Spotlight on the tanks focus area

Beginning with this issue, Initiatives will turn the spotlight on one of the focus or crosscutting areas instead of covering all areas. In this issue, the tanks focus area takes center stage.

The tanks focus area, or TFA, planned 21 demonstrations for fiscal year 1996 ranging from bench- to full-scale. Successful demonstrations move a technology toward deployment by DOE users. Following are some of the technologies scheduled for demonstration during FY96.

Mobile evaporator - By removing excess water from tank waste, the mobile evaporator conserves space in underground waste storage tanks. Delta Thermal Company developed the mobile evaporator under contract with DOE's Oak Ridge Operations Office. In January 1996 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, cold (non-radioactive) tests using water and waste simulant were completed. Through joint funding provided by TFA and the technology user, Oak Ridge Waste Management Remedial Action Division, the mobile evaporator was installed in existing facilities. In April, it processed 25,000 gallons of radioactive tank waste, yielding 6,000 gallons of tank space. Oak Ridge WMRAD anticipates long-term operation of the evaporator. In this case, demonstration and deployment were combined to produce a tangible product for the user.

Light Duty Utility Arm - The LDUA has been developed for a host of in-tank characterization and retrieval operations. With its toolbox of end effectors, it can be used for in-tank waste analysis, surface sampling, surveillance and inspection, light-duty retrieval, and deployment of equipment in tanks. (See Initiatives April 1995). Four LDUAs will be delivered during FY96 and FY97, one each to Hanford Tank Waste Remediation Systems, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Cold Test Facility at the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington. The Cold Test Facility's LDUA will be used to test and qualify the Hanford and INEL systems, train operations personnel, qualify new applications, and support users in troubleshooting field problems. Hanford TWRS is preparing for the first hot deployment of the LDUA planned for September 1996.

Sorbents - The cost of waste treatment depends on the efficient and selective removal of elements that complicate waste disposal. To address this issue, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the tanks focus area's lead organization, is collaborating with industry and university participants to develop high-capacity, selective ion exchangers to remove specific contaminants from tank waste. The efficient separations and processing crosscutting area, or ESP, is targeting specific applications for high-level tank wastes.

ESP has awarded contracts to AlliedSignal, Inc. in partnership with Texas A&M University. Texas A&M develops ion exchange materials and sends them to AlliedSignal for characterizing, testing, and commercializing. They evaluated seven ion exchange materials for their capability to remove the heat-emitting isotopes cesium-137 and strontium-90 in side-by-side comparison tests using simulated and actual tank waste. They are also studying sodium titanate for strontium recovery and a modified sodium biotite mica and synthetic mica for cesium recovery. Testing will determine the capacity, isotope selectivity, and stability in the alkaline, acidic, and radioactive environments associated with tank wastes. TFA, in cooperation with ESP, plans a working demonstration for September 1996.

Near Infrared Spectroscopy - NIR is a characterization tool being developed to determine the moisture content of tank waste. Some underground storage tanks at the Hanford Site contain a mixture of chemicals that can react thermally under certain conditions. Moisture is an important thermal buffer for preventing ignition and propagation of thermal reactions. The objective of this activity is to develop a hot cell NIR probe to rapidly scan and measure the moisture content of tank waste samples.

Westinghouse Hanford Company has installed an NIR probe in a hot cell in the 222-S Analytical Laboratory at the Hanford Site. TFA is working with waste management personnel at the site to prepare procedures and modify a work plan to incorporate the NIR system, which has proven its capability in testing on five tank waste samples. Testing is under way to develop a calibration algorithm and compare results with thermogravitational analysis.

On February 27 and 28, representatives of the tanks focus area met with the Community Leaders Network Tanks Focus Area Subgroup at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The attendees shared information and concerns about working together to accomplish common goals during the remainder of fiscal year 1996. In keeping with the focus area goal to involve stakeholders, the meeting afforded an opportunity for DOE technical experts to exchange information with public and tribal representatives. Topics included innovative technology systems for tank characterization, retrieval, and closure. CLN members discussed ways they can help the focus area communicate its message. Specific suggestions included CLN's helping TFA anticipate questions from communities, distribute appropriate information to interested parties, and exchange information and lessons learned among the four major DOE tank sites in Richland, Washington; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Aiken, South Carolina.

In order to participate meaningfully in budget discussions, CLN members expressed a desire to understand how the federal and TFA budget process works and how the TFA makes its funding decisions based on its needs prioritization process. CLN members also suggested regulatory interface as an area where they can help. Streamlining the regulatory process requires standardization of permitting requirements across states. This goal can be met by developing joint data quality objectives and working on protocols for demonstrations.

Other areas of possible collaboration between CLN and TFA that were discussed included promoting CLN and Site Technology Coordination Group interaction at tank sites where stakeholders are not Site Technology Coordination Group members, and CLN review of tanks publications and stakeholder planning documents.

The tanks focus area and DOE's Offices of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management are working cooperatively on a treatability study at Oak Ridge to determine the efficiency and cost of several innovative waste removal and treatment technologies. Acceptable technologies will remediate Oak Ridge's gunite tanks, which store dilute liquid low-level supernatants and sludges. The treatability study is being conducted by the Office of Environmental Restoration. TFA will furnish several support equipment items for the study, including a gripper end effector and a characterization end effector deployed on the Light Duty Utility Arm, tank-riser decontamination spray rings, and tank riser containment. Delivery of the equipment is planned from the end of May through October. TFA will also provide support to modify Oak Ridge National Laboratory facilities for the cold testing of the waste retrieval equipment. Site preparation is under way, an equipment platform has been erected at the North Tank Farm, and workers are connecting utilities.

On March 19-21, 1996, TFA conducted a review of current technology projects. The TFA Technical Review Group, an independent panel of experts from industry, consulting firms, academia, and DOE, heard presentations from focus area managers, technical managers, and principal investigators.

TFA's lead organization, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has published Hanford Tank Cleanup: A Guide to Understanding the Technical Issues to heighten an understanding of the issues surrounding the maintenance and cleanup of 177 chemical and radioactive waste-filled tanks at the Hanford Site. The guide provides information for the general reader as well as the technically trained person wanting to gain a basic understanding about the waste in Hanford's tanks-how the waste was created, what is in the waste, how it is stored, and what are the technical issues facing tank cleanup. The guide's definitions, diagrams, sidebar comments, and cross references provide background information.

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 focus, or problem, 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 separation and processing; and robotics. This national focus on solving environmental remediation problems is designed to:

reduce complexity within the DOE organization,
cultivate shared values at sites across the DOE complex,
improve communication within field offices and between headquarters and field offices, and
improve control and oversight.

The focus areas are managed by a multidisciplinary team of representatives from DOE's Offices of Science and Technology, Waste Management, Environmental Restoration, and Nuclear Material and Facility Stabilization; DOE technical programs; and stakeholders. The wide range of focus area management team members links technology developers, technology users, problem holders, and problem solvers. The focus areas represent the application of business principles to technology development through emphasis on return on investment and cost avoidance.