The difficult task of removing large pieces of highly contaminated equipment from an obsolete plutonium-239 facility was completed in a seven-month operation that included structural alteration of the process building. Detailed job planning, job execution and contamination control were major factors in accomplishing the task. (auth)

The Workshop on Core and Sample Curation was held to discuss the best means of handling, distributing, and advertising samples and data collected during a Continental Scientific Drilling Program (CSDP) and to establish better communication between sample curators regarding common problems. It was geneerally agreed that CSDP samples should be handled, on a regional basis, by existing data systems and sample repositories judged to have adequate staff and support. Repository design, sample handling procedures, and sample accounting systems were discussed. Across North America, support for curation of geological samples was varied, but it was strongest within states or regions with well-established energy and mineral industries. A well-supported repository pays for itself through the circulation and preservation of samples and stratigraphic information. A national CSDP must have a well-established curatorial policy and system of regional repositories to circulate information and samples throughout the scientific community. Well-curated samples and data are a national resource with considerable benefits for industry and academia. Attendees agreed to form a Society of Geoscience Curators to maintain communication between curators from private, government, and university repositories and core research laboratories.

The research and development program of DOE's Geothermal Technology Division is reviewed in separate presentations according to program area. Separate abstracts have been prepared for the individual papers. (ACR)

The US Department of Energy's (USDOE) Albuquerque Operations Office installations are being evaluated under its Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Response program (CEARP). The installations consist of eight weapons development and production facilities, which are located across the United States. The evaluation covers the major environmental regulations, with emphasis on the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and on the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The CEARP is intended to help fulfill USDOE obligations for federal facilities under the US Environmental Protection Agency (CERCLA Program and constitutes the same basic approach as contained in USEPA guidance to federal facilities. The Program is a phased program to identify, assess, and correct existing and potential environmental concerns relative to these regulations. The five phases are Phase I - Installation Assessment, Phase II - Confirmation, Phase III - Technological Assessment, Phase IV - Remedial Action, and Phase V - Compliance and Verification. Phase I activities and reports should be completed during 1986. The Phase II generic sampling plans, data management plans, health and safety plans, and quality assurance/quality control plans will be prepared during 1986. Significant characterization of CERCLA sites will be initiated during 1987.

The US Department of Energy Albuquerque Operations Office (DOE-AL) initiated the Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Response Program (CEARP) to identify, evaluate, and conduct remedial actions at hazardous waste disposal and contamination sites on the eight nuclear weapons development and production installations under its jurisdiction. The CEARP is being implemented in five phases (Phase 1 - Installation Assessment, Phase 2 - Confirmation, Phase 3 - Technological Assessment, Phase 4 - Remedial Action, and Phase 5 - Compliance and Verification). During Phase 1, regulatory compliance was evaluated and disposal/contamination sites were identified. Phase 2 provides the field data for site characterization, risk assessment, determination of need for corrective action, and evaluation of possible remedial actions at hazardous waste sites. Phase 2 is being conducted in two stages (monitoring plan development/reconnaissance sampling and site characterization/remedial investigation). Problem sites across the DOE-AL complex were prioritized for site characterization and CEARP Phase 2 activities have been initiated.

The LANL Environmental Restoration (ER) Program Office, established in October 1989, is faced with the challenge of assessing and cleaning up nearly 1,8000 potentially hazardous waste sites according to an aggressive corrective action schedule that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandated on May 23, 1990, in a Resource, Conservation, and Recovery Act (RCRA) Part B Permit. To maximize program efficiency, the ER Program Office will implement a unique management approach designed to maximize the use of laboratory technical expertise. The Installation Work Plan, which provides a blueprint for the program, has been submitted to EPA for review and approval. A work plan for characterization of Technical Area 21, an early plutonium processing facility, is also nearing completion. The feasibility of an expedited cleanup of the Laboratory's worst hazardous waste release has been modelled using a computer code originally developed by LANL to assist the nuclear weapons testing program. A sophisticated Geographic Information System has been implemented to assist in data management and presentation, and the design of a Mixed Waste Disposal Facility is underway. 6 refs., 2 figs.

The mission for data management for the Environmental Restoration Department (ERD) at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), is to deliver quality assured data for decision making. Data management must meet regulatory requirements by developing appropriate technical capabilities. This paper describes the requirements and how they are being met at the INEL.

The Department of Energy/Office of Civilian Radioactive waste Management (DOE/OCRWM) is responsible for the characterization of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, to determine its potential as a site of a high-level radioactive waste repository. The characterization of Yucca Mountain encompasses many diverse investigations, both onsite and in laboratories across the country. Investigations are being conducted of the geology, hydrology, mineralogy, paleoclimate, geotechnical properties, and archeology of the area, to name a few. Effective program management requires that data from site investigations be processed, interpreted and disseminated in a timely manner to support model development and validation, repository design, and performance assessment. The Program must also meet regulatory requirements for making the technical data accessible to a variety of external users throughout the life of the Project. Finally, the DOE/OCRWM must make available the data or its description and access location available for use in support of the license application and supporting documentation. To accomplish these objectives, scientific and engineering data, generated by site characterization activities, and technical data, generated by environmental and socioeconomic impact assessment activities, must be systematically identified, cataloged, stored and disseminated in a controlled manner.

In the process of performing environmental restoration at the 560-square mile Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State, very large amounts of scientific and technical data are being generated from sampling taking place all over the Site. Topics discussed in this paper include the lessons learned during the implementation of a Past Practice strategy to accelerate waste site characterization through the application of the Data Quality Objectives process to select sample analytical data and data validation requirements; and the lessons learned during the implementation of computerized data management for maintaining {open_quotes}real-time{close_quotes} data availability to the end users including the regulators.

The Distributed Information Systems software Unit at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory has designed and developed an Integrated Spent Nuclear Fuel Database System (ISNFDS), which maintains a computerized inventory of all US Department of Energy (DOE) spent nuclear fuel (SNF). Commercial SNF is not included in the ISNFDS unless it is owned or stored by DOE. The ISNFDS is an integrated, single data source containing accurate, traceable, and consistent data and provides extensive data for each fuel, extensive facility data for every facility, and numerous data reports and queries.

An Integrated Spent Nuclear Fuel Database System (ISNFDS) has been designed by EG&G Idaho, Inc. at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) to maintain an inventory of all US Department of Energy (DOE) spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The purpose of the ISNFDS is to provide a centralized source of SNF information containing accurate and consistent data. A description of the quality control methodology, tools, and techniques for the data collection, entry, and verification process as they apply to the ISNFDS are outlined.

A remedial investigation/feasibility study has been undertaken at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Bechtel National, Inc. and partners CH2M Hill, Ogden Environmental and Energy Services, and PEER Consultants are contracted to Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, performing this work for ORNL`s Environmental Restoration (ER) Program. An on-site Close Support Laboratory (CSL) established at the ER Field Operations Facility has evolved into a laboratory where quality analytical screening results can be provided rapidly (e.g., within 24 hours of sampling). CSL capabilities include three basic areas: radiochemistry, chromatography, and wet chemistry. Radiochemical analyses include gamma spectroscopy, tritium and carbon-14 screens using liquid scintillation analysis, and gross alpha and beta counting. Cerenkov counting and crown-ether-based separation are the two rapid methods used for radiostrontium determination in water samples. By extending count times where appropriate, method detection limits can match those achieved by off-site contract laboratories. Volatile organic compounds are detected by means of gas chromatography using either headspace or purge and trap sample introduction (based on EPA 601/602). Ionic content of water samples is determined using ion chromatography and alkalinity measurement. Ion chromatography is used to quantify both anions (based on EPA 300) and cations. Wet chemistry procedures performed at the CSL include alkalinity, …

The meteorology program at Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (Site) has experienced significant changes the past 18 months. The purposes of the meteorology program at the Site are to (1) support Emergency Preparedness programs for assessing the transport, dispersion, and deposition of effluents actually or potentially released into the atmosphere by Site operations; and (2) provide information for onsite and offsite projects concerned with the design of environmental monitoring networks for impact assessments, environmental surveillance operations, health and safety related activities, and remediation operations. The meteorology program includes ambient monitoring, weather forecasting, climatological analyses, air dispersion modeling, and Emergency Preparedness organizational support.

Laboratory applications for the analysis of PCBS (polychlorinated biphenyls) in environmental matrices such as soil/sediment/sludge and oil/waste oil were evaluated for potential reduction in waste, source reduction, and alternative techniques for final determination. As a consequence, new procedures were studied for solvent substitution, miniaturization of extraction and cleanups, minimization of reagent consumption, reduction of cost per analysis, and reduction of time. These new procedures provide adequate data that meet all the performance requirements for the determination of PCBS. Use of the new procedures reduced costs for all sample preparation techniques. Time and cost were also reduced by combining the new sample preparation procedures with the power of fast gas chromatography. Separation of Aroclor 1254 was achieved in less than 6 min by using DB-1 and SPB-608 columns. With the greatly shortened run times, reproducibility can be tested quickly and consequently with low cost. With performance-based methodology, the applications presented here can be applied now, without waiting for regulatory approval.

In modeling and simulation (M&S), it is virtually impossible to separately evaluate the effectiveness of the model from the data used because the results produced rely heavily on the interaction between the two. Both the data and the simulation are responsible for achieving the ultimate goal of providing defensible research and development (R&D) products and decisions. It is therefore vital that data verification and validation (V&V) activities, along with stringent configuration management, be considered part of the overall M&S accreditation process. In support of these goals is the Nuclear Energy CFD Application Management System (NE-CAMS) for nuclear system design and safety analysis. Working with Bettis Laboratory and Utah State University, a plan of action is being developed by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) that will address the highest and most immediate needs to track and manage computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models and experimental data in an electronic database. The database will intrinsically incorporate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved policies and procedures for quality. The quality requirements will be such that the model and data must conform to the quality specifications outlined by the NRC before they can be entered into the database. The primary focus of this database is …

The GEWEX Continental International Project (GCIP), which started in 1995 and completed in 2001, held its grand finale conference in New Orleans, LA in May 2002. Participants at this conference along with the scientists funded through the GCIP program are invited to contribute a paper to a special issue of Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR). This special JGR issue (called GCIP3) will serve as the final report on scientific research conducted by GCIP investigators. Papers are solicited on the following topical areas, but are not limited to, (1) water energy budget studies; (2) warm season precipitation; (3) predictability and prediction system; (4) coupled land-atmosphere models; (5) climate and water resources applications. The research areas cover observations, modeling, process studies and water resources applications.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a 780 km{sup 2} U.S. Department of Energy facility near Aiken SC established in 1950 to produce nuclear materials. SRS streams are 'integrators' that potentially receive water transportable contaminants from all sources within their watersheds necessitating a GIS-based watershed approach to organize contaminant distribution data and accurately characterize the effects of multiple contaminant sources on aquatic organisms. Concentrations of metals in sediments, fish, and water were elevated in streams affected by SRS operations, but contaminant exposure models for Lontra Canadensis and Ceryle alcyon indicated that toxicological reference values were exceeded only by Hg and Al. Macroinvertebrate community structure was unrelated to sediment metal concentrations. This study indicated that (1) modeling studies and field bioassessments provide a complementary basis for addressing the individual and cumulative effects of contaminants, (2) habitat effects must be controlled when assessing contaminant impacts, (3) sensitivity analyses of contaminant exposure models are helpful in apportioning sampling effort, and (4) contaminants released during fifty years of industrial operations have not resulted in demonstrable harm to aquatic organisms in SRS streams.

BigBOSS is a Stage IV ground-based dark energy experiment to study baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) and the growth of structure with a wide-area galaxy and quasar redshift survey over 14,000 square degrees. It has been conditionally accepted by NOAO in response to a call for major new instrumentation and a high-impact science program for the 4-m Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak. The BigBOSS instrument is a robotically-actuated, fiber-fed spectrograph capable of taking 5000 simultaneous spectra over a wavelength range from 340 nm to 1060 nm, with a resolution R = {lambda}/{Delta}{lambda} = 3000-4800. Using data from imaging surveys that are already underway, spectroscopic targets are selected that trace the underlying dark matter distribution. In particular, targets include luminous red galaxies (LRGs) up to z = 1.0, extending the BOSS LRG survey in both redshift and survey area. To probe the universe out to even higher redshift, BigBOSS will target bright [OII] emission line galaxies (ELGs) up to z = 1.7. In total, 20 million galaxy redshifts are obtained to measure the BAO feature, trace the matter power spectrum at smaller scales, and detect redshift space distortions. BigBOSS will provide additional constraints on early dark energy and on the curvature of …

Article on integrating image-based research datasets into an existing digital repository infrastructure.

Article discussing competencies required for digital curation. The results of the analysis show that digital curation jobs are characterized by a complex interplay of various skills and knowledge. The findings of this study present emerging requirements for a qualified workforce in the field of digital curation.

This article describes findings from a workshop that initiated a dialogue between the fields of user-centered design (UCD) and language archives.

This article is a position statement on reproducible research in linguistics, including data citation and attribution, that represents the collective views of some 41 colleagues.

Conference paper elucidates the issues facing language archive managers and users through two steps: content analysis of information organization in language archives, and semi-structured interviews with language archive managers and users. Primary challenges identified include lacking institutional support and a range of factors which impact authority control in language archives. This version is the author's accepted manuscript.

This article reports the first empirical investigation of various dimensions of organization and representation of recorded knowledge and information in language archives. The study used a combination of semi-structured interviews and content analysis. Results demonstrate that, while some of the phenomena related to organization of information in language archives are specific to these types of archives, others are more typical and have been addressed by libraries in past research and practice.