Decommissioning activities at radiological and hazardous waste facilities often requires the removal of large pieces of contaminated tanks, equipment, and machinery. Size reducing these large objects for disposal in standard waste containers presents major challenges. The use of a spray-applied polyurea coating has the potential to eliminate the need for size-reduction activities and reduce worker risk. Cost savings to the decommissioning project are an added benefit to using this alternative waste packaging system.

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 …

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.

Prior reservoir simulation and laboratory studies have suggested that injecting carbon dioxide into mature natural gas reservoirs for carbon sequestration with enhanced gas recovery (CSEGR) is technically feasible. Reservoir simulations show that the high density of carbon dioxide can be exploited to favor displacement of methane with limited gas mixing by injecting carbon dioxide in low regions of a reservoir while producing from higher regions in the reservoir. Economic sensitivity analysis of a prototypical CSEGR application at a large depleting gas field in California shows that the largest expense will be for carbon dioxide capture, purification, compression, and transport to the field. Other incremental costs for CSEGR include: (1) new or reconditioned wells for carbon dioxide injection, methane production, and monitoring; (2) carbon dioxide distribution within the field; and, (3) separation facilities to handle eventual carbon dioxide contamination of the methane. Economic feasibility is most sensitive to wellhead methane price, carbon dioxide supply costs, and the ratio of carbon dioxide injected to incremental methane produced. Our analysis suggests that CSEGR may be economically feasible at carbon dioxide supply costs of up to $4 to $12/t ($0.20 to $0.63/Mcf). Although this analysis is based on a particular gas field, the approach …

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the Subcommittees on Transportation of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.

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 …

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.

This report provides information about the Country Applicability of the U.S. Normal Trade Relations (Most-Favored-Nation) Status. The United States extends unlimited and permanent NTR treatment to all its trading partners.

The United States accords permanent normal-trade-relations (NTR) (formerly called most-favored-nation (MFN)) treatment to all its trading partners except four countries to which it is denied by law and 11 countries whose NTR status is temporary and subject to the conditions of Title IV of the Trade Act of 1974.

This paper presents the current results of a study for the optimization of the quality of the wasteform to be produced by vitrification of Hanford High Level Waste (HLW). A simulant of the content of Hanford Tank AZ-101 has been used for the experiments. A first phase of the research focused on the wasteform composition and showed that a high quality and chemical-resistant wasteform can be formed incorporating 60 weight % of dried waste into a borosilicate glass enriched with zinc oxide and boric acid and provided some indication about the heat treatment of the melt. A second phase of the study, still in progress, refines these findings. A detailed crystallinity survey of the waste form after various heat treatments has been performed, culminating in the development of a time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagram. The results of the first phase of research and preliminary results from the second phase are described.

A policy-directed framework is developed to support US Department of Energy (DOE) counterterrorism efforts, specifically terrorist intrusion activities that affect of Environmental Management (EM) programs. The framework is called the Security Effectiveness and Resource Allocation Definition Forecasting and Control System (SERAD-FACS). Use of SERAD-FACS allows trade-offs between resources, technologies, risk, and Research and Development (R&D) efforts to mitigate such intrusion attempts. Core to SERAD-FACS is (1) the understanding the perspectives and time horizons of key decisionmakers and organizations, (2) a determination of site vulnerabilities and accessibilities, and (3) quantifying the measures that describe the risk associated with a compromise of EM assets. The innovative utility of SERAD-FACS is illustrated for three integrated waste management and security strategies. EM program risks, time delays, and security for effectiveness are examined to demonstrate the significant cost and schedule impact terrorist activities can have on cleanup efforts in the DOE complex.

Duratek successfully demonstrated a process for reusing contaminated lead as a shielding material for radioactive waste containers. This process offers the Department of Energy (DOE) and commercial utilities a cost-effective strategy for reusing a material that would otherwise require costly disposal as a mixed waste. During the past year, GTS-Duratek Inc. approximately 500,000 pounds of contaminated and potentially contaminated lead into shielding (bricks) and shielded steel containers. The lead originated from the DOE facilities including INEEL, Hanford, Argonne, Los Alamos, Berkeley and Sandia.

Weekly newspaper from Mannford, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

About a dozen federally supported child nutrition programs and related activities – including school meal programs and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (the WIC program) – reach over 37 million children and almost 2 million lower-income pregnant and postpartum women. Total FY2002 spending on these efforts was $15.1 billion. FY2003 spending is projected at an estimated $15.9 billion under the Agriculture Department appropriations portion (Division A) of the FY2003 Consolidated Appropriations Resolution (P.L. 108-7; H.Rept. 108-10; enacted February 20,2003). And the Administration anticipates spending $16.3 billion under its FY2004 budget.

Semiweekly newspaper from Levelland, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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 paper describes the modeling performed on a proposed enclosure for the existing railcar rollover facility located in Clive, Utah at a radioactive waste disposal site owned and operated by Envirocare of Utah, Inc. (Envirocare). The dose and plume modeling information was used as a tool to justify the decision to make the capital purchase and realize the modeled performance enhancements.

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.

Treatability testing for In Situ Chemical Oxidation was conducted on a site where the groundwater was contaminated with trichloroethylelne, nitroaromatics, nitrate, and radionuclides. The treatability testing involved characterization of the contaminated aquifer material and groundwater, soil oxidant demand testing, and batch slurry reaction tests. The aquifer oxidant demand was 0.44 to 0.89 grams KMnO4 per kg aquifer solids. This is an exceptionally low level and indicates that permanganate reagent would be used efficiently on site to treat VOCs rather than react with the aquifer matrix. The slurry reaction test data indicate that permanganate reaction with TCE, cis-1,2-DCE, and vinyl chloride present in the site groundwater occurs rapidly and are destroyed to below detectable levels (<5 {micro}g/L) in groundwater and aquifer environment within the first 8 hours of treatment. A permanganate concentration of 1,000 mg/L or above will accomplish this performance. The water quality w as not adversely affected by the treatment process. Chloride and nitrate ion concentrations in the groundwater as well as pH of the groundwater are not impacted by permanganate treatment. No adverse effect on aqueous concentrations of chromium, manganese or uranium was detected due to the permanganate treatment process.

A decrease in the efficiency of some decontamination processes may occur after several implementations on the same surface, as recontamination between each implementation can occur. In some situations, achieving decontamination to acceptable levels can become difficult. The origin of this problem has been highlighted and solutions have been found. In fact, by thoroughly cleaning the surface, the decontamination process may lead to an increase of the adhesion of subsequent contaminants, thus making them much more difficult to remove. In concrete terms, some chemical functional groups, such as hydroxides make possible the chemical sorption of metal ions. Simply removing grease or natural pollutants from the surface allows direct contact between the contaminants and these reactive sites, increasing adhesion. If the cleaning process is badly suited to the material to be decontaminated, a modification of the chemical composition of the surface can occur, possibly increasing the density of reactive sites, making the problem worse. Predicting the evolution of the surface chemical properties with time is a challenge. Prevention of surface contamination appears to be a wiser approach. The principle is to prevent strong adhesion of the contaminants by masking the reactive groups likely to chemically bind the contaminants to the surface. With …

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This report provides information about the Human Resources Management of Homeland Security. It discusses the provisions of P.L. 107-296 as they relate to human resources management. It does not discuss provisions of the law that relate to labor-management relations and collective bargaining.

Weekly newspaper from Alvin, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from The Colony, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.