An End State Methodology for Identifying Technology Needs for Environmental Management, with an Example from the Hanford Site Tanks (1999) / Chapter Skim
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2 Conceptual Approach to Defining Technology Development Requirements Based on End State Criteria
2 Conceptual Approach to Defining Technology Development Requirements Based on End State Criteria
Pages 15-28
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From page 15... ...
DEFINITION, PURPOSE, AND MEANING OF AN END STATE BASED APPROACH The establishment of fully defined program objectives and of clear program priorities for technology development investments have become increasingly important to the Office of Environmental Management (EM) for meeting schedules, cost constraints, and other requirements.
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Critical to managing the end state based approach is the level of detail associated with the definition of scenarios and functional flowsheets. Consideration of functional operations rather than specific processes is required.
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Conceptual Approach to Defining Technology Development Requirements Characterize Initial State of Waste Regulations, Agreements, Stakeholder Values, Costs, and Benefits Identify Reference and Alternative Scenarios Develop End State Specifications Define a Functional Flowsheet to Meet Each Set of End State Specifications Consolidate Functions Allocate End State Specifications as Functional Requirements Assess Technology Status \ Technology \: Development Needs J / FIGURE 3. Process for Using End State Criteria to Derive Technology Development Requirements 17
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From page 18... ...
In the absence of an end state based approach, there is the risk that some research projects would address inconsequential needs. Because technology development typically requires years to produce deployable results, whereas knowledge concerning remediation problems and decisions on how to best manage them are changing much more frequently, a technology development program must proceed in the face of considerable uncertainty.
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From page 19... ...
The existence of this traceable path provides clear linkage of the proposed technology development projects to the ultimate desired end state of the waste, which, abler appropriate independent reviews should provide adequate justification to decision makers to support the technology development program. Achieving this linkage requires documentation of the various steps taken to implement the end state based approach.
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In many cases this information is likely to be ~,ncerta~n or incomplete, and defining an end state based technology development program may require the technology development organization to use speculative calculations or assumptions subject to future validation. In all cases the data, analyses, and assumptions used as a basis for defining technology development requirements should be clearly documented at the outset.
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The end state based approach provides the basis for this option. The committee notes that the number of scenarios carried forward into subsequent steps must be limited to remain tractable.
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and this, in combination with postulated release mechanisms, is used to determine the acceptable pre-release state of the hazardous material, which is the end state specification of the product. The end state specification frequently consists of information on the allowable inventory or concentration of hazardous species in a product, the allowable release rate of the species under various conditions, and the packaging of the product.
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The committee notes that, in many cases, knowledge of available and projected technology can define or limit the Unctions that can be considered. As a consequence, the end state based approach in general, and development of functional flowsheets in particular, often requires iteration to achieve closure.
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The requirement for meeting this specification could be allocated entirely to the cesium removal Unction as a very high removal fraction, to the solidification function in the form of a very low release rate limit for cesium, or intermediate combinations of these. TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT Given the consolidated list of functions and associated requirements for the scenarios, the next step in the end state based methodology is to ascertain whether acceptable technology already exists to perform each of the fimctions identified above and meet the functional requirements.
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In this case, it is often necessary to select among the candidate developing technologies because limited technology development resources are available. This decision is typically based on subjective evaluation of such considerations as projected costs, the potential for successes!
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From page 26... ...
The end state based approach incorporates key elements of the widely used systems engineering process. A difference between the traditional systems engineering approach and the end state based approach is that the portions of the systems engineering process related to definition of a technology development program, such as the use of alternative scenarios, are specifically focused for explication in the end state approach.
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From page 27... ...
at least one plausible alternative scenario to efficiently accommodate uncertainty. An end state based approach that considers a range of plausible scenarios will identify technology gaps associated with the site baseline flow sheet and technology development needs associated with credible alternative fimctional flowsheets.
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From page 28... ...
Benefits of the End State Based Approach The primary benefits of the end state based approach to determm~ng a technology development program are that (~) requirements are explicitly tied to a plausible set of end states for the wastes, (2)
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