RCI graduate is readying itself for the DOE market

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RCI graduate is readying
itself for the DOE market

In February 1997, Initiatives reported on a mobile, noninvasive characterization technology that was being demonstrated at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The Rapid Commercialization Initiative's role in verifying and subsequently helping to commercialize the technology was also covered. Waste Inspection Tomography (WIT), developed by Bio-Imaging Research, has forged ahead since then. WITCO, a subsidiary of BIR, is now guiding the technology toward a niche in the DOE transuranic (TRU) waste drum characterization market. In addition, the technology is in the final stages of collecting signatures on an RCI verification statement, which completes the RCI process for WIT.

WITCO has strategically joined an alliance with other companies to position the team as a full-service mobile transuranic waste characterization provider for DOE. WITCO uses X-ray technologies (computed tomography and digital radiography) to identify matrix geometry, density, and distribution by volume of waste in drums. TRUtech, a subsidiary of Thermo Nutech, is the financial manager and DOE project point of contact for the alliance. The other companies in the TRUtech alliance that are ready to characterize waste drums for DOE include the following:

Entropy, a large independent provider of comprehensive air emissions testing services, will conduct headspace gas analysis of TRU waste drums.
Engineering Computer Optecnomics will use the multimodular Road-Transportable Analytical Laboratory to provide field and laboratory analytical equipment for detecting and quantifying radionuclides, organics, heavy metals, and other inorganic compounds.
Bartlett Services will vent, core, and repackage waste drums.
APNEA will provide the Active Passive Neutron Examination and Assay system, a nondestructive assay technique for determining the total alpha and individual isotope activity.
Benchmark, a subsidiary of Thermo Remediation, will certify that the data obtained by the TRUtech team during TRU waste characterization and certification activities meet requirements.

TRU waste from the fabrication of nuclear weapons must be characterized for isotopes, total fissile material, gas content, and hazardous chemicals before it can be shipped to DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Mobile characterization is preferred because the quantity of waste at any single DOE site does not justify building fixed facilities. The technologies under the TRUtech banner are housed in separate trailers, enabling the selection of the proper assay equipment based on the waste streams stored at a site. This arrangement also permits characterization work to be done at the same time at different sites.

The TRUtech-led team can provide testing to comply with all criteria for waste destined for storage at WIPP. In 1998, DOE's Carlsbad Area Office certified that TRUtech's processes can adequately characterize TRU waste for determining its acceptability at WIPP.