Florida State University conducts an international environmental research program that is being used by international and federal agencies and by U.S. private firms to facilitate collaboration with environmental researchers in Russia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and other Central and Eastern European countries. Roy Herndon, director of Florida State University's Institute for Central and Eastern European Cooperative Environmental Research, describes ICEECER as a conduit through which the United States can benefit from the expertise and experience Central and Eastern European scientists have gained from years of managing radioactive and chemical waste under extreme and difficult conditions. Herndon likens one aspect of the ICEECER's role to that of a matchmaker. "We go and find two people who are somewhat compatible in their mutual research and technological needs and interests, and get them together. If we find that they are happy together, we walk away and leave them alone. ICEECER helps pair U.S. agencies, like the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and Technology, with technical counterparts in Central and Eastern Europe so that mutual needs and interests and diverse capabilities are focused on finding effective solutions to environmental problems."

Russian projects-Under its cooperative agreement with OST, ICEECER at Florida State University, in conjunction with Thomas E. Albert and Associates, oversees five tasks that contribute to OST's International Program. The first task is supporting research and development activities in Russia. In 1993, a memorandum of understanding between OST and the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy established the Joint Coordinating Committee on Environmental Management to fund Russian research projects that meet the priority needs of OST's focus areas. This year, 27 research projects are targeting solutions to problems identified by the tanks, mixed waste, and subsurface contaminants focus areas and the efficient separations crosscutting program. Research projects are solicited under this program through the issuance of requests for proposals in Russia.

Herndon adds that ICEECER conducts other activities in Russia and in Central Europe that are not supported by DOE but that provide benefits to DOE. For example in May 1998, ICEECER will conduct a North Atlanta Treaty Organization-supported Advanced Study Institute in Dubna, Russia. The focus of ASI will be on chemical separation technologies that can be used to treat and immobilize a broad range of radioactive and other toxic materials. The primary goals of ASI are to provide the participants with a clear understanding of the state of the art of these technologies as well as the research needs in this field and to provide opportunities for the participants to become involved in cooperative research projects in the separation technologies field.

Polish work-Florida State University is managing a multiphase project at the Czechowice Oil Refinery in Katowice, Poland, as well as a phytoremediation project that is also in the Katowice region. The joint venture (between U.S. and Polish agencies and companies) at the Czechowice Oil Refinery is now in its third phase-the bioremediation phase-in which microbes are used to remediate contaminated soils. During the remediation of the contaminated soils at the Czechowice Oil Refinery, Polish scientists from the Institute for the Ecology of Industrial Areas, or IETU, are collaborating with scientists from the Westinghouse Savannah River Company to apply an advanced bioremediation approach to site cleanup.

At the phytoremediation project site, IETU scientists are working with Phytotech, a U.S. company that has developed a hybrid species of plants and special soil amendments that can be used together to make possible the plants' rapid uptake of metals and the storage of metals in plant tissue. Three different plant species are being tested, both with and without Phytotech's soil amendments. After these plants are harvested in early September, the plant tissue will be evaluated to determine the plants' uptake of heavy metals from soils. This demonstration project involving phytoremediation will not only benefit the site in Katowice, but will also be helpful to the subsurface contaminants focus area and other U.S. problem holders who are interested in effective, low-cost technologies for treating soils contaminated with heavy metals.

FSU is also promoting OST's interests by working with the Risk Abatement Center for Central and Eastern Europe to identify expertise and capabilities that are available throughout the region and that may have application to the cleanup of DOE sites.

Containment technology research and demonstration-FSU is working stateside to help coordinate a jointly funded containment demonstration project at the U.S. Air Force's Ground Water Field Remediation Laboratory in Dover, Delaware. DOE, USAF, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, DuPont, and other organizations are participants in the demonstration of a low-cost, high-pressure jet grouting technology for building underground walls and containment structures to control and contain the flow of contaminated ground water.

During Phase I of this demonstration, test walls were constructed by pushing a drill into the ground with two nozzles aligned along the end of the drill. As the drill is pulled from the ground, the nozzles switch to a nonvertical position relative to the drill bit and inject cement and related materials under 5,000 to 6,000 psi into the subsurface. Cement is forced horizontally up to 10 to 12 feet on either side of the drill bit, creating a portion of a wall. As the drill is moved laterally, another portion of the wall is constructed. Using this technique, the team successfully constructed a wall and subsequently a box that could be used to contain a plume.

During Phase II, the team will drill to a depth of approximately 40 feet to tie into a confining, clay layer, which will become the floor of a box, or "cofferdam." The objective is to construct walls down to "the floor" to determine if such a structure is able to contain a plume. Later, plans call for testing the integrity of the cofferdam by introducing material into the inner box and then sampling the space between the inner box and the outer box. This will enable the team to determine how well the technique prevents migration of material in subsurface plumes. This demonstration affords an opportunity for the participants to test the effectiveness of an emplacement technique, construction material, and monitoring tools in containing subsurface plumes.

John Moerlins, associate director at FSU's ICEECER, is enthusiastic about the project and credits DOE for leveraging its funds with other agencies and private industry. "It's a project DOE can hang its hat on to demonstrate that DOE funds are being spent wisely. The technology is a winner because it's low cost and is proving to be effective." Moerlins is quick to add that "the success of this project is due, in no small measure, to the management and technical skills of Skip Chamberlain, the program manager of OST's subsurface contaminants focus area."

Advanced chemical separations research in the Czech Republic-FSU's work in the Czech Republic is a good example of its skills in identifying expertise and capabilities in Central and Eastern Europe to meet specialized DOE needs. Moerlins says FSU targeted the Czech Republic because "the country has had radioactive waste management problems, has considerable technical expertise in the areas of nuclear chemistry, and has extensive experience using vitrification as a high-level radioactive waste treatment technology." After meeting in Prague with a number of Czech scientists, Moerlins found that the nuclear chemists at the Czech Technical University had developed a specialized and innovative technique using ion-exchange technology, which had potential application to some of DOE's problems.

Moerlins says that DOE was interested in this technology, and experiments were initiated to determine if the technology could be applied to DOE's needs. The end result of FSU's bringing the Prague researchers to the attention of DOE users was that the technology was recently demonstrated at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Moerlins says that since the two parties are now collaborating directly, FSU's role in this application is over. The efficient separations and processing crosscutting program has been funding these particular international interactions, which have resulted in INEEL's evaluating the Czechs' PAN-based composite absorbers for possible chemical separation applications.

International environmental symposia and exhibitions-For the last two years, FSU has helped the subsurface contaminants focus area and DuPont conduct jointly funded containment workshops. Moerlins says, "DOE and DuPont, both having subsurface contamination, were interested in working together to organize workshops that would bring experts from all over the world to share knowledge of what pioneering work was being done to use containment technologies to treat contaminated ground water." Florida State University helped organize a workshop in Dover, Delaware and a follow-up workshop the next year in Baltimore. The success of the workshops and the resulting publication of a book by John Wiley Press on containment technologies and their applications led to an international conference being held in February 1997 in St. Petersburg, Florida, which FSU organized and conducted for DOE, DuPont, and EPA. Moerlins says the proceedings from that conference will be available soon.

FSU also brings international scientific and technical colleagues together through its series of symposia and exhibitions held in Central and Eastern Europe. The first two symposia were held in Budapest, Hungary in 1992 and 1994. The third was held in Warsaw, Poland in 1996. The 1998 symposium also will be held in Warsaw, and in the year 2000 it will be held in Prague in the Czech Republic.

Warsaw '98, the Fourth International Symposium and Exhibition on Environmental Contamination in Central and Eastern Europe will be held September 15-17, 1998. Among the sponsors, in addition to FSU, are DOE, EPA, USAF, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, the Institute for the Ecology of Industrial Areas (Poland), the Risk Abatement Center (Poland), the Technical University of Budapest (Hungary), and the Czech Technical University in Prague. To find out more about this conference and exhibition as well as availability of past proceedings, call (850) 644-7211, fax (850) 574-6704, e-mail warsaw98@mailer.fsu.edu, or open the Warsaw '98 Web site at http://www.warsaw98.fsu.edu.

The importance of these international symposia is best summed up by Herndon's comment that "Perhaps the most significant and long-lasting consequence of these symposia is the opportunity provided to the participants to forge individual linkages and contacts, which can be used to initiate international cooperative efforts, since in the final analysis it will be individuals working together who will solve the problems."