It's time to start planning for the 8th Annual WERC Environmental Design Contest to be held April 14-17, 1998 at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. Since 1991, Waste-management Education and Research Consortium has been offering opportunities and prize money for university teams to show off their innovative solutions to waste remediation problems common to U.S. Department of Energy sites. For the 1998 contest, students will produce and present papers, posters, and bench-scale models to demonstrate how their teams propose to tackle the following remediation tasks:

Task 1: Mine tailings recovery-Design and demonstrate recovery and transport of mine tailings in a slurry, recover as much of the valuable metals as feasible, treat the tailings to a pH of 7.0 or higher, and design a system to recover the water from the slurry for reuse in the transport and treatment system.

Task 2: Concrete-slab treatment-Develop and demonstrate a decontamination and decommissioning process for a concrete facility in which nitric acid was used to dissolve plutonium. Teams must demonstrate their process using a two-foot-square concrete slab. A surrogate will be used to simulate the contaminant.

Task 3: Contaminated sludge-Determine the best innovative treatment for remediation of radionuclide-contaminated sludge. The sludge is presently contained in polyethylene vats within 55-gallon drums and is a mixture of organic liquids, VOCs, calcium silicate, and oils. A surrogate will be used to simulate radionuclides.

Task 4: Sensor development-Develop a sensor or sensors to measure the rate at which solids settle in a slurry water process vessel containing various weight percents of solids and particles. The weight percent of solids vary from 0 percent to 30 percent; and particle size varies from 1 to 1,000 microns.

University teams interested in participating should fill out a registration form available at http://www.nmsu.edu/ ~werc/contest/form.htm. Registration forms can also be obtained by calling WERC at (800) 523-5996, fax (505) 646-4149.

Upon receipt of the registration form, WERC will send your team specific information for structuring your paper, oral presentation, poster, and bench-scale model. A registration fee of $300 should be sent to WERC, New Mexico State University, P.O. Box 30001, Dept. WERC, Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001.