The Environmental Compliance Program is developing and implementing a PHMC-wide chemical management system with the goal being to: (1) manage and control chemicals from procurement through use and final disposition; (2) develop and maintain procedures for identifying and evaluating hazards and environmental impacts present in facilities, and the hazard classification of the facilities. The US Department of Energy (DOE) may promulgate the final rule, 1 0 CFR 834, Radiation Protection of the Public and the Environment in FY 1999. This rule establishes controls for the release of radioactive material and limits for the amount of radiation exposure to the public and the environment. It will be applicable to activities of DOE contractors at the Hanford site. This rule is expected to replace the bulk of DOE Orders 5400.5, Radiation Protection of the Public and the Environment and 5400. 1, General Environmental Protection Program. In doing so, these Orders will be backed by the Price-Anderson enforcement procedures and carry penalties for non-compliance.

The purpose of this engineering study is to investigate the available technology related to dissolution of the K Basin sludge in nitric acid. The conclusion of this study along with laboratory and hot cell tests with actual sludge samples will provide the basis for beginning conceptual design of the sludge dissolver. The K Basin sludge contains uranium oxides, fragments of metallic U, and some U hydride as well as ferric oxyhydroxide, aluminum oxides and hydroxides, windblown sand that infiltrated the basin enclosure, ion exchange resin, and miscellaneous materials. The decision has been made to dispose of this sludge separate from the fuel elements stored in the basins. The sludge will be conditioned so that it meets Tank Waste Remediation System waste acceptance criteria and can be sent to one of the underground storage tanks. Sludge conditioning will be done by dissolving the fuel constituents in nitric acid, separating the insoluble material, adding neutron absorbers for criticality safety, and then reacting the solution with caustic to co-precipitate the uranium and plutonium. There will be five distinct feed streams to the sludge conditioning process two from the K East (KE) Basin and three from the K West (KW) Basin. The composition of …

The Standard Hydrogen Monitoring System (SHMS) is designed to monitor the volume percent hydrogen concentration during potential gas releases from the Hanford underground waste storage tanks. A flexible gas continuous monitoring system was needed that could be expanded to measure gas compositions at both high and low sensitivities. For these reasons, a modified version of the SHMS (entitled SHMS-E) has been developed. The SHMS-E analytical (often referred to as SHMS-E+) measures gas concentrations in selectable ranges of approximately: Hydrogen (3-100,000 ppm); Nitrous Oxide (10-4,000 ppm); Ammonia (10-10,000 ppm) and Methane (10-4,000 ppm). The SHMS-E basic will monitor Hydrogen using electrochemical cells, but will not have the Microsensor Technology Inc. (MTI) dual-column gas chromatograph, B and K photo-acoustic spectrometer, and associated computers installed though they may be installed with minimal hardware changes in the future if needed.

Near-facility environmental monitoring provides a means to measure the impacts of operations, waste management, and remediation activities on the environment adjacent to facilities and ensure compliance with local, state, and federal environmental regulations. Specifically, near-facility environmental monitoring monitors new and existing sites, processes, and facilities for potential impacts and releases; fugitive emissions and diffuse sources associated with contaminated areas, facilities (both active and those undergoing surveillance and maintenance), and environmental restoration activities. External radiation, ambient air particulates, ground and surface water, soil, sediment, and biota (plants and animals) are sampled or monitored. Parameters include, as appropriate, radionuclides; radiation fields; chemical or physical constituents, such as nitrates; pH; and water temperature. All ambient air results were below the US Department of Energy (DOE) Derived Concentration Guides (DCGs). Groundwater concentrations at the two wells at the 107-N Facility were below both the DOE DCG and US Environmental Protection Agency Interim Drinking Water Standards for gamma emitting radionuclides. Soil and vegetation results were generally within historic ranges and mostly below the Accessible Soil Concentration limits (included in HNF-PRO-454, Inactive Waste Sites) with the exception of one soil sampling location at 1 00 N Area. External radiation fields continued an overall downward trend. Surface …

This paper presents several innovative and common sense approaches to pollution prevention that have been employed during facility deactivation at the Hanford Site in South Central Washington. It also presents several pollution prevention principles applicable to other projects. Innovative pollution prevention ideas employed at the Hanford site during facility deactivation included: (1) Recycling more than 185,000 gallons of radioactively contaminated nitric acid by sending it to an operating nuclear fuels reprocessing facility in England; (2) Recycling millions of pounds of chemicals and excess materials to other industries for reuse; (3) Evaporating flush water at a low rate and discharging it into the facility exhaust air stream to avoid discharging thousands of gallons of liquid to the soil column; and (4) Decontaminating and disposing of thousands of gallons of radioactively contaminated organic solvent waste to a RCRA licensed, power-producing, commercial incinerator. Common sense pollution prevention ideas that were employed include recycling office furniture, recycling paper from office files, and redeploying tools and miscellaneous process equipment. Additional pollution prevention occurred as the facility liquid and gaseous discharge streams were deactivated. From the facilities deactivation experiences at Hanford and the ensuing efforts to disposition excess chemicals and materials, several key pollution prevention principles …

The K East (KE) and K West (KW) fuel storage basins at the 100 K Area of the Hanford Site contain sludge on the floor, in pits, and inside fuel storage canisters. The major sources of the sludge are corrosion of the fuel elements and steel structures in the basin, sand intrusion from outside the buildings, and degradation of the structural concrete that forms the basins. The decision has been made to dispose of this sludge separate from the fuel elements stored in the basins. The sludge will be treated so that it meets Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) acceptance criteria and can be sent to one of the double-shell waste tanks. The US Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office accepted a recommendation by Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc., to chemically treat the sludge. Sludge treatment will be done by dissolving the fuel constituents in nitric acid, separating the insoluble material, adding neutron absorbers for criticality safety, and reacting the solution with caustic to co-precipitate the uranium and plutonium. A truck will transport the resulting slurry to an underground storage tank (most likely tank 241-AW-105). The undissolved solids will be treated to reduce the transuranic (TRU) and content, stabilized in grout, …

Project W-320 will be retrieving waste from Tank 241-C-106 and transferring the waste to Tank 241-AY-102. Waste in both tanks must be maintained below applicable thermal limits during and following the waste transfer. Thermal hydraulic process control models will be used for process control of the thermal limits. This report documents the process control models and presents a benchmarking of the models with data from Tanks 241-C-106 and 241-AY-102. Revision 1 of this report will provide a baselining of the models in preparation for the initiation of sluicing.

A major function of the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) is to characterize waste in support of waste management and disposal activities at the Hanford Site. Analytical data from sampling and analysis and other available information about a tank are compiled and maintained in a tank characterization report (TCR). This report and its appendixes serve as the TCR for single-shell tank 241-U-112. The objectives of this report are (1) to use characterization data in response to technical issues associated with tank 241-U-112 waste, and (2) to provide a standard characterization of this waste in terms of a best-basis inventory estimate. Section 2.0 summarizes the response to technical issues, Section 3.0 shows the best-basis inventory estimate, Section 4.0 makes recommendations about the safety status of the tank and additional sampling needs. The appendixes contain supporting data and information. This report supports the requirements of the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (Ecology et al. 1997), Milestone M-44-15b, change request M-44-97-03 to issue characterization deliverables consistent with the Waste Information Requirements Document developed for 1998.

Four flex circuits were tested. They are categorized as: (1) Litchfield narrow; (2) Litchfield wide; (3) Cirexx wide; and (4) Speedy Circuit green. The cross sectional area of copper was calculated from trace resistance measurements. All the flex circuits had an acceptable amount of copper cross section. about 6 e-8 m{sup 2} for all except the Cirexx flex which had 4.5 e-8 m{sup 2}. The thickness of the ribbons was 0.006-inch for the Litchfield and about 0.004-inch for the Cirexx and Speed circuit. The room temperature resistivity ratio (RRR) was measured to be 15 for all the circuits. This was expected and means that the trace material resistivity at helium temperatures is 1/15th of what it is at room temperature. This is good from the standpoint of thermal heat load. Purer copper, with an RRR > 30 would result in an unacceptable heat load. The cryogenic cycling and bending tests to liquid nitrogen proved that both the Cirexx wide and Speedy circuit green were made of acceptable materials. Both Litchfield flex circuits had significant cracking of the coverlay when bent at cold temperatures and are not acceptable. The Litchfield narrow was in bad physical condition to start with and got …

This report provides a summary of the radiological surveys performed in support of near-facility environmental monitoring at the Hanford Site. The Second Quarter 1998 survey results and the status of actions required are summarized. Eleven of the ninety two environmental radiological surveys scheduled during April, May, and June were performed as planned. Sixty seven of the surveys were conducted at Project Hanford Management Contractors (PHMC) sites and twenty five at Environmental Restoration Contractor (ERC) sites. Contamination above background levels was found at twenty one of the PHMC waste sites and two of the ERC waste sites. Contamination levels as high >1,000,000 disintegrations per minute (dpm) per 100 Cmz were reported. Of these contaminated surveys twelve were in Underground Radioactive Material (URM) areas, three were in unposted areas and eight were in contamination areas. The contamination found within six of the UFW and four of the CA areas was immediately cleaned up and no further action was required. The remaining six URM, four CA, and three unposted sites were posted and will require decontamination. Radiological Problem Reports (RPR`s) were issued and the sites were turned over to the Landlord for further action as required. During the second quarter of 1998, 1.2 …

This report discusses the Permitting Plan regarding NEPA, SEPA, RCRA, and other regulatory standards and alternatives, for planning the environmental permitting of the Canister Storage Building, Project W-464.

Tank Characterization Technical Sampling Basis (this document) is the first step of an in place working process to plan characterization activities in an optimal manner. This document will be used to develop the revision of the Waste Information Requirements Document (WIRD) (Winkelman et al. 1997) and ultimately, to create sampling schedules. The revised WIRD will define all Characterization Project activities over the course of subsequent fiscal years 1999 through 2002. This document establishes priorities for sampling and characterization activities conducted under the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) Tank Waste Characterization Project. The Tank Waste Characterization Project is designed to provide all TWRS programs with information describing the physical, chemical, and radiological properties of the contents of waste storage tanks at the Hanford Site. These tanks contain radioactive waste generated from the production of nuclear weapons materials at the Hanford Site. The waste composition varies from tank to tank because of the large number of chemical processes that were used when producing nuclear weapons materials over the years and because the wastes were mixed during efforts to better use tank storage space. The Tank Waste Characterization Project mission is to provide information and waste sample material necessary for TWRS to define …

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The Materials Consultation Group of SRTC has completed a review of existing literature and data regarding the useable service life of Viton{reg_sign} GLT fluoroelastomer O-rings currently used in the Model 9975 packaging assemblies. Although the shipping and transportation period is normally limited to 2 years, it is anticipated that these packages will be used for longer-term storage of Pu-bearing materials in KAMS (K-Area Materials Storage) prior to processing or disposition in the APSF (Actinide Packaging and Storage Facility). Based on the service conditions and review of available literature, Materials Consultation concludes that there is sufficient existing data to establish the technical basis for storage of Pu-bearing materials using Parker Seals O-ring compound V835-75 (or equivalent) for up to 10 years following the 2-year shipping period. Although significant physical deterioration of the O-rings and release of product is not expected, definite changes in physical properties will occur. However, due to the complex relationship between elastomer formulation, seal properties, and competing degradation mechanisms, the actual degree of property variation and impact upon seal performance is difficult to predict. Therefore, accelerated aging and/or surveillance programs are recommended to validate the assumptions outlined in this report and to assess the long-term performance of O-ring …

The objective of this evaluation is to provide recommendations to ensure consistency between the technical baseline requirements, baseline design, and the as-constructed Access Roads. Recommendations for resolving discrepancies between the as-constructed system, the technical baseline requirements, and the baseline design are included in this report. Cost and Schedule estimates are provided for all recommended modifications. This report does not address items which do not meet current safety or code requirements. These items are identified to the CMO and immediate action is taken to correct the situation. The report does identify safety and code items for which the A/E is recommending improvements. The recommended improvements will exceed the minimum requirements of applicable code and safety guide lines. These recommendations are intended to improve and enhance the operation and maintenance of the facility.

This document is the Individual Software Plan (ISP) for version 2.0 of the Non-isothermal Unsaturated-saturated Flow and Transport (NUFT.) analysis computer program. This document addresses the applicable requirements of LLNL YMP procedure 033-YMP-QP 3.2, Section 4.2.1.1. The purpose of this ISP is to plan and organize the activities required to certify the NUFT code for quality affecting work involving problems that include cross drift analysis of the Yucca Mountain Repository facility. NUFT is software for application to the solution of a class of coupled mass and heat transport problems in porous geologic media including Yucca Mountain Repository Cross Drift Problem (YMRCDP- also known as the Enhanced Characterization of the Repository Block (ECRB)). Solution of this class of problems requires a suite of multiphase, multi-component models for numerical solution of non- isothermal flow and transport in porous media with applications to subsurface contaminant transport problems. NUFT is a suite of multiphase, multi-component models for numerical solution of non- isothermal flow and transport in porous media, with application to subsurface contaminant transport problems, and in particular, to the hydrology in and about the Yucca Mountain Repository Site. NUFI� is acquired software, as defined by 033-YMP-QP 3.2, and a preliminary baseline of source …

In 1995, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Fossil Energy, asked Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) to conduct a preliminary technical and legal evaluation of disposing of nonhazardous oil field waste (NOW) into salt caverns. That study concluded that disposal of NOW into salt caverns is feasible and legal. If caverns are sited and designed well, operated carefully, closed properly, and monitored routinely, they can be a suitable means of disposing of NOW (Veil et al. 1996). Considering these findings and the increased U.S. interest in using salt caverns for NOW disposal, the Office of Fossil Energy asked Argonne to conduct further research on the cost of cavern disposal compared with the cost of more traditional NOW disposal methods and on preliminary identification and investigation of the risks associated with such disposal. The cost study (Veil 1997) found that disposal costs at the four permitted disposal caverns in the United States were comparable to or lower than the costs of other disposal facilities in the same geographic area. The risk study (Tomasko et al. 1997) estimated that both cancer and noncancer human health risks from drinking water that had been contaminated by releases of cavern contents were significantly lower …

Most of the phenomenological studies of supersymmetry have been carried out using the so-called minimal supergravity scenario, where one assumes a universal scalar mass, gaugino mass, and trilinear coupling at M{sub GUT}. Even though this is a useful simplifying assumption for phenomenological analyses, it is rather too restrictive to accommodate a large variety of phenomenological possibilities. It predicts, among other things, that the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is an almost pure B-ino, and that the {mu}-parameter is larger than the masses of the SU(2){sub L} and U(1){sub Y} gauginos. We extend the minimal supergravity framework by introducing one extra parameter: the Fayet'Iliopoulos D-term for the hypercharge U(1), D{sub Y}. Allowing for this extra parameter, we find a much more diverse phenomenology, where the LSP is {tilde {nu}}{sub {tau}}, {tilde {tau}} or a neutralino with a large higgsino content. We discuss the relevance of the different possibilities to collider signatures. The same type of extension can be done to models with the gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking. We argue that it is not wise to impose cosmological constraints on the parameter space.

At about 4:30 pm PDT on Friday, August 7, 1998 a fire ignited the large tire disposal pit of Royster Tire Co. on Macarthur Drive about 5 km (3 miles) south of downtown Tracy, California. While providing on-scene mutual aid late Friday night, the LLNL Fire Department called and requested that the Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) make a plume forecast for Saturday. The response team in the field was interested in the forecasted location as well as an estimate of potential health effects on the following day. Not having any previous experience with tire fire source terms, ARAC assessors used a constant unit source rate (1 g/s) of particulate and produced plots showing only the location of the ground-level normalized time-integrated air concentrations from the smoke plume. Very early Saturday morning the assessors faxed plots of ground-level smoke air concentrations forecasted for Saturday from 6 am through 6 pm PDT to the Tracy Fire Emergency Operations Center. (As a part of standard procedure, before delivering the plots, the assessors notified ARAC's DOE sponsor.) Fortunately due to the intense heat from the fire, the dense black smoke immediately lofted into the air preventing high ground-level concentrations close to the tire …

The purpose of this analysis is to determine the structural response of the 21 pressurized water reactor (PWR) uncanistered fuel (UCF) waste package (WP) to a tipover design basis event (DBE) dynamic load; the results will be reported in terms of stress magnitudes. Finite-element solution was performed by making use of the commercially available ANSYS finite-element code. A finite-element model of the waste package was developed and analyzed for a tipover DBE dynamic load. The results of this analysis were provided in tables and were also plotted in terms of the maximum stress contours to determine their locations.

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The reduction of sulfur oxides from high sulfur coal burning utility companies has resulted in the production of huge quantities of wet flue-gas desulfurization scrubber sludge. A typical 400 MW power station burning a coal containing 3.5% sulfur by weight and using a limestone absorbent would produce approximately 177,000 tons (dry weight) of scrubber sludge per year. This brownish colored, finely divided material contains calcium sulfite (CaSO{sub 3} {center_dot} 1/2 H{sub 2}O), calcium sulfate (CaSO{sub 4} {center_dot} 2H{sub 2}O), unreacted limestone (CaCO{sub 3}), and various other impurities such as fly-ash and iron oxide particles. The physical separation of the components of scrubber sludge would result in the re-use of this material. The primary use would be conversion to a highly pure synthetic gypsum. This technical report concentrates on the effect of baffle configuration on the separation of calcium sulfite/sulfate from limestone. The position of the baffles as they related to the feed inlet, and the quantity of the baffles were examined. A clean calcium sulfite/sulfate (less than 2.0% limestone by weight) was achieved with the combination of water-only cyclone and horizontally baffled column.

This document is the final report of research conducted from 1990-96 by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to evaluate Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) project 90-077, the Northern Squawfish Management Program (NSMP). The Summary of Project summarizes and integrates the results, conclusions, and recommendations of the evaluation. The report contains research papers that describe how we addressed project objectives, how we reached our conclusions, and why we made our recommendations. The papers are listed and numbered consecutively in the Table of Contents and the numbers are used to reference each paper in the Summary of Project. It is the integration of these individual papers that provides the best picture of the current status of the NSMP.

Two bulkheads, one composed of high performance concrete and the other of highly compacted sand-bentonite material, have been constructed in a tunnel in unfractured granite rock at the Underground Research Laboratory. The Tunnel Sealing Experiment will characterize the performance of the two bulkheads under applied hydraulic pressures. The chamber between the two bulkheads will be pressurized to approximately 4 MPa, a value representative of the ambient pore pressures in the rock at a depth of 420 m. Instrumentation in the experiment monitors the seepage through and around each bulkhead as well as the changes tot he pure water pressure, and hence changes to the flow directions,in the intact rock. Stresses and displacements in each bulkhead are also monitored. The objective of the experiment is to demonstrate technologies for contrustion of bentonite and concrete bulkheads and to quantify the performance of each bulkhead.