Independent Assessment of Science and Technology for the Department of Energy's Defense Environmental Cleanup Program (2019) / Chapter Skim
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2 Review of DOE-EM Technology Development Efforts
2 Review of DOE-EM Technology Development Efforts
Pages 17-46
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, Portsmouth (Ohio) , and Savannah River (South Carolina)
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The congressionally directed projects were the following: • The Spent Nuclear Fuel Technologies Program at Idaho National Laboratory ($5 million)
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(B3) The majority of the site-directed S&T funds were allocated to Hanford, followed by Savannah River and Idaho.
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2.1.1 Site-Directed S&T Site-directed S&T focuses primarily on technology development and deployment to improve efficiencies and worker safety and achieve incremental improvements in current cleanup projects. Cleanup contractors take the lead for selecting this S&T and frequently involve national laboratories in its execution.
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; and provide the scientific and technical understanding for technology development and implementation of approaches to achieve risk-informed endpoints and meet cleanup and closure goals Savannah River Site 11.9 Soil and Groundwater Humate injection technology to further address dilute portion of VOC 0.8 plume in groundwater at A and M Areas In situ chemical oxidation deployment to address high VOC 1.2 concentrations in groundwater beyond the capture of the existing remediation systems at A and M Areas Silver chloride injection to address I-129 contamination in groundwater 0.4 at F Area continued
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models Saltstone -- Hydrogen Gas Release Potential Inadequacy in Safety 0.8 Analysis: Project will establish flammability limits for organics in the saltstone disposal units Saltstone -- Thermal Properties: This project determines thermal 1 properties of saltstone to support thermal modeling Saltstone -- Dynamic Leaching Method: Project is focusing on 0.2 determining solubilities of Tc-99 and I-129 from the saltstone waste form Tank Farm -- Hydrogen Gas Release PISA: Project will establish 0.8 flammability limits for organics in the tank farm Tank Farm -- Mercury: Project supports method development for 0.3 mercury speciation and mercury analysis of tank farm samples to support long-term behavior of mercury in the Liquid Waste System Closure -- Waste Release: Project will determine solubility of 0.6 radionuclides such as Pu, U, I, and Tc from waste residuals left in the waste tanks after waste removal activities are complete Tank Farm -- TCCR: Study establishes operating parameters and 1.1 provides inputs to safety basis for the TCCR system Tank Farm -- SONAR: Study demonstrated the capability to determine 0.4 volume of the residual waste in the waste tanks Idaho National Laboratorya 9.3 Calcine Disposition Project: Retrieval technology 6.9 Sodium-Bearing Waste/Integrated Waste Treatment Unit 2.4 • Fluidization engineering (design/testing) • Pilot plant operations • ngineering, chemistry, modeling, and optimization support for plant E modifications
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purchased Quinetiq Talon 0.4 Reconnaissance Robot EarthCon Groundwater Plume Analytics and Modeling: PORTS utilized 0.1 the services of EarthCon to conduct groundwater plume analytics, including a Ricker Method plume stability analysis on the five onsite trichloroethlylene groundwater plumes Worker Safety for D&D: FBP purchased six Brokk multi-axis 2.8 manipulator platforms Worker Safety for D&D: FBP purchased two 9-wheel low-profile 3.1 Omnicarts Other Tools: GIS, modeling, waste tracking and manifesting 0.3 Oak Ridge Reservation 2.7 Mercury-related activities only • imulated in-stream experiments using actual East Fork Poplar Creek S water to determine the conditions that cause the methylation of mercury • oil/sediment source zone stabilization and hydraulic isolation S • valuation of water chemistry manipulation E • cological manipulation and enhancement to decrease mercury E bioaccumulation a Activities listed here were described by DOE-EM as "applied engineering activities" and not S&T activities. NOTE: D&D = decontamination and demolition; EOC = Emergency Operations Center; FBP = Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth; GIS = geographic information system; I-129 = iodine-129; Pu = plutonium; Tc-99 = technetium-99; TCCR = Tank Closure Cesium Removal; U = uranium; VOC = volatile organic compound.
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The contractor for the Idaho Cleanup Project, which is responsible for designing and constructing the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit4 (IWTU) , has developed a "risk register" for the IWTU project.
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2.1.1.5 Savannah River The soils and groundwater program at Savannah River uses the DOE-EM's 2007 Engineering and Technology Roadmap (DOE, 2007) as a starting point to identify technology needs.
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High-Impact Technologies The Technology Development Office invested about $12 million in FY2018 on high-impact technologies to support S&T headquarters-directed and congressionally directed S&T. These investments aim to address knowledge and technology gaps that prevent DOE-EM from executing and completing its cleanup mission.
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FIU executes Department of Energy's Office research in environmental remediation; radioactive waste processing; of Environmental Management facility deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) ; knowledge management and other information technology applications/tools for environmental management; and training and mentoring the next generation of scientists and engineers who will continue addressing DOE-EM environmental restoration technical challenges.
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Carnegie Mellon University To provide specialized training for graduate students in robotics to 06/01/2016– None provided support environmental remediation of nuclear sites. 05/31/2021 Rutgers, The State University To improve understanding of fundamental science governing the 1/20/15– 0.3 of New Jersey development and performance of nuclear waste glasses.
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Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute Savannah River National To support information exchanges and facility visits for the U.S. 10/1/2016– None provided Laboratory National Laboratory Fukushima Support Network.
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01/31/2023 Domestic Nuclear Detection Office Department of Defense To collaborate on joint research, development, and deployment 01/30/2017– 0.075 Naval Sea Systems Command initiatives in both robotics and related technology fields. 01/31/2023 Department of Defense To collaborate on joint research, development, and deployment 10/01/2016– 0.025 U.S.
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S&T at Oak Ridge is focused on instrumentation for mercury detection in water, soil, sediment, and debris; mercury isotope analysis; remote sensing and quantification of mercury in infrastructure such as equipment and building walls and floors; and Y-12 remediation including in situ soil stabilization and grout formulation for macro ncapsulation. e S&T at Savannah River is focused on improving understanding of mercury chemistry and speciation in the liquid waste system; treat ments that convert organomercury to inorganic mercury to reduce mercury leachability in saltstone, and inorganic mercury to elemen tal mercury to improve mercury removal in the 2H/3H evaporator (DOE-EM, 2016c)
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However, the committee received a briefing from the senior technical advisor for the Energy Frontier Research Centers and did not find sufficient evidence of any coordination between the two offices on DOE-EM mission-directed basic research. Other Investments The Technology Development Office also spent about $10 million in program execution to support S&T subject to headquarters prioritization and congressionally directed S&T.
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system for removal of cesium from liquid waste at the Savannah River Site;7 the RadPiper robotic system mentioned previously; and the Test Bed Initiative to provide a scale-up demonstration of options for retrieval and treatment of the low-activity portion of tank waste at the Hanford Site. 2.1.2.2 Processes for Selecting Headquarters-Directed S&T As noted earlier, the Technology Development Office obtains input on S&T needs from DOE-EM sites and national laboratories, particularly the Savannah River National Laboratory, which is DOE-EM's lead national laboratory.
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This network is led by the direc tor of the Savannah River National Laboratory (DOE-EM's lead national laboratory)
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on its interpretation of the definition of the statutory term "high-level radioactive waste" as set forth in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. DOE interprets the statutory term to allow some reprocessing wastes to be classified as non-high-level radioactive waste and disposed of in accordance with their radiological characteristics.
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The committee judges that the aggressive pursuit of S&T is essential for reducing cleanup lifecycle costs and timelines. There are technical challenges in the cleanup program that can be addressed only through technology innovation in a broad spectrum of scientific areas (see Chapter 3)
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15 For example, DOE-EM's environmental liability could extend to 2095 at Idaho, 2137 at Hanford, and 2165 at Savannah River (Presentation by Rodrigo V Rimando, Jr., Director, Technology Development Office, DOE-EM, to the committee on December 5, 2017)
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Best practices benchmarking for S&T development programs of similar complexity in international nuclear waste cleanup programs or other industries can help DOE-EM make decisions and set performance targets.
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Recommendation B: DOE-EM should design and implement an S&T management process for identifying, prioritizing, select ing, developing, and deploying the new knowledge and tech nologies needed to address its cleanup challenges, including the technical risks and uncertainties identified from the assessment in Recommendation A Independent peer review should be used to evaluate (1)
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. In addition, the committee saw evidence that if a site is on track to meet a remedial goal by using a baseline technology, it has little to no interest to explore alternative technologies that could drive down costs and completion schedules.18 It is the committee's expert opinion that integrated and headquarters-coordinated S&T management focused on identify ing and reduc omplex-wide liabilities is better suited to tackling ing c D OE-EM's longer-term and complex-wide cleanup challenges and ensuring that S&T investments are sufficient and appropriate.
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As DOE-EM develops the S&T management process, it will also benefit from reviewing and adopting good practices from international cleanup programs. The committee saw evidence of an integrated management approach by the United Kingdom's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA)
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• Reviews of individual S&T projects for scientific merit and rel evance to DOE-EM's cleanup challenges, which can be used to prioritize and select projects for funding. The review group should have relevant technical expertise and knowledge of DOE's cleanup challenges and S&T needs.
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Recommendation C: A portion of the technology develop ment effort for the DOE-EM cleanup program should focus on breakthrough technologies and solutions that can substantially reduce cleanup lifecycle costs, schedules, risks, and uncertain ties. Such a program would require substantial new funding separate from the DOE-EM budget and a different model for managing research and stimulating innovation.
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. Consequently, the committee determined that DOE-EM was not the appropriate organization to manage an S&T program focused on developing breakthrough S&T solutions to DOE-EM's most difficult cleanup challenges.
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In the context of DOE-EM's cleanup challenges, accelerating the process by which the fundamental knowl edge generated by DOE's Office of Science and other basic research programs is transformed into innovative solutions that accelerate the cleanup of DOE's remaining waste legacy could bring significant benefits to the cleanup program and has the potential to increase worker safety, accelerate cleanup schedules and reduce cleanup costs, and reduce DOE-EM's environmental liability. cleanup, and disposal of low- and high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
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This cooperative effort can only be impactful if enthusiastically supported by DOE-EM's leadership. Independent peer review should be used to evaluate the effectiveness of ARPA-E's technology development and DOE-EM's deployment efforts.
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