At many DOE facilities, the presence of radioactive wastes and other contaminants within the vadose zone poses a serious and ongoing threat to public health and safety. In many cases these contaminants have been introduced directly to the vadose zone through releases on the surface or in shallow pits, and through leaking storage facilities. To reduce the environmental risks these wastes pose, the DOE is currently considering two fundamentally different approaches. The first involves remediation by treating contaminants in-place while the second, and more economically feasible being examined by DOE, involves in-situ immobilization of the wastes. Immobilization would be achieved through both injection of subsurface grout barriers to block transport pathways and installation of surface caps to prevent additional water infiltration into contaminated formations. A necessary requirement of both remediation approaches is the need to obtain information on the spatial distributions of the hydraulic and transport properties, the amount of contamination in place, and flow and transport processes that are occurring. With this information in hand, informed decisions can be made in order to optimize the remediation process for each particular case. In particular, these capabilities could result in reduced remediation costs, as well as providing necessary data to illustrate …

The goal of the proposed research is to develop new chemistry for the removal of organic contaminants from supercritical carbon dioxide. This has application in processes used for continuous cleaning and extraction of parts and waste materials. Cleaning and extraction using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) can be applied to the solution of a wide range of environmental and pollution prevention problems in the DOE complex. The objectives at the outset of the project were to: (1) determine if photocatalytic or other clean oxidation chemistry can be applied to the removal of organic or inorganic contaminants that are introduced into supercritical carbon dioxide during its use as an extraction and cleaning medium. The target will be contaminants left in solution after the bulk of solutes have been separated from the fluid phase by changing pressure and/or temperature (but not evaporating the CO2). This is applicable to development of efficient separations and will strengthen pollution prevention strategies that eliminate hazardous solvents and cleaning agents. (2) explore the use of supercritical carbon dioxide as a solvent for the photocatalytic oxidation of organic compounds and to compare it to other types of oxidation chemistry. This will add to the fundamental understanding of photocatalytic oxidation …

The mobility of actinides in surface soils remains a key issue of concern at several DOE facilities in arid and semiarid environments, including Rocky Flats, Hanford, Nevada, Idaho, and Los Alamos. Over the last 50 years, nuclear research and development programs have resulted in releases of plutonium to both on-site and off-site locations. Most of this plutonium and other actinides are currently in soils where it is tightly bound to soil particles (Watters et al. 1983), but these particles themselves are subject to redistribution. Research indicates that actinide redistribution is driven primarily by physical and biological processes associated with ecosystem dynamics, rather than by chemical processes. Actinide mobility is a high visibility issue at Rocky Flats and Hanford due to pending litigation and clean-up decisions. The potential for redistribution has lead plaintiff groups to sue the DOE and its contractors at Rocky Flats and Hanford by claiming that past releases of plutonium have occurred and that these releases have exposed off-site human populations to large amounts of plutonium with consequent negative health risks to humans (Goble 1996). Plaintiffs also claim that these exposures will continue to occur because of chronic releases from contaminated soil from on-site sources (Goble 1996, Smallwood …

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Cool storage technology can be used to significantly reduce energy costs by allowing energy-intensive, electrically driven cooling equipment to be predominantly operated during off peak hours when electricity rates are lower. This Federal Technology Alert, which is sponsored by DOE's Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), describes the basic types of cool storage technologies and cooling system integration options. In addition, it defines the savings potential in the federal sector, presents application advice, and describes the performance experience of specific federal users. The results of a case study of a GSA building using cool storage technology are also provided.

Cool storage technology can be used to significantly reduce energy costs by allowing energy-intensive, electrically driven cooling equipment to be predominantly operated during off peak hours when electricity rates are lower. This Federal Technology Alert, which is sponsored by DOE's Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), describes the basic types of cool storage technologies and cooling system integration options. In addition, it defines the savings potential in the federal sector, presents application advice, and describes the performance experience of specific federal users. The results of a case study of a GSA building using cool storage technology are also provided.

A number of DOE sites are contaminated with mixtures of dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) such as carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, perchloroethylene, and trichloroethylene. At many of these sites, in situ microbial bioremediation is an attractive strategy for cleanup, since it has the potential to degrade DNAPLs in situ without the need for pump-and-treat or soil removal procedures, and without producing toxic byproducts. A rapid screening method to determine broad range metabolic and genetic potential for contaminant degradation would greatly reduce the cost and time involved in assessment for in situ bioremediation, as well as for monitoring ongoing bioremediation treatment. The objective of this project was the development of mass-spectrometry-based methods to screen for genetic potential for both assessment and monitoring of in situ bioremediation of DNAPLs. These methods were designed to provide more robust and routine methods for DNA based characterization of th e genetic potential of subsurface microbes for degrading pollutants. Specifically, we sought to (1) Develop gene probes that yield information equivalent to conventional probes, but in a smaller size that is more amenable to mass spectrometric detection, (2) Pursue improvements to matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) methodology in order to allow its more general application to …

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Fotografía de un pez azul y amarillo que mira al fotógrafo mientras nada sobre la grava blanca del fondo del acuario.

A live jaguar stands behind a glass wall while small children look on.

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The dark form of a shark looms overhead.

A group of orange flamingos eat from a metal food dish set on rocks in their pond.

A group of orange flamingos stand together in a pond.

As a group of orange flamingos stands in their pond, one in the foreground eyes the photographer.

A group of orange flamingos stand together in their pond while a man and woman look at them.

A flock of orange flamingos stands in the their pond while one of their number ventures into a large empty cement bird bath.

A flock of orange flamingos stand together in their pond with a green palm plant in the background.

As a group of orange flamingos stand in their pond, one puts his head in the food dish.

A jaguar calmly observes the photographer while a man and little girl on the other side of a glass wall peer inside.

A little boy looks through a fence at a flock of flamingos in their pond.