. In the 2013 report and summary, the goals were to: - Organize information so the most important message comes first; - Break complex information into understandable chunks; - Use simple language and define technical terms; and - Use appealing formats, including graphics and ample white space, to engage and hold readers. SRS also used plain language guidelines and techniques such as using short sentences and active voice as suggested by feedback from our readers. Plain language is not a simplified style of writing. It involves more than replacing jargon and complex language with shorter sentences and familiar words. Plain language examines at the whole message - from the reader's point of view. Clear writing, effective organization, and inviting presentation are all keys to creating readable and informative documents. (authors)
The purpose of the study is to evaluate the capability of Micro-organism Chlorinated Ethene Destruction (MicroCED) to degrade chlorinated volatile organic compounds (cVOCs) in an existing groundwater plume at the Savannah River Site (SRS). MicroCED is similar to other commercially sold Dehalococcoides microbes (i.e., BAV-1 and KB-1) that are used to degrade cVOCs in support of groundwater cleanup actions. However, a primary difference is that this microbe is indigenous to the Twin Lakes area near C Area at the SRS. The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and Clemson University have been studying the capability and toxicology of the microbe for many years. To assess the potential of MicroCED in an environmental setting, a Treatability Study [5] was developed and submitted to South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC). Approval was received and implementation of the study was conducted during the dates of September 14, 2010 and September 30, 2011. During September - October 2010, approximately 423,966 liters of amendments (pH buffer [AquaBupH{sup TM}] and emulsified oil [EOS{sup TM}) and chase water were injected into a cVOC groundwater plume at P Area at a depth of 26 - 30.5 m below land surface. The amendments were injected to raise the groundwater pH and to convert an oxygenated groundwater system to a reducing environment better suited for MicroCED. MicroCED was injected in January and August 2011; however, only 140 liters of the 6,246 liters needed were injected. The insufficient number of growth chambers and project schedule limited the ability to grow and maintain the required amount of MicroCED needed for the study. Groundwater monitoring of the injection wells and monitoring points were conducted monthly to evaluate and assess changes to the existing cVOC groundwater plumes. Field data collected from the injection wells demonstrated a reducing environment suitable for MicroCED growth. However, nearby monitoring points located within the injection field did not indicate a change in groundwater chemistry. Further analysis of the injected material showed that the actual radius of influence was less than assumed. This resulted in conditions favorable for MicroCED growth to be located near the injection wells versus over a larger area, as expected. Data collected indicates biodegradation of the cVOCs via the MicroCED is encouraging but inconclusive. This could be a result of the insufficient quantity of MicroCED injected and limited time frame of monitoring after MicroCED injections. However, considering that the data were collected within six (6) months of the first MicroCED injection it could also be plausible that microbial growth is limited and is not measurable based on the time frame and quantity of microbes that were injected. But, concentrations of TCE metabolic products have been observed to increase as the study progressed and were most evident after the first MicroCED injection. Due to timing of the second MicroCED injection in August 2011, there are no data available to evaluate subsequent effects of this injection on cVOC concentrations. (authors)
The SRS salt-stone Facility is designed and permitted to immobilize and dispose of low-level radioactive and hazardous liquid waste (salt solution) remaining from the processing of radioactive material at the Savannah River Site. The salt-stone Processing Facility (SPF) is permitted as a wastewater treatment facility per the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control Regulations (SCDHEC) South Carolina Hazardous Waste Management Regulations (SCHWMR) R.61-67. The salt-stone Disposal Facility is permitted as a solid waste landfill site, as defined by SCDHEC Regulations R61-107.19. The salt-stone Sampling and Analysis Plan provides the SCDHEC with the chemical and physical characterization strategy for the salt solution and salt-stone waste form. During operation, samples are collected from Tank 50H on a quarterly basis and are analyzed by the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) for over chemical and radioactive components. The analytical results are compared to the salt-stone waste acceptance criteria in a technical report. SRNL also prepares salt-stone samples from the quarterly sample and premix binder materials provided by the SPF to determine the non-hazardous nature of the grout to meet the requirements of the SCDHEC regulation for the 'Characteristic of Toxicity', R.61-79.261.24(b) and the 'Universal Treatment Standards', R.61-79.268.48.4. salt-stone samples are collected, size reduced, packaged, and shipped to an independent United States EPA certified laboratory, or a laboratory that holds an equivalent certification such as one from the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program to perform the EPA Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) extraction of the salt-stone sample. SRNL reviews the results of the TCLP analysis and prepares a report detailing the sample preparation and analysis that is used by the salt-stone Facility to demonstrate the nonhazardous nature of the salt-stone waste form. (authors)
Structured decision making presents an opportunity for DOE and others engaged in solving complex environmental and waste management problems to find solutions that are stakeholder engaged and cost effective. This approach represents a paradigm shift that was introduced in a series of papers and a panel session at the WM2015 Symposium. The advantages of structured decision making over less formal approaches to decision making include technical defensibility, traceability and transparency. Structured decision making also overcomes the limitations of misapplication of conservatism in modeling, addresses stakeholder concerns and competing objectives directly, and provides a formal method through which internal and external stakeholders are encouraged to collectively and carefully consider all relevant attributes of solving complex problems. The first requirement of this paradigm shift is a realization and recognition that the problems faced are inherently decision problems, and that there is a formal theory of decision analysis that can, and should, be used to support finding the best solutions. Structured decision making is, very simply, formalized common sense. The formalities include: framing the problem; identification of objectives and measures for valuing those objectives; costs or values associated with those objectives; management options or alternatives for taking action that are tied directly to the objectives; and, science-based models to evaluate the options. Decision analysis is used to evaluate objectives and choose management options by balancing probability and consequence. The science-based models are built probabilistically based on expectation and uncertainty, and costs and value judgments are used to fulfill addressing stakeholder concerns. Consequently, this approach avoids misplaced conservatism in science-based modeling and properly places values in the objectives component of a decision model. This approach honestly addresses uncertainty and value judgments and balances these competing components to find the most effective decision. A software framework program called Guided Interactive Statistical Decision Tools (GiSdT - pronounced 'gist') is used to support an application of this paradigm shift towards structured decision making. In this application objectives and management options for a waste disposal problem at the Los Alamos National Laboratory are identified, and features, events and processes are described and defined to form the basis of a conceptual site model. This establishes the decision model structure. Objectives are addressed through the three pillars of sustainability - economic, environmental, and social - and also address regulatory concerns or constraints. Management options include removal of waste to another location and engineering designs for leaving waste in place. Using structured decision making, the relationship between objectives, management options, and the conceptual site model is made clear, and leads to a comprehensive, defensible, transparent and traceable approach to effective decision making. (authors)
The US Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) oversees one of the largest environmental restoration projects in the world. DOEEM's labor statistics show that 91% of EM employees are 40 years old or older and only 1% of its workforce is under 30 years old. In addition, it is estimated that within the next three years, DOE-EM will lose as much as 30-35% of its technical workforce due to retirement. DOE-EM is responding to the aging workforce problem by proactively partnering with universities to train and develop the new generation for the environmental restoration workforce. In 2007, DOE-EM and Florida International University's Applied Research Center (ARC) established the DOE-FIU Science and Technology Workforce Development Program. This is an innovative program designed to train and mentor FIU students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) disciplines and provides them with career paths in environmental restoration and the nuclear industry. The selected students (called DOE Fellows) perform hands-on environmental remediation research and participate in internships at DOE Headquarters, DOE sites, national laboratories, and DOE contractors. Upon graduation and completion of the DOE fellowship, DOE Fellows pursue employment opportunities with DOE and its contractors. In addition, DOE-EM has also established a Minority Serving Institution STEM program targeting STEM students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Both programs have the purpose of enhancing educational and training opportunities to minority students. DOE Fellows support DOE-EM research at FIU's ARC. The Fellows work side by side with ARC's scientists and engineers in the research of technologies and methodologies in the areas of high level waste/waste disposal and treatment, soil and groundwater remediation and modeling, deactivation and decommissioning (D and D) technology test and evaluation, and engage in the development of information technology systems in support of the DOE-EM environmental remediation mission. (authors)
This paper provides an overview of how the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management (EM) program engages the public on complex cleanup issues. EM has made public participation a fundamental component of its cleanup mission and has found that the EM Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB) has contributed greatly to bringing community input regarding values and priorities to the cleanup decision-making processes. As such, the EM SSAB has a unique mandate to provide input regarding the cleanup of nuclear legacy sites in the United States. Public participation that involves ongoing community engagement has inherent challenges, including explaining technically complex cleanup issues and receiving input and advice on the community from a board of non-experts. This paper highlights ways that DOE works with the various local boards across the country to communicate these issues through new member orientations. DOE can use these tools to gain insight on how best to solicit input from the local community despite complex technical issues. (authors)
The Port Hope Area Initiative is a $1.28 billion project for the remediation of historic low-level radioactive waste resulting from the operation of Eldorado Nuclear Limited and its private-sector predecessors between 1932 and 1988 in Port Hope and Port Granby, Ontario, approximately 100 km east of Toronto. Included in the project is the investigation of all 4,800 privately and publicly owned properties in Port Hope in order to identify and remediate an estimated 375 properties containing LLRW exceeding clean-up criteria. This paper discusses the progress of the investigations, the development of clean-up criteria, methodologies used to identify historic LLRW, and lessons learned to date. This paper will be of greatest interest to future project managers of similar investigations. (authors)
Maximizing the success of an organization depends on many things with a key one being the focus and quality of the management decisions made by the organisation's senior leadership team. Successfully advancing an organisation's agenda requires operational, tactical, and strategic decisions. These decisions involve both decisions on specific actions, as well as decisions about planning. In addition to the day-to-day decisions of running the business, the leadership team should be allocating appropriate time toward developing organizational strategic objectives. Strategic planning is an organisation's process of defining its direction and strategies, and plotting how to accomplish those strategies. Strategic planning is essential to the long term viability of the organization. The pathway to success with strategic planning is not nearly so obvious and straight forward as with operational decisions. Organizational leaders must resist the temptation to minimize the time allocated to strategic thinking and strategic planning. Strategic thinking and strategic planning are centered around making sure that your organization is doing the right things, instead of just doing things right. Management guru Peter Drucker noted that 'There is nothing more wasteful than becoming highly efficient at doing the wrong things'. Strategic thinking is used in deciding what to do. Tactical thinking is used in deciding how to do it. Decision tools can be utilized to improve the results of the strategic planning process. In certain situations, properly selected decision tools will provide a mechanism or a process for making better decisions, or for channeling strategic thought and strategic planning toward enlightened alternative approaches. Decision tools can also provide for assigning a quantitative measure of merit or goodness, or at least a semi-quantitative measure of merit to multiple decision options. Properly selected and utilized, decision tools provide the leadership team with additional insight into the consequences of their decisions. Appropriately selected decision tools can be utilized to maximize the effectiveness of your strategic planning efforts. Decision tools can be used to quantify strategic decision options within a particular framework, providing insights into alternatives to improve an organisation's most effective execution of the DOE EM clean up mission. (authors)
The Department of Energy's Department of Environmental Management faces the complex task of cleaning up waste from nuclear weapons production. Often, the clean-up requires novel and untested technologies and approaches. In these cases, it is always necessary to provide some measure of assurance that the design engineers will be able to produce a design that will function in the means intended. Too many times we have seen first of a kind nuclear processing technologies put forth as commercially ready, only to be found insufficiently mature once attempted to be readied for operation. As now required by the DOE's Technology Readiness Assessment Process, it is necessary to demonstrate technologies in a similar environment to the current application and tested with a range of bounding simulants, or actual waste materials, if possible. (authors)
The Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) in the UK submitted an Environmental Safety Case in 2002 which was rejected by the Environment Agency 3 years later. Almost a decade after the rejection, the LLWR submitted a completely different document which was approved in November 2015. This paper looks at the lessons learned from the failed submission and documents the strategy employed by the Site's new contractor to overcome both the challenging technical issues that led to the initial rejection and overcome the resistance to long term disposal by the local community. It will describe the journey it has taken to move from a flawed safety case, to a technically sound safety case, to one that is approved by the regulator, and accepted by the community. (authors)
BIOPROTA is an international collaborative forum that seeks to address the key uncertainties in long term assessments of radionuclide and other contaminant releases into the environment arising from solid radioactive waste disposal. (see www.bioprota.org). Two workshops have been organized through the BIOPROTA forum to consider the non-radiological post-disposal impacts of radioactive waste disposal. In these workshops, it was noted that, ideally, the assessment of radionuclides and hazardous materials should be such that consistent assumptions and criteria are used in risk evaluation and that in cases where this is not possible, a clear understanding of the reasons why needs to be provided. Accordingly, a detailed review was organized through BIOPROTA to provide information to support development of a consensus on how to address this issue. The study suggests that there is a continuing need for some common measure of hazard that supports identification of risk management priorities for mixed hazardous waste. Without it, effective optimization of management of these mixed hazardous wastes will be restricted. (authors)
With an aging work force and only a few universities offering programs in radiochemistry, laboratories are increasingly finding it more challenging to hire and retain qualified radiochemists. Further, this challenge is a growing trend being seen worldwide. Expertise in radiochemistry is vital to advance our nation's progress in development of the next generation of nuclear reactor technology, drug discovery, environmental stewardship, and the development of technologies to prevent and respond to nuclear terrorist events. The National Analytical Management Program (NAMP) Education and Training subcommittee was established in response to the challenge of promoting radiochemistry and maintaining a well-educated work force to meet the projected growth in nuclear medicine, nuclear energy, safeguards, and nuclear forensics. The NAMP Education and Training subcommittee has offered radiochemistry webinars to a broad audience and is educating and strengthening the knowledge of participants in applications related to actinide and fission products chemistry, sample preparation, detection, dosimetry, nuclear forensics, nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear forensics, and risk assessment. These webinars are presented by renowned experts in the field of Radiochemistry. Additionally, through the partnering of the Education and Training subcommittee with various universities, the NAMP webinars offer a platform for graduate students, PhD candidates, and postdoctoral students to present their research to a wider audience. Since 2012, NAMP has conducted monthly, live webinars - all of which are recorded and archived as an online educational resource to the public from the NAMP web site (http://www.wipp.energy.gov/namp). With over 50 archived presentations, the NAMP webinars provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of radiochemistry topics. By partnering with university professors and renowned scientific professionals, the NAMP continues to expand the list of webinar topics, increasing the depth of knowledge in this online resource and rapidly becoming the next educational tool in radiochemistry for the next generation workforce. (authors)