In May of 2002, the River Protection Project at Hanford proposed as part of the accelerated cleanup for the entire Hanford Site to ''accelerate waste stabilization by developing and deploying alternative treatment and immobilization solutions that are aligned with the waste characteristics to add assurance that overall waste treatment/immobilization will be completed 20 or more years sooner.'' This paper addresses one of these elements: development of recommendations for the supplemental technologies that have the greatest potential to supplement the River Protection Project's new Waste Treatment Plant throughput and achieve completion of waste processing by 2028. Low-activity waste treatment in the Waste Treatment Plant needs either to be enhanced or supplemented to enable the full amount of low-activity feed in the single-shell and double-shell tanks to be processed by 2028. The supplemental technologies are considered for low-activity waste feed that represents the maximum effectiveness of treatment compared with Waste Treatment Plant processing. During the Spring of 2002, over two dozen candidate technologies were assessed by staff from the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) Headquarters, Hanford Office of River Protection, representatives from the Washington State Department of Ecology and Region 10 of the Environmental Protection Agency, staff from many national laboratories, as …

Results of column dissolution experiments designed to evaluate the physical and chemical processes inherent to saltcake dissolution are presented along with model chemical equilibrium calculations. Two different compositions representing saltcakes in Hanford tanks were characterized, and porosities and permeabilities for a third composition based upon the saltcake waste in Tank 41H at the Savannah River Site (SRS) were also evaluated. Whereas the surrogates are all chemically similar, the presence of high phosphate loadings for the Hanford (HNF) simulants was noted as significantly affecting draining. The permeability was higher for the SRS saltcake, and the sodium nitrate loading in this saltcake was roughly 80% by weight compared to less than 60% by weight for the HNF compositions. Average values of the permeability and porosity were reduced for the surrogates based on Hanford Tanks S-112 and S-101. Here a secondary layer formed above the saltcake bed and was found to contain a large amount of gibbsite, Al(OH)3. Experiments with 3 molal (m) NaOH as a diluent, compared to water, did not result in additional layer formation that has been attributed to a change in local pH thereby altering the solid liquid equilibrium. Chemical analysis of the two HNF saltcakes indicated solids re-precipitation …

At present time management of radioactive waste containing long-lived a radionuclides, is one of the most serious problems. The complexity of the management this kind of waste is due to extended half-life of these radionuclides. Hence it is difficult to predict not only long-term behavior of packages with waste, but also conditions of containing geological medium. The spent sources containing long-lived radionuclides are not suitable for disposal in shallow ground repositories. They must be temporary stored in special engineered structures. Long terms storage of these sources require application of additional measures for diminishing of risk of incidents with them.

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 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 document describes an evaluation of the baseline and two alternative disposition paths for the final disposition of the calcine wastes stored at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The pathways are evaluated against a prescribed set of criteria and a recommendation is made for the path forward.

Technology roadmapping can be an effective strategic technology planning tool. This paper describes a process for customizing a generic technology roadmapping process. Starting with a generic process reduces the learning curve and speeds up the roadmap development. Similarly, starting with a generic domain model provides leverage across multiple applications or situations within the domain. A process that combines these two approaches facilitates identifying technology gaps and determining common core technologies that can be reused for multiple applications or situations within the domain. This paper describes both of these processes and how they can be integrated. A core team and a number of technology working groups develop the technology roadmap, which includes critical system requirements and targets, technology areas and metrics for each area, and identifies and evaluates possible technology alternatives to recommend the most appropriate ones to pursue. A generalized waste management model, generated by considering multiple situations or applications in terms of a generic waste management model, provides the domain requirements for the technology roadmapping process. Finally, the paper discusses lessons learns from a number of roadmapping projects.

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 Transportable Vitrification System (TVS) was a large-scale vitrification system for the treatment of mixed wastes. The wastes contained both hazardous and radioactive materials in the form of sludge, soil, and ash. The TVS was developed to be moved to various United States Department of Energy (DOE) facilities to vitrify mixed waste as needed. The TVS consists of four primary modules: (1) Waste and Additive Materials Processing Module; (2) Melter Module; (3) Emissions Control Module; and (4) Control and Services Module. The TVS was demonstrated at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) during September and October of 1997. During this period, approximately 16,000 pounds of actual mixed waste was processed, producing over 17,000 pounds of glass. After the demonstration was complete it was determined that it was more expensive to use the TVS unit to treat and dispose of mixed waste than to direct bury this waste in Utah permitted facility. Thus, DOE had to perform a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) closure of the facility and find a reuse for as much of the equipment as possible. This paper will focus on the following items associated with this successful RCRA closure project: TVS site closure design and implementation; …

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

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

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Daily newspaper from Chickasha, 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.

This report considers the constitutionality of federal tort reform legislation, such as the products liability and medical malpractice reform proposals that have been introduced for the last several Congresses.

This report considers the constitutionality of federal tort reform legislation, such as the products liability and medical malpractice reform proposals that have been introduced for the last several Congresses.

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Communicating risk information is more difficult than assessing it. The latter relies on data, formulas, theorems and mathematical relationships that, with some effort, can be logically explained to another person; it's objective. Communicating risks, however, is subjective and relies on personalities, perceptions and predisposition, as well as emotions. Most notably the emotion is fear--fear of the unknown, fear of the message, the messenger, or the impact of the information on something of value to the person asking the questions. The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Operations Office is engaged in a Reindustrialization program to lease (and most recently, to transfer) formerly used facilities to private sector entities. The facilities are located at the East Tennessee Technology Park, originally a gaseous diffusion plant operated to enrich uranium for World War II efforts and later for use as fuel in civilian nuclear reactors.

An intense charged-particle beam with directed kinetic energy ({lambda}{sub b}-1)m{sub b}c{sup 2} propagates in the z-direction through an applied focusing field with transverse focusing force modeled by F{sub foc} = -{lambda}{sub b}m{sub b}{omega}{sub beta}{sup 2} {perpendicular} x {perpendicular} in the smooth focusing approximation. This paper examines properties of the axisymmetric, truncated thermal equilibrium distribution F(sub)b(r,p perpendicular) = A exp (-H Perpendicular/T perpendicular (sub)b) = (H perpendicular-E(sub)b), where A, T perpendicular (sub)b, and E (sub)b are positive constants, and H perpendicular is the Hamiltonian for transverse particle motion. The equilibrium profiles for beam number density, n(sub)b(r) = * d{sup 2}pF(sub)b(r,p perpendicular), and transverse temperature, T perpendicular (sub)b(r) = * d{sup 2}p(p{sup 2} perpendicular/2 lambda (sbu)bm (sub)b)F(sub)b(r,p perpendicular), are calculated self-consistently including space-charge effects. Several properties of the equilibrium profiles are noteworthy. For example, the beam has a sharp outer edge radius r(sub)b with n(sub)b(r greater than or equal to rb) = 0, where r(sub)b depends on the value of E(sub)b/T (sub)perpendicular(sub)b. In addition, unlike the choice of a semi-Gaussian distribution, F{sup SG}(sub)b = A exp (-p{sup 2}(sub)perpendicular/2lambda(sub)bm(sub)bTperpendicular(sub)b) = (r-r(sub)b), the truncated thermal equilibrium distribution F(sub)b(r,p) depends on (r,p) only through the single-particle constant of the motion Hperpendiuclar and is therefore a …

The Vlasov-Maxwell equations are used to investigate the nonlinear evolution of an intense sheet beam with distribution function f{sub b}(x,x{prime},s) propagating through a periodic focusing lattice k{sub x}(s+S) = k{sub x}(s), where S = const is the lattice period. The analysis considers the special class of distribution functions with uniform phase-space density f{sub b}(x,x{prime},s) = A = const inside of the simply connected boundary curves, x{prime}{sub +}(x,s) and x{prime}{sub -}(x,s), in the two-dimensional phase space (x,x{prime}). Coupled nonlinear equations are derived describing the self-consistent evolution of the boundary curves, x{prime}{sub +}(x,s) and x{prime}{sub -}(x,s), and the self-field potential {psi}(x,s) = e{sub b}{phi}(x,s)/{gamma}{sub b}m{sub b}{beta}{sub g}{sup 2}c{sup 2}. The resulting model is shown to be exactly equivalent to a (truncated) warm-fluid description with zero heat flow and triple-adiabatic equation-of-state with scalar pressure P{sub b}(x,s) = const x [n{sub b}(x,s)]. Such a fluid model is amenable to direct analysis by transforming to Lagrangian variables following the motion of a fluid element. Specific examples of periodically focused beam equilibria are presented, ranging from a finite-emittance beam in which the boundary curves in phase space (x,x{prime}) correspond to a pulsating parallelogram, to a cold beam in which the number density of beam particles, n{sub …

This paper examines the routing implications of the potential shipment of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The authors describe a model which can be used to evaluate the impacts of transporting spent nuclear fuel nationally and in the State of Nevada. The authors used this model to evaluate the cross-country highway routes identified in the DOE's Final Environmental Impact Statement and three alternative routing scenarios. The authors evaluate these routing scenarios based on four attributes: counties, exposed populations, total county populations, and shipment miles. The authors further evaluate the impacts of these alternative routing scenarios on two selected corridor states. The authors conclude that routing decisions have significantly different impacts on different state and local governments.

Thermal manikins are valuable tools for quantitatively evaluating the performance of protective clothing ensembles and microclimate cooling systems. The goal of this investigation was to examine the performance of Coretech personal cooling systems, designed to reduce the effects of physiological and environmental heat stress, using a sweating thermal manikin. A sweating manikin takes into account the effective physiological evaporative heat transfer. Three tubesuits containing different densities of tubing were evaluated on the thermal manikin in conjunction with body armor and two Chemical-Biological suits (SPM and JSLIST). The experiments were carried out in an environmental chamber set at a temperature of 35 C with a relative humidity of 30%. For the tubesuits, two flow rates were tested and the heat removal rates were obtained by measuring the amount of power required to maintain the manikin's surface at a constant temperature of 35 C. The sweating rates were adjusted to maintain a fully wetted manikin surface at the above environmental conditions. For fluid flow rates ranging from approximately 250 to 750 ml/min, and inlet temperatures to the tubesuit ranging from 7 to 10 C, heat removal rates between 220 W to 284 W were measured, indicating the effectiveness of tubesuits at removing …

This report discusses how and when the USA PATRIOT ACT P.L. 107-56 applies to libraries and bookstores under Section 215 of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act. A reply to House Judiciary Committee from The Justice Department notes that the use of Section 215 has been sparse or nonexistent.