Governments worldwide have committed to stabilization of high-level nuclear waste (HLW) by vitrification to a durable glass form for permanent disposal. All of these nuclear wastes contain the fission-product noble metals: ruthenium, rhodium, and palladium. SRS wastes also contain natural silver from iodine scrubbers. Closely associated with the noble metals are the fission products selenium and tellurium which are chemical analogs of sulfur and which combine with noble metals to influence their behavior and properties. Experience has shown that these melt insoluble metals and their compounds tend to settle to the floor of Joule-heated ceramic melters. In fact, almost all of the major research and production facilities have experienced some operational problem which can be associated with the presence of dense accumulations of these relatively conductive metals and/or their compounds. In most cases, these deposits have led to a loss of production capability, in some cases, to the point that melter operation could not continue. HLW nuclear waste vitrification facilities in the United States are the Department of Energy`s Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at the Savannah River Site, the planned Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant (HWVP) at the Hanford Site and the operating West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) at West …

This project was designed to evaluate the combustion performance of and emissions from a fluidized bed combustor during the combustion of mixtures of high sulfur and/or high chlorine coals and municipal solid waste (MSW). The project included four major tasks, which were as follows: (1) Selection, acquisition, and characterization of raw materials for fuels and the determination of combustion profiles of combination fuels using thermal analytical techniques; (2) Studies of the mechanisms for the formation of chlorinated organics during the combustion of MSW using a tube furnace; (3) Investigation of the effect of sulfur species on the formation of chlorinated organics; and (4) Examination of the combustion performance of combination fuels in a laboratory scale fluidized bed combustor. Several kinds of coals and the major combustible components of the MSW, including PVC, newspaper, and cellulose were tested in this project. Coals with a wide range of sulfur and chlorine contents were used. TGA/MS/FTIR analyses were performed on the raw materials and their blends. The possible mechanism for the formation of chlorinated organics during combustion was investigated by conducting a series of experiments in a tube furnace. The effect of sulfur dioxide on the formation of molecular chlorine during combustion processes …

The Savannah River Site (SRS) has been tasked by the Department of Energy (DOE) to design and construct a Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) to process irradiated tritium producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) from a Commercial Light Water Reactor (CLWR). The plan is for the CLWR-TEF to provide tritium to the SRS Replacement Tritium Facility (RTF) in Building 233-H in support of DOE requirements. The CLWR-TEF is being designed to provide 3 kg of new tritium per year, from TPBARS and other sources of tritium (Ref. 1-4).The CLWR TPBAR concept is being developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The TPBAR assemblies will be irradiated in a Commercial Utility light water nuclear reactor and transported to the SRS for tritium extraction and processing at the CLWR-TEF. A Conceptual Design Report for the CLWR-TEF Project was issued in July 1997 (Ref. 4).The scope of this Process Waste Assessment (PWA) will be limited to CLWR-TEF processing of CLWR irradiated TPBARs. Although the CLWR- TEF will also be designed to extract APT tritium-containing materials, they will be excluded at this time to facilitate timely development of this PWA. As with any process, CLWR-TEF waste stream characteristics will depend on process feedstock and contaminant sources. …

The overall objective of the effort was to develop and demonstrate an integrated methodology and field system to evaluate the integrity of in situ, impermeable barriers constructed in the vadose zone. An autonomous, remotely accessible, automatic monitoring and analysis system was designed and fabricated. It was thoroughly tested under field conditions, and was able to function as designed throughout the test period. Data inversion software was developed with enhanced capabilities over the previous prototype version, and integrated with the monitoring system for real time operation. Analytical simulations were performed to determine the inversion code's sensitivity to model parameters. Numerical simulations were performed to better understand how typical field conditions differ from the ideal model(s) which are used (or have been developed for use) in the inversion code and to further validate the flux limited forward model developed for use with the system. Results from the analytical and numerical assessment of the inversion code showed that the SEAtrace{trademark} approach could locate leaks within 0.4 to 1.2 m. Leak size determination was less accurate, but produced results within a factor of 3 to 8 for leaks in the 2.5 to 10 cm diameter range. The smallest engineered leak in the test 1.1 …

An experimental and numerical study is performed for the electron- beam evaporation of pure titanium from a bottom fed vapor source. In the experiments, an electron beam operating in the nominal range of 30-40 [kW] was used to evaporate metal from the top of a 3 inch diameter rod. Variations were made in the e-beam power, sweep pattern, and sweep frequency, and the total evaporation rate was measured from feed consumption and laser absorption. The solid-pool interface was obtained from metallographic cross sections of the metal rod. A two-dimensional finite element model was developed for the melt which includes the effect of fluid flow and energy transport in the pool and conduction in the solid. The deformation of the liquid-vapor and solid-liquid interfaces are tracked using a mesh which stretches along spines parallel to the axis of the rod. For the cases considered, high evaporative fluxes and vapor pressures generate significant depressions in the top surface of the pool. Predicted and measured evaporation rates are in good agreement for moderate evaporation fluxes, but discrepancies are larger for the case involving the highest flux and deepest depression.

The program is composed of 20 projects, of which 17 are laboratory bench or laboratory pilot scale processes or computer process simulations that are performed in existing facilities on the University of Utah campus in north-east Salt Lake City. These tasks are: (1) coupled fluidized-bed bitumen recovery and coked sand combustion; (2) water-based recovery of bitumen; (3) oil sand pyrolysis in a continuous rotary kiln reactor; (4) oil sand pyrolysis in a large diameter fluidized bed reactor; (5) oil sand pyrolysis in a small diameter fluidized bed reactor; (6) combustion of spent sand in a transport reactor; (7) recovery and upgrading of oil sand bitumen using solvent extraction methods; (8) fixed-bed hydrotreating of Uinta Basin bitumens and bitumen-derived hydrocarbon liquids; (9) ebullieted bed hydrotreating of bitumen and bitumen derived liquids; (10) bitumen upgrading by hydropyrolysis; (11) evaluation of Utah`s major oil sand deposits for the production of asphalt, high-energy jet fuels and other specialty products; (12) characterization of the bitumens and reservoir rocks from the Uinta Basin oil sand deposits; (13) bitumen upgrading pilot plant recommendations; (14) liquid-solid separation and fine tailings thickening; (15) in-situ production of heavy oil from Uinta Basin oil sand deposits; (16) oil sand research and …

The program is composed of 20 projects, of which 17 are laboratory bench or laboratory pilot scale processes or computer process simulations that are performed in existing facilities on the University of Utah campus in north-east Salt Lake City. These tasks are: (1) coupled fluidized-bed bitumen recovery and coked sand combustion; (2) water-based recovery of bitumen; (3) oil sand pyrolysis in a continuous rotary kiln reactor; (4) oil sand pyrolysis in a large diameter fluidized bed reactor; (5) oil sand pyrolysis in a small diameter fluidized bed reactor; (6) combustion of spent sand in a transport reactor; (7) recovery and upgrading of oil sand bitumen using solvent extraction methods; (8) fixed-bed hydrotreating of Uinta Basin bitumens and bitumen-derived hydrocarbon liquids; (9) ebullieted bed hydrotreating of bitumen and bitumen derived liquids; (10) bitumen upgrading by hydropyrolysis; (11) evaluation of Utah`s major oil sand deposits for the production of asphalt, high-energy jet fuels and other specialty products; (12) characterization of the bitumens and reservoir rocks from the Uinta Basin oil sand deposits; (13) bitumen upgrading pilot plant recommendations; (14) liquid-solid separation and fine tailings thickening; (15) in-situ production of heavy oil from Uinta Basin oil sand deposits; (16) oil sand research and …

Samples were obtained for microbiological analysis from a granular activated carbon fluidized bed bioreactor (GAC-FBR). This GAC-FBR was in operation at a former manufactured gas plant (MGP) Site in Augusta Georgia for in situ groundwater bioremediation of organics. The samples included contaminated site groundwater, GAC-FBR effluent, and biofilm coated granular activated carbon at 5, 9, and 13 feet within the GAC-FBR column. The objective of this analysis was to correlate contaminant removal with microbiological activity within the GAC-FBR.

Protecting a structure against earthquake excitation by supporting it on laminated elastomeric bearings has become a widely accepted practice. The ability to perform accurate simulation of the system, including FEA of the bearings, would be desirable--especially for key installations. In this paper attempts to model the behavior of elastomeric earthquake bearings are outlined. Attention is focused on modeling highly-filled, low-modulus, high-damping elastomeric isolator systems; comparisons are made between standard triboelastic solid model predictions and test results.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Order 430.1, Life Cycle Asset Management, begins to focus DOE Programs and Projects on the total system life cycle instead of looking at project execution or operation as individual components. As DOE begins to implement this order, the DOE Management and Operating contractors must develop a process to control not only the contract baseline but also the overall life cycle baseline. This paper presents an integrated process that is currently being developed on the Yucca Mountain Project for DOE. The process integrates the current contract/project baseline management process with the management control process for design and the configuration management change control process.

A set of viewgraphs for presenting what has been learned from experience with the Department of Energy`s Lessons Learned program, covering a brief history, the system and tools for sharing and accessing Lessons Learned, and how Lessons Learned can help the audience.

Under the Characterization, Monitoring, and Sensor Technology Crosscutting Program, the authors have designed and built a K-edge heavy-metal detector that measures the level of heavy-metal content inside closed containers in a nondestructive, non-invasive way. They have applied this technique to measurement of the amount of uranium in stacks of reactor fuel plates containing nuclear materials of different enrichments and alloys. They have obtained good agreement with expected uranium concentrations ranging from 60 mg/cm{sup 2} to 3,000 mg/cm{sup 2}, and have demonstrated that the instrument can operate in a high radiation field (> 200 mR/hr).

Aqueous, low-temperature oxidation rates for the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congener 2,2`,3-trichlorobiphenyl have been measured in aqueous phosphate-buffered solutions using Dickson-type reaction vessels. Concentrations of the target compounds were determined by gas chromatography and compound identification was verified by gas chromatography - mass spectrometry. The reaction temperatures ranged from 131 {degrees}C to 165{degrees}C and the activation energy for the destruction of 2,2`,3-trichlorobiphenyl was estimated to be 134 kJ/mole. In a low concentration experiment (approximately 500 ng/g starting concentration), 2,2`,3-trichlorobiphenyl concentration reached non-detect in two days at 135{degrees}C. In a much higher concentration experiment (approximately 24,000 mg/g initial loading), nearly 40% of the initial 2,2`,3-trichlorobiphenyl concentration, or about 10,000 ng/g was destroyed at 161{degrees}C in 18 days. The 2,2`, 3-trichlorobiphenyl concentration of 24,000 ng/g measured at 131{degrees}C represents a greater than 100 fold increase in the aqueous solubility compared to the value of 200 ng/g at 20{degrees}C reported by Mackay et al. During the experiments the reacted portion of the 2,2`, 3-trichlorobiphenyl was completely mineralized, as indicated by a stoichiometric production of inorganic carbon and chloride ion, and no intermediates amenable to gas chromatography were observed during the HPO experiments. These preliminary experiments indicate that hydrous pyrolysis/oxidation (HPO) may be a useful …

NA processes such as biodegradation, sorption, dilution dispersion, advection, and possibly sorption and diffusion are occurring in the Northeast and Northwest plumes. However, the overall biological attenuation rate for TCE within the plumes is not sufficiently rapid to utilize as remedial option. The mobility and toxicity of {sup 99}Tc is not being reduced by attenuating processes within the Northwest Plume. The current EPA position is that NA is not a viable remedial approach unless destructive processes are present or processes are active which reduce the toxicity and mobility of a contaminant. Therefore, active remediation of the dissolved phase plumes will be necessary to reduce contaminant concentrations before an NA approach could be justified at PGDP for either plume. Possible treatment methods for the reduction of dissolved phase concentrations within the plumes are pump-and-treat bioaugmentation, biostimulation, or multiple reactive barriers. Another possibility is the use of a regulatory instrument such as an Alternate Concentration Limit (ACL) petition. Biodegradation of TCE is occurring in both plumes and several hypothesis are possible to explain the apparent conflicts with some of the geochemical data. The first hypothesis is active intrinsic bioremediation is negligible or so slow to be nonmeasurable. In this scenario, the D.O., …

This document provides guidance to contractor generator groups for developing and maintaining documentation of Pollution Prevention/Waste. Minimization (P2/WMin) Program activities. The program documentation is intended to demonstrate generator compliance with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requirements as well as state and Federal regulations.

The Timesaver belt grinding machine has been selected by the Atlas collaboration for deburring the master and spacer plates after die stamping and laser cutting, respectively. However, the question has been raised as to whether or not the plates are sufficiently clean after going through the Timesaver machine to immediately be glued into a submodule assembly. This would greatly enhance the production of submodules because the task of cleaning individual master and spacer plates is labor intensive and time consuming as well as raises environmental issues with the detergent that is used. In order to investigate the possibility of using the Timesaver process to clean the plates as well as debur them, several plates were run through the machine and their cleanliness inspected before and after. In addition, several glue samples were subjected to the same process, glued, and then pulled apart in an attempt to gauge the cleanliness of the plates. From this series of tests it can be concluded that the wet Timesaver machine can adequately prepare the surface of the master and spacer plates as well as clean the plates for gluing. The machine was able to adequately remove all of the oil and grime from the …

This report provides status of Hanford activities in response to process deficiencies highlighted during and in response to the May 14, 1997, explosion at the Plutonium Reclamation Facility. This report provides specific response to the August 4, 1997, memorandum from the Secretary which requested a progress report, in 120 days, on activities associated with reassessing the known and evaluating new vulnerabilities (chemical and radiological) at facilities that have been shut down, are in standby, are being deactivated or have otherwise changed their conventional mode of operation in the last several years. In addition, this report is intended to provide status on emergency response corrective activities as requested in the memorandum from the Secretary on August 28, 1997. Status is also included for actions requested in the second August 28, 1997, memorandum from the Secretary, regarding timely notification of emergencies.

In May 1997, a historic deactivation project at the PUREX (Plutonium URanium EXtraction) facility at the Hanford Site in south-central Washington State concluded its activities (Figure ES-1). The project work was finished at $78 million under its original budget of $222.5 million, and 16 months ahead of schedule. Closely watched throughout the US Department of Energy (DOE) complex and by the US Department of Defense for the value of its lessons learned, the PUREX Deactivation Project has become the national model for the safe transition of contaminated facilities to shut down status.

'Sheet silicates (e.g. micas and clays) are important constituents of a wide variety of geological formations such as granite, basalt, and sandstone. Sheet silicates, particularly clays such as bentonite are common materials in near-field engineered barriers in high-level nuclear waste (HLW) repositories. This is because migration of radionuclides from an underground HLW repository to the geosphere may be significantly reduced by sorption of radionuclides (e.g., Pu, U and Np) onto sheet silicates (e.g., clays and micas) that line the fractures and pores of the rocks along groundwater flowpaths. In addition to surface sorption, it has been suggested that some sheet silicates may also be able to incorporate many radionuclides, such as Cs and Sr, in the inter-layer sites of the sheet structure. However, theability of the sheet silicates to incorporate radionuclides and retard release and migration of radionuclides may be significantly affected by the near-field radiation due to the decay of fission products and actinides. for example, the unique properties of the sheet structures will be lost completely if the structure becomes amorphous due to irradiation effects. Thus, the study of irradiation effects on sheet-structures, such as structural damage and modification of chemical properties, are critical to the performance assessment …

Several sets of new calculations were performed to support the Spent Nuclear Fuel project nuclear criticality safety evaluation. These new calculations include partial loading of Mark IA inner elements after the outers have been loaded, a new, more robust design for the central pipe insert for the Mark IA fuel baskets, Single Pass Reactor fuel loading, the lowering of a Mark IV-loaded MCO through the concrete operating deck as-it is inserted into the Canister Storage Building storage array, and one additional scrap basket loading error. None of these calculations exceeded the criticality safety limit.

Under the DOE CHAMMP/CLIMATE Program, a convective scheme was developed for use in climate models. The purpose of the present study was to develop an adjoint model of its tangent-linear model. the convective scheme was integrated within a single column model which provides radiative-convective equilibrium solutions applicable to climate models. The main goal of this part of the project was to develop an adjoint of the scheme to facilitate the optimization of its convective parameters. For that purpose, adjoint sensitivities were calculated with the adjoint code. Parameter optimization was based on TOGA COARE data which were also used in this study to obtain integrations of the nonlinear and tangent-linear models as well as the integrations of the adjoint model. Some inadequacies of the inner IFA data array were found, and did not permit a single numerical integration during the entire 4 months of data. However, reliable monthly radiative-convective equilibrium solutions and associated adjoint sensitivities were obtained and used to bring about the parameter optimization.

This audit was performed to determine the allowability of costs claimed by Princeton under 20 Government-funded, cost-reimbursement grants and contracts (agreements). The agreements audited were those assigned to two principal investigators who were also employed by a commercial business. The audit included test procedures for validating claimed costs by records tracing. For indirect costs and employee benefit costs, the audit analyzed whether claimed costs were based on approved fixed rates applied to appropriate allocation bases. In addition to reviewing Princeton`s records, documentation from the commercial business was reviewed. The audit identified conditions that called into question the amount of labor effort and expenditures incurred on the 20 Princeton agreements. Specifically, the number of hours that the principal investigators reported to have worked at the commercial business raised doubt about the amount of effort that was actually devoted to the agreements. Based on audit findings, recommendations were made for corrective actions by Princeton and for cost recovery by the contracting officers.

This report describes work on the contract to provide Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG) and Ancillary Activities in support of the Cassini Spacecraft launch. The craft was successfully launched on October 15, 1997. Early telemetry results show excellent performance from the three launched RTG modules. A major share of this report describes safety analyses for contamination radii in the event of launch failures and generator destruction, as well as launch related activities.

Task 3 (Environmental Field Sampling and Analysis of NORM, Heavy Metals, and Organics) and 4 (Monitoring of the Recovery of Impacted Wetland and Open Bay Produced Water Discharge Sites in Coastal Louisiana and Texas) activities involved continued data analysis and report writing. Task 5 (Assessment of Economic Impacts of Offshore and Coastal Discharge Requirements on Present and Future Operations in the Gulf of Mexico Region) was issued as a final report during the previous reporting period. Task 6 (Synthesis of Gulf of Mexico Seafood Consumption and Use Patterns) activities included the preparation of the final report. There were no Task 7 (Technology Transfer Plan) activities to report. Task 8 (Project Management and Deliverables) activities involved the submission of the necessary reports and routine management.