Improved waste minimization practices at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) are leading to a 15% reduction in the generation of hazardous and radioactive waste. Bechtel, BWXT Idaho, LLC (BBWI), the prime management and operations contractor at the INEEL, applied the Six Sigma improvement process to the INEEL Waste Minimization Program to review existing processes and define opportunities for improvement. Our Six Sigma analysis team: composed of an executive champion, process owner, a black belt and yellow belt, and technical and business team members used this statistical based process approach to analyze work processes and produced ten recommendations for improvement. Recommendations ranged from waste generator financial accountability for newly generated waste to enhanced employee recognition programs for waste minimization efforts. These improvements have now been implemented to reduce waste generation rates and are producing positive results.

Waste managers are increasingly expected to provide good security for the hazardous materials they marshal. Good security requires, among other things, effective tamper and intrusion detection. We have developed and demonstrated a new method for tamper and intrusion detection which we call the ''town crier method''. It avoids many of the problems and vulnerabilities associated with traditional approaches, and has significant advantages for hazardous waste transport. We constructed two rudimentary town crier prototype systems, and tested them for monitoring cargo inside a truck. Preliminary results are encouraging.

Since September 11, waste managers are increasingly expected to provide effective security for their hazardous wastes. Tamper-indicating seals can help. This paper discusses seals, and offers recommendations for how to choose and use them.

This paper describes the successful effort to remove alkali metals, alkali metal residues, and piping and structures from retired non-radioactive test systems on the Hanford Site. These test systems were used between 1965 and 1982 to support the Fast Flux Test Facility and the Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor Program. A considerable volume of sodium and sodium-potassium alloy (NaK) was successfully recycled to the commercial sector; structural material and electrical material such as wiring was also recycled. Innovative techniques were used to safely remove NaK and its residues from a test system that could not be gravity-drained. The work was done safely, with no environmental issues or significant schedule delays.

The legacy project at Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI) was an opportunity to work with decades worth of research. LRRI was founded in 1963 to provide inhalation research using radioactive nuclides. Over the next 35 years, scientists at the institute researched the effects of radioactivity on the lungs and the effects of inhaled radiation on the body. There were two outcomes of the research. First, the studies provided valuable information regarding radiation safety and the prevention of the inhalation of radioactive material. Second, the studies created a large amount of legacy waste that is now being cleaned up. Overall, the legacy materials project at LRRI was an interesting challenge. It provided opportunities to the team of LRRI and SEC to engineer solutions to remove and release material. It involved unique ALARA engineering to minimize dose exposure to the project team. And finally, it provided an opportunity to minimize low-level radioactive waste. This paper will expand on the waste management challenges and lessons learned.

This paper provides a summary of investigations done on feasibility of using Ceramicrete technology to stabilize high level salt waste streams typical of Hanford and other sites. We used two non-radioactive simulants that covered the range of properties from low activity to high level liquids and sludges. One represented tank supernate, containing Cr, Pb, and Ag as the major hazardous metals, and Cs as the fission products; the other, a waste sludge, contained Cd, Cr, Ag, Ni, and Ba as the major hazardous contaminants, and Cs, and Tc as the fission products.

The Defense National Stockpile Center (DNSC), a field level activity of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has stewardship of a stockpile of thorium nitrate that has been in storage for decades. The stockpile is made up of approximately 3.2 million kg (7 million lb) of thorium nitrate crystals (hydrate form) stored at two depot locations in the United States. DNSC sought technical assistance from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to define and quantify the management options for the thorium nitrate stockpile. This paper describes methodologies and results comprising the work in Phase 1 and Phase 2. The results allow the DNSC to structure and schedule needed tasks to ensure continued safe long-term storage and/or phased disposal of the stockpile.

Uranium as U(IV) and U(VI) can be selectively recovered from liquids and sludge containing metal precipitates, inorganic salts, sand and silt fines, debris, other contaminants, and slimes, which are very difficult to de-water. Chemical processes such as fuel manufacturing and uranium mining generate enriched and natural uranium-bearing wastes. This patented Framatome ANP (FANP) uranium recovery process reduces uranium losses, significantly offsets waste disposal costs, produces a solid waste that meets mixed-waste disposal requirements, and does not generate metal-contaminated liquids. At the head end of the process is a floating dredge that retrieves liquids, sludge, and slimes in the form of a slurry directly from the floor of a lined surface impoundment (lagoon). The slurry is transferred to and mixed in a feed tank with a turbine mixer and re-circulated to further break down the particles and enhance dissolution of uranium. This process uses direct steam injection and sodium hypochlorite addition to oxidize and dissolves any U(IV). Cellulose is added as a non-reactive filter aid to help filter slimes by giving body to the slurry. The slurry is pumped into a large recessed-chamber filter press then de-watered by a pressure cycle-controlled double-diaphragm pump. U(VI) captured in the filtrate from this process …

Russian Federation has the leading experience in applying borehole storage/disposal method for SRS. A new immobilization technology for sources being disposed of in underground repositories was mastered by 1986 and since then it is used in the country. This method uses all advantages of borehole type repositories supplementing them with metal encapsulation of sources. Sources being uniformly allocated in the volume of underground vessel are fixed in the metal block hence ensuring long-term safety. The dissipation of radiogenic heat from SRS is considerably improved, radiation fields are reduced, and direct contact of sources to an environment is completely eliminated. The capacity of a typical borehole storage/disposal facility is increased almost 6 times applying metal immobilization. That has made new technology extremely favourable economically. The metal immobilization of SRS is considered as an option in Belarus and Ukraine as well as Bulgaria. Immobilization of sources in metal matrices can be a real solution for retrieval of SRS from inadequate repositories.

Used activated components from the core of a NPP like control elements, water channels from a BWR, and others like in-core measurement devices need to be processed into waste forms suitable for interim storage, and for the final waste repository. Processing of the activated materials can be undertaken by underwater cutting and packaging or by cutting and high-pressure compaction in a hot cell. A hot cell is available in Germany as a joint investment between GNS and the Karlsruhe Research Center at the latter's site. Special transport equipment is available to transport the components ''as-is'' to the hot cell. Newly designed underwater processing equipment has been designed, constructed, and operated for the special application of NPP decommissioning. This equipment integrates an underwater cutting device with an 80 ton force underwater in-drum compactor.

Hanford's tank farm piping system must be substantially modified to deliver high-level wastes from the underground storage tanks to the Waste Treatment Plant now under construction. Improved knowledge of the physical properties of the solids was required to support the design of the modified system. To provide this additional knowledge, particle size distributions for composite samples from seven high-level waste feed tanks were measured using two different laser lightscattering particle size analyzers. These measurements were made under a variety of instrumental conditions, including various flow rates through the sample loop, various stirring rates in the sample reservoir, and before and after subjecting the particles to ultrasonic energy. A mean value over all the tanks of 4.2 {micro}m was obtained for the volume-based median particle size. Additional particle size information was obtained from sieving tests, settling tests and microscopic observations.

The shipment of transuranic (TRU) radioactive waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico raised a serious socioeconomic issue - the potential devaluation of property values due to the transportation of TRU waste from generator sites to the disposal facility. In 1992, the New Mexico Supreme Court held in City of Santa Fe v. Komis that a loss in value from public perception of risk was compensable. This issue has become an extremely important one for the development of the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada for disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Much research has been conducted about the potential impacts of transportation of spent fuel and radioactive waste. This paper examines the pertinent studies conducted since the Komis case. It examines how the public debate on radioactive materials transportation continues and is now focused on transportation of high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository. Finally, the paper suggests a path forward DOE can take to address this issue.

THOR Treatment Technologies, LLC (THOR) is a joint venture formed in June 2002 by Studsvik, Inc. (Studsvik) and Westinghouse Government Environmental Services Company LLC to further develop, market, and deploy Studsvik's patented THORSM non-incineration, steam reforming waste treatment technology. This paper provides an overview of the THORSM steam reforming process as applied to the denitration and conversion of Department of Energy (DOE) tank wastes to an immobilized mineral form. Using the THORSM steam reforming technology to treat nitrate containing tank wastes could significantly benefit the DOE by reducing capital and life-cycle costs, reducing processing and programmatic risks, and positioning the DOE to meet or exceed its stakeholder commitments for tank closure. Specifically, use of the THORSM technology can facilitate processing of up to 75% of tank wastes without the use of vitrification, yielding substantial life-cycle cost savings.

This report summarizes the results of the project entitled, ''Piecewise-Parabolic Methods for Parallel Computation with Applications to Unstable Fluid Flow in 2 and 3 Dimensions'' This project covers a span of many years, beginning in early 1987. It has provided over that considerable period the core funding to my research activities in scientific computation at the University of Minnesota. It has supported numerical algorithm development, application of those algorithms to fundamental fluid dynamics problems in order to demonstrate their effectiveness, and the development of scientific visualization software and systems to extract scientific understanding from those applications.

With the study progress toward a US national reporting at Yucca Mountain, organizing the transport system becomes a more pressing necessity. The present paper will try to provide operators whose core business is not transport a frame of reference through which a transport supplier/system can be selected, not only on the mere criterion of regulatory compliance, but also beyond, taking into account the resilience of the system, the ability for the operator to protect its image by fulfilling its general duty to society and sustainable development. For that purpose the paper will take us through the basics up to the ''post graduate level'' of what transport and associated services should look like, from a theoretical point of view and also from illustrations from the current European field will be presented, illustrating the evolution of practice and interfacing of the actors.

Seimas (Parliament of Lithuania) approved updated National Energy strategy where it is indicated that first Unit will be shutdown before the year 2005 and second Unit in 2009 if funding for decommissioning is available from EU and other donors. In accordance to Ignalina NPP Unit 1 Closure Law the Government of Lithuania approved the Ignalina NPP Unit 1 Decommissioning Program until year 2005. For enforcement of this program, the plan of measures for implementation of the program was prepared and approved by the Minister of Economy. The plan consists of two parts, namely technical- environmental and social-economic. Technical-environmental measures are mostly oriented to the safe management of spent nuclear fuel and operational radioactive waste stored at the plant and preparation of licensing documents for Unit 1 decommissioning. Social-economic measures are oriented to mitigate negative social and economic impact on Lithuania, inhabitants of the region, and, particularly, o n the staff of Ignalina NPP by means of creating favorable conditions for a balanced social and economic development of the region. In this paper analysis of planned activities, licensing requirements for decommissioning, progress in preparation of the Final Decommissioning Plan is discussed.

Chemical and physical separations are critical to the Department of Energy's (DOE's) long-term efforts to cleanup in a cost-effective manner the environmental contamination and accumulated wastes in the nation's nuclear weapons complex and are incorporated into many baseline and alternate approaches. The purpose of this roadmap exercise was to provide a cohesive examination of the requirement for near- and long-term separations science and technology research to support implementation of baseline flow sheets for all sites as well as longer-term efforts to develop alternate flow sheets for the high-cost and/or high-risk projects. Alternatives that could provide major cost savings and acceleration of cleanup/closure schedules were also addressed. R&D efforts that existing at the close of FY2001 were examined to evaluate any gaps between the needs and the existing programs as well as opportunities that could result in major improvements in performance, costs, and/or schedules. The roadmap was assembled by the staff of the Efficient Separations and Processing Crosscutting Program, but it addressed needs and separations activities that were being pursued in other programs, including industrial contractors and university studies. Information for the roadmap was obtained from DOEEM organizations at all major sites, from focus areas, and from scientists who understood both …

This report describes the evaluation methods and results of a chemical safety status assessment of the process equipment at the U.S. Department of Energy Hanford Nuclear Reservation Plutonium Finishing Plant. This assessment, designated as the Plutonium Finishing Plant Residual Chemical Hazards Assessment, focused particular emphasis on the idle and inactive plant systems, though certain active areas also were examined to the extent that these were examined during a previous facility vulnerability assessment completed in 1999. The Plutonium Finishing Plant is located in the 200 West Area of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation that is situated in south central Washington State.

Can waste be transported safely to Yucca Mountain? Both the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have found that spent nuclear fuel can be shipped safely and securely. In fact, over the last 30 years there have been more than 2,700 shipments of spent nuclear fuel traveling more than 1.7 million miles, and there has never been a release of radioactive material harmful to the public or the environment--not one. Spent nuclear fuel is a solid material--it cannot leak, burn, or explode. The shipping containers, called casks, are the most robust in the transportation industry and must be certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They are designed to protect public health and safety under normal and severe accident conditions. Typically, every ton of shipped spent fuel is contained within approximately 4 tons of protective shielding and structural materials. How many shipments would be made to Yucca Mountain? DOE would use mainly trains and some legal-weight trucks to move spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain. Once the repository opens, DOE estimates and average of 130 rail shipments and 45 truck shipments per year for 24 years.

The Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station ceased operation in June of 1989 and entered an extended period of SAFSTOR to allow funds to accumulate for dismantlement. Incremental dismantlement was begun in 1997 of steam systems and based on the successful completion of work, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) board of directors approved full decommissioning in July 1999. A schedule has been developed for completion of decommissioning by 2008, allowing decommissioning funds to accumulate until they are needed. Systems removal began in the Auxiliary Building in October of 1999 and in the Reactor Building in January of 2000. Systems dismantlement continues in the Reactor Building and should be completed by the end of 2003. System removal is near completion in the Auxiliary Building with removal of the final liquid waste tanks in progress. The spent fuel has been moved to dry storage in an onsite ISFSI, with completion on August 21, 2002. The spent fuel racks are currently being removed from the pool, packaged and shipped, and then the pool will be cleaned. Also in the last year the reactor coolant pumps and primary piping were removed and shipped. Characterization and planning work for the reactor vessel and internals is …

The Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation (AMEC) Program is a cooperative effort between military establishments of the Russian Federation, United States and Norway to reduce potential environmental threats from military installations and activities in the Arctic and enhancing the environmental security of all three countries. The goal of this project is to enhance the ability to effectively and safely perform radiological monitoring of objects at selected facilities for dismantlement of nuclear submarines and handling and disposition of spent nuclear fuel. Radiological monitoring is needed to protect workers at the sites engaged in dismantlement of nuclear submarines, the local public and the environment. This is to be accomplished by supply of radiation monitoring equipment and the installation of centralized radiological surveillance, the PICASSO Environmental Monitoring system developed by Institute for Energy Technology, Halden, Norway. The first site selected for th e installation of PICASSO will be at the FGUP Atomflot spent nuclear fuel pad site and liquid radioactive waste treatment facility. This will be followed by an installation of PICASSO at the Mobile Processing Facility at Polyarninski Shipyard. The implementation of the PICASSO system will be integrated with the other AMEC projects at both sites. Plans are being developed to implement the …

The Savannah River Site (SRS) has embarked on an aggressive D&D program to reduce the footprint of excess facilities. Key to the success of this effort is the preparation of accurate cost estimates for decommissioning. SRS traditionally uses ''top-down'' rough order-of-magnitude (ROM) estimating for decommissioning cost estimates. A second cost estimating method (POWERtool) using a ''bottoms-up'' approach has been applied to many of the SRS excess facilities in the T and D-area. This paper describes the use of both estimating methods and compares the estimated costs to actual costs of 5 facilities that were decommissioned in 2002.

The purpose of the Department of Energy's grant was to transfer to New Mexico and Utah a national award-winning market-based strategy to aggregate demand for wind energy. Their experiences over the past few years in New Mexico and utah have been quite different. In both states they have developed stronger relationships with utilities and policymakers which will increase the effectiveness of the future advocacy efforts.

Incineration represents a promising weight and volume reduction technique for alpha-contaminated organic waste. Following several years of laboratory research initiated in 1983 on a nonradioactive prototype unit at the CEA's Rhone Valley (Marcoule) Research Center, an innovative process, IRIS, has been developed to meet the need for processing nuclear glove box waste containing large amounts of chlorine. In March 1999, the first highly chlorinated alpha-contaminated waste was incinerated in the industrial facility based on the IRIS process at the CEA's Valduc Center. The nonradioactive prototype at Marcoule and the radioactive facility at Valduc demonstrated that the process is highly effective with a continuously fed rotating tubular kiln and with a very effective control of corrosion by pyrolytic decomposition of the waste initially at 550 C. The ash quality meets specification requirements (< 1% carbon, < 1% chlorine) and the volume and weight reduction factors are sufficient (around 30). The offgas treatment system exhibits very high operating efficiency complying with gaseous emission standards.