There are some who may feel that publication of this interview is inappropriate. But I see it as part of a lasting memorial to Chris, whose energy, intelligence, and commitment to the EM program can serve as a model for us all. Her words here are something we can use to remember her qualities as a professional and as a person. She will be unspeakably missed.
Clyde Frank, deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and Technology
An increasing volume of stored mixed waste is one of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management's highest priority problems. DOE's mixed waste--various forms of waste contaminated by both hazardous and radioactive constituents--includes mixed low-level and mixed transuranic waste. Mixed waste is composed of everything from radioactive contaminated organic sludge to drums containing car batteries. DOE stores more than 225,000 tons of mixed waste, which could fill 1,758 railroad cars stretching for 16.5 miles. On January 5, Initiatives spoke with Chris Bonzon, who heads the mixed waste focus area at the lead organization, the Idaho Operations Office in Idaho Falls, Idaho. She explained what the mixed waste focus area is doing to solve DOE's mixed waste problem. Mixed waste is one of six focus areas established by the Office of Environmental Management to manage environmental technology research and development in critical areas of interest to DOE.
Organizing the mixed waste focus area
The mixed waste focus area is organized to bring a national focus to DOE's mixed waste problem. Before the inception of the MWFA, each of the 48 sites where DOE stores mixed waste was developing its own cleanup technologies, independent of the other sites. Now, the MWFA consolidates technology development at a national level within one organization. Individual sites are the MWFA's customers. Bonzon described the mixed waste focus area as a team composed of the problem holders in the Office of Waste Management (EM-30) and the technology developers in the Office of Science and Technology (EM-50).
The team approach minimizes duplication of effort not only within focus areas, but also across focus areas. For example, the MWFA works closely with the landfills stabilization focus area, because the waste is the same. Bonzon said, "Up to 1970 we buried it, and after 1970 we stored it. Mixed waste is specifically the stored waste, but we're working on treatment technologies that will work for both. Whether stored or buried, it's the same waste. [The MWFA and LSFA] work together and feed off each other. They're working on arc melters; we're working on plasma technologies, torches, and continuous emission monitors. We're coordinating our work."
In breaking down the mixed waste problem into manageable components, the MWFA has categorized the 1,700 different DOE mixed wastes into five waste types: inorganic waste water/slurries, combustible organics, sludges/soil, solids/debris/soil, and special waste types. The treatments for mixed waste also form five categories: thermal treatment, non-thermal treatment, effluent monitoring and control, crosscut technologies, and post treatment.
Systems engineering approach
The MWFA uses a systems engineering approach to integrate and prioritize among customer needs, regulatory requirements, and stakeholder concerns. Bonzon called it "the heart and soul of our mixed waste program." Customer needs have been determined through site visits, during which technology needs were identified and assessed. Bonzon described how mercury became known as a prevalent need across DOE's complex of sites. "Treatment of mercury came up as a need all over the place when nobody had been paying attention. We thought it was just Oak Ridge's problem. It turned out mercury is in 60% of the waste."
Bonzon continued, "Another key component of our system study is the deadlines [in the Federal Facility Compliance Acts for the 22 states where DOE stores or generates mixed waste]. From the waste treatment plans submitted as part of compliance agreements, we've extracted such information as number and type of waste streams, and preferred treatments .... Part of our prioritization process is looking at FFCA dates to find the critical path of when the customer needs the technologies. If they don't need it for fifteen years, it receives a lower priority than something that's needed right now .... Most of those compliance agreements on treatment plans were just recently signed, so we're not bottlenecked yet."
The systems engineering approach for solving the mixed waste problem includes the development of a technical baseline--where the MWFA is technologically and where it must go to develop preferred treatments as outlined in compliance agreements. Bonzon described the approach like this: "We can trace back through the 1,700 waste streams that EM is responsible for getting treated at 48 sites. If the customer has a plan of treating a particular waste stream with, for example, a non-thermal technology, we lay that out in a flow sheet showing the total system from when the waste enters the building, through the various components of treating that waste, to disposal. We analyze what we can do and what we can't do. We prioritize what we can't do--the technical deficiencies. And we figure out in how many of the 1,700 waste streams these deficiencies show up. For example, do these deficiencies impact the planned treatment of 50 percent of the waste streams? And we figure out the risks associated with storing each kind of waste." These major considerations and deficiencies direct technology funding. Bonzon said stakeholders participated in the process by developing evaluation criteria for potential technologies.
Technologies
One of the goals of the MWFA is to conduct by November 1997 a minimum of three pilot-scale demonstrations of mixed waste treatment systems using actual mixed waste. The treatment systems used in the three pilot-scale demonstrations will be capable of treating a minimum of 90% of the current mixed low-level waste inventory of over 129,000 cubic meters.
Bonzon declared, "I have the lead on that goal, and we'll be done approximately a year ahead of time." Applicable technologies include macroencapsulation (see related article), the Plasma Hearth Process (see related article), the Transportable Vitrification System, and the arc melter. According to Bonzon, "Radioactive testing is being conducted as we speak at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories in Washington state using the arc melter, through the landfills focus area. We've co-funded some of that. The landfills focus area has the same goal of demonstrating technologies using radioactive waste. So, we'll actually demonstrate more than three technologies, and we'll exceed the goal of being able to treat 90% of mixed waste with our demonstrated technologies."
In finding answers to technical questions, the MWFA is also looking overseas. Bonzon said, "Another thing we've been doing is working with the Russians, having them do tests of thermal treatments for plutonium and other radionuclides.
There's very little data anywhere on where the plutonium goes. There's a lot of theoretical data, mainly from glass studies during vitrification melts. But we just have to have hard facts to back that up. The Russians have several systems, and we're negotiating right now to have them do tests for us to get information about plutonium partitioning. They're also willing to do EPA tests following our U.S. standards. They can do the testing for about a tenth of the cost of having it done here."
Industrial partners
Through DOE's privatization initiative, industry is perceived as a potential resource for finding solutions to the 30 technological gaps or deficiencies identified through examining customer needs documents and compliance agreements. Bonzon described industrial participation as "very much a part of our strategy. Instead of developing a technology and having the M&O [management and operations] contractor implement it, the EM-30 model is to put it out to bid and let industry treat the waste. So we work closely with industry in our request for information to make sure industry can solve a particular problem. Depending on the state of maturity of a technology, we might start making a technology available to industry and transfer it out so it's possible for them to bid."
Another way the MWFA cooperates with industry in meeting cleanup goals is by providing radioactive waste and radioactive testing facilities. Bonzon said, "There are technologies out there that may work, but industries can't demonstrate their technologies on radioactive waste without working with DOE. We provide them the opportunity to come into one of the sites and do demonstrations, so they'll have data. Then they can actively bid on an EM-30 contract. They have an opportunity to try it out first on a small scale. And it also gives DOE the technical data to evaluate whether the technologies work that industry is proposing or whether they're just kind of blowing smoke at us."
One example of the MWFA's working with industry is the cooperative agreement signed with Envirocare of Utah. (see related article) "They put up a million dollars worth of facility, and we put up a million dollars worth of equipment for polymer encapsulation. In return, they're going to treat a million dollars worth of our waste. It's essentially a wash for DOE, because they are going to treat half a million pounds of radioactive waste for us for free to demonstrate that the technology works. Envirocare can then go out and bid on treating other sites. We expect over $100 million savings from this one simple technology." Macroencapsulation's cost at $2.00 per pound of waste is about half the cost of storing the waste.
Bonzon advised would-be industrial or university partners to take a look at the mixed waste focus area homepage on the Internet. The address is http://wastenot.inel.gov:80/mwfa/. Bonzon describes the homepage as the place "where we'll put our technical reports, including documents that describe our 30 technical deficiencies."
