on the characterization, monitoring, and sensor technology crosscutting program
Since it began in 1990, the characterization, monitoring, and sensor technology crosscutting program has funded and managed many technology development activities across government laboratories, the private sector, and universities. Many technologies have been fully developed and commercialized and are now in use. Many more technologies are being developed that are close to being implemented.
RCL monitor moves toward commercialization - A new, portable monitor for detecting chlorinated organic vapors will be commercially available in September from TSI Incorporated. The sensor was developed through funding from CMST-CP and is being further developed for marketing through a contract issued under a Program Research and Development Announcement. The RCL monitor can detect as little as 0.5 parts per million of chlorinated vapor in less than two minutes and can provide direct readout in parts per million with internal data storage for printing to an external printer. For long-term monitoring, the operator selects the period between measurements, then the monitor stores up to 50 measurements without further operator attention. Because the RCL monitor is selective to chlorinated compounds, its measurements are not affected by interference from commonly present, non-chlorinated compounds. Calibration is available for measurement of carbon tetrachloride, methylene chloride, and trichloroethylene. For more information, call TSI at (800) 926-8378.
Waste Inspection Tomography is a nondestructive assay technology - The mobile WIT system is designed to image the contents of waste containers and to analyze radioactive components without opening or physically sampling the containers. This capability is called nondestructive evaluation or assay. The system will provide rapid, cost-effective characterization of radioactive waste containers, thus reducing the backlog of containers waiting to be identified as either safe for storage at approved underground sites or as requiring treatment before storage. The system will image and analyze nuclear waste in drums up to 100 gallons in volume and weighing up to 1,600 pounds each.
WIT is a self-sufficient, 48-foot-long trailer capable of providing six inspection methods for low-level, transuranic, and mixed waste drums: x-ray digital radiography, x-ray transmission computer tomography, Anger camera gamma-ray imaging, single photon gamma-ray emission computer tomography, nuclear gamma-ray spectroscopy, and active and passive gamma-ray computer tomography using a Ho-166 active source. The six methods are applied sequentially and only one drum can be inspected at a time.
CMST-CP is working with Bio-Imaging Research of Lincolnshire, Illinois, the technology developer, to revise the system operating software to provide more efficient viewing applications. New image processor slave circuit boards will allow the WIT system to reconstruct 1024 by 1024 18-bit computed tomography images in less than eight seconds.
The WIT trailer was displayed February 25-29 at the Waste Management '96 conference in Tucson. As a result of the conference, Babcock and Wilcox in Lynchburg, Virginia contracted with Bio-Imaging Research to perform nondestructive evaluation of nuclear waste drums using 2 MeV digital radiography and computer tomography. WIT inspected eight phantom drums and 37 real waste drums in a three-day period using two digital radiographies per drum and up to 90 computer tomography slices per drum. B&W stored and viewed the results on CD-ROM. This B&W service contract showed that WIT can be rapidly deployed (one to two days of travel, one day for set-up, three days of 2 MeV digital radiography and computer tomography scanning, and one day for tear-down) to image 15 drums per day with a combination of two full drum digital radiography views and 100 percent computer tomography scanning.
SAW sensor undergoes field tests - CMST-CP is field testing a portable Surface Acoustic Wave, or SAW, sensor coupled to a high-speed gas chromatograph for its ability to detect 14 target volatile organic compounds at DOE sites. During laboratory testing, technicians determined the SAW/GC sensor's calibration, dynamic range for each compound, minimum detection level for each compound, and selectivity to the compounds of interest.
During a February field test at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the system, which was developed by Amerasia, delineated the extent of tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene underground plumes at the parts per billion level in real time. In April, the system was field tested at Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. Two possible applications for long-term field testing at INEL are ground water monitoring at the pump and treat operation at Task Area North and routine vapor monitoring in wells surrounding the Radioactive Waste Management Complex. During a demonstration at the Hanford Tank Farm Area, Amerasia's SAW/GC prototype analyzed tank vent gases in about 15 seconds as compared to a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, which meets EPA standards, that required about half an hour to perform the analysis. Volatile organic compounds such as carbon tetrachloride were present at low levels, in the parts per billion range.
Continuous emissions monitors audition for commercialization opportunities - During field tests sponsored by CMST-CP and other federal promoters, CEM technologies developed by DOE and the U.S. Department of Defense showed what they could do. The sponsors invited companies interested in commercialization opportunities to observe the field test and submit one-page synopses of their technology commercialization capabilities. Other sponsors of the field test were DOE's mixed waste focus area and EPA's National Exposure Research Laboratory in Las Vegas, Nevada. The field test took place at EPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
From April 22 through 26, performance data was gathered on the CEMs. As a source of comparison, data was also collected using EPA's standard reference method of extracting batch samples over a set time period and analyzing them in a laboratory. Using a rotary kiln research incinerator with an afterburner, the testers injected seven metals and a tracer metal as an aqueous spray into the secondary combustion chamber. Fly ash from a coal-fired boiler was also injected to simulate the particulate loading expected in a real hazardous waste treatment environment. The CEMs and EPA reference method sampling probes were installed in the duct downstream from the secondary combustion chamber. Results of the tests will identify technical strengths and weaknesses of each instrument.
Performance data was collected on the following CEM instruments.
For more information about CMST-CP, see its homepage at http://www.csmt.org.
About the focus areas The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management has established an integrated approach for addressing waste issues based on problem, or focus areas. The focus areas are: subsurface contaminants (combining the plumes and landfill stabilization focus areas); mixed waste characterization, treatment, and disposal; high-level waste tank remediation; decontamination and decommissioning; and plutonium stabilization. Three crosscutting technology areas support the focus areas: characterization, monitoring, and sensor technology; efficient separations and processing; and robotics.
