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 problem, or focus, areas. The focus areas are deactivation and decommissioning; mixed waste characterization, treatment, and disposal; nuclear materials; radioactive tank waste remediation; spent nuclear fuel; and subsurface contaminants.

The Deactivation and Decommissioning Focus Area's mission is to identify, develop, demonstrate, and advance the deployment of improved technologies to reduce the risk and cost associated with deactivation, decontamination, and decommissioning operations throughout the DOE complex. Accelerating Cleanup: Paths to Closure estimates about $4.1 billion of DOE-EM D&D work to be performed before 2006, but about twice as much will remain to be done after that. The total EM market for D&D services is conservatively estimated at $11.3 billion.

Since Initiatives last featured DDFA in the spotlight (April 1997), the focus area has revised its name, seen its first generation of large-scale demonstration and deployment projects (LSDDPs) to successful conclusions, initiated another wave of LSDDPs, and launched several other new cooperative ventures. The name change (the original was “Decontamination and Decommissioning Focus Area”) better reflects the focus area's inclusion of deactivation activities.

LSDDPs are the core of DDFA's strategy: demonstrating a suite of innovative and improved technologies at full scale in actual D&D projects at DOE sites. The strategy further includes

• technologies that address high-priority customer needs, have wide applicability, and have customer commitment for use on future projects;
• demonstration and deployment of private-sector technologies; and
• using the DOE/Utility Consortium to identify and implement joint R&D activities that are mutually beneficial to DOE and the nuclear utilities in D&D of radioactively contaminated facilities.

Fiscal year 1998 was a banner year for DDFA. The focus area logged a total of 64 deployments of 26 different technologies (click here to see list), capitalizing on the experience of the first three LSDDPs: the Chicago Pile 5 Research Reactor at Argonne National Laboratory–East, the Fernald Environmental Management Project Plant 1 Complex, and the Hanford C Reactor. In LSDDPs, suites of innovative and improved technologies—available in the private sector or developed within DDFA but not yet deployed in the DOE complex—are demonstrated alongside competing baseline technologies as part of actual D&D projects. LSDDPs provide meaningful cost and performance data to potential end users. Successfully demonstrated technologies are available for immediate deployment on the remaining portion of the actual D&D project, as well as for similar problems throughout the DOE complex.

Second-generation LSDDPs get under way
The four LSDDPs launched in March 1998 will continue to provide opportunities for new technologies to be demonstrated and deployed.

LANL TRU Waste Characterization, Decontamination, and Disposition LSDDP. Los Alamos National Laboratory has about 2,400 cubic meters of large metallic transuranic (TRU) waste resulting from surplus gloveboxes used for handling plutonium. An Accelerated Site Technology Deployment project is enabling LANL to purchase and install a Decontamination and Volume Reduction System (DVRS) as its new baseline technology to process metallic TRU waste (see below). The LANL LSDDP will demonstrate 10–12 innovative and improved technologies competing directly with DVRS. Efforts in FY99 are focused on “front-end” technologies for crate opening and preparation of gloveboxes for decontamination.

The Mound Tritium Facilities LSDDP involves demonstration of 20–25 improved and innovative technologies during decommissioning of over 1,000 linear feet of tritium gloveboxes, fume hoods, miles of process piping, and other tritiated components in buildings containing 275,000 square feet of floor space and over 400 tritium laboratories.

Savannah River 321-M Fuel Fabrication Facility LSDDP. Savannah River Site's 321-M fuel fabrication facility manufactured fuel and target assemblies for irradiation in the site's production reactors. About 1,200 grams of highly enriched uranium (HEU) remains in the ventilation ducts, processing systems, and other areas of the facility. Removal of HEU contamination will stabilize the 321-M facility and reduce its long-term surveillance and maintenance costs. The LSDDP will demonstrate 6–10 improved and innovative technologies in key areas, including characterization, decontamination, dismantlement, and waste management. The comparison of six strippable coatings for decontamination is under way in the contamination area. The Long Range Alpha Detector, developed by LANL and Eberline Instruments of Sante Fe, New Mexico, has been demonstrated to screen components coming out of contamination areas for free release.

INEEL Fuel Storage Canals and Associated Underwater and Underground Facilities LSDDP. The LSDDP at Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory includes decommissioning of the Advanced Reactor Material Facility and Couple Fast Reactivity Measurement Facility underwater reactors with interconnecting water canal, filter pits located underground in confined-entry areas, and the Initial Engine Test Control Room in Test Area North 620.

In FY98 the project demonstrated the Remote Underwater Characterization System (RUCS), a small, remotely operated submersible vehicle, to visually survey the canal and its contents and to gather radiological characterization data on the underwater reactors and equipment on the floor of the canal. RUCS is based on the commercially available “Scallop” vehicle produced by Inuktun Services Ltd. of British Columbia, Canada. Its small size and maneuverability allowed it to closely approach objects and view them from various angles. Radiation levels 50 percent higher than previously known were measured in a small bucket at the bottom of the pool. Another benefit of the technology is that it requires fewer people than the baseline to be suited up in the canal area, saving labor costs and reducing the potential for personnel exposure and contamination.

The INEEL LSDDP has also demonstrated the Lift-Liner™ soft-sided waste packaging system made by Transport Plastics, Inc. of Sweetwater, Tennessee. D&D debris classified as low-level waste (LLW) is typically loaded into plywood or metal boxes for transport and disposal. The Lift-Liner containers, made of multiple layers of polypropylene, are compact and light enough to be moved by hand when empty, but they hold up to 260 cubic feet and 24,000 pounds, equal to three metal or four wooden containers. Each container costs about $1,800 less than the rigid alternative, accepts larger pieces of debris, and traps less void space. This last feature translates to more efficient use of storage space and less chance of future settling in landfills. D&D operations at INEEL are currently using the bags as the waste container of choice for LLW debris.

ASTD projects speed deployment
DDFA is managing three projects for the Accelerated Site Technology Deployment Program. One of these, the Integrated Decontamination and Decommissioning Project, was featured in the Winter 1998 issue of Initiatives, and a part of the project is covered in the article in this issue.

The project objective of the Decontamination and Volume Reduction System is to reduce the volume of 2,400 cubic meters of oversized, metallic TRU waste in storage at LANL. In its current packaging configuration, this waste does not meet acceptance criteria for disposal in the Waste Isolation Pilot Project. The proposed process will enable most of it to be processed as LLW and disposed of on site and the remainder to be packed in WIPP-approved containers. DVRS—an integrated system of technology and equipment for assaying containment, decontamination, and volume reduction—promises to reduce radiation dose to workers, volume of TRU waste by 93 percent, and the TRU waste management schedule at LANL from 17 to 6 years. Technologies to be deployed include Decontamination Cell, Ultrahigh-Pressure Water Decontamination System, Decontamination Water Recirculation System, High-Capacity Shear/Baler, and Five-Station Nondestructive Assay System.

The Enhanced In Situ Decontamination and Size Reduction of Gloveboxes Project at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site will deploy technologies for the in situ radiological characterization, decontamination, and size reduction of TRU-contaminated gloveboxes. The project will provide better in situ plutonium hold-up characterization, decreased TRU waste generation, enhanced worker safety, improved productivity in the removal of plutonium-contaminated gloveboxes, lower life-cycle baseline costs, and schedule acceleration for D&D of plutonium-contaminated buildings.

The project has already used the Decommissioning In-Situ Plutonium Inventory Monitor (DISPIM™), marketed by BNFL Instruments, to assay some contaminated equipment. DISPIM uses passive neutron counting to generate three-dimensional images with greater sensitivity and accuracy than baseline systems. Other technologies to be deployed include Electrolytic Decontamination System, Plasma Arc with Enhanced Fume Control, TRU Piece Counter, and TRUCHEM Portable Decontamination Unit.

Contributing to the Canyon Disposition Initiative
The Canyon Disposition Initiative (CDI) is an unprecedented partnership between the Environmental Management Offices of Waste Management, Environmental Restoration, Science and Technology, and Nuclear Material and Facility Stabilization. This alliance is conducting a CERCLA remedial investigation/feasibility study on the costs and risks of alternatives for the disposition of the chemical reprocessing canyons, including use as a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility. If surplus canyon facilities can be successfully converted to such facilities, the potential cost savings and mortgage reduction for similar facilities at Hanford, Savannah River, and INEEL could be approximately $1.1 billion.

DDFA is a full partner in this process, including identifying, selecting, demonstrating, and assisting with the deployment of the most applicable technologies for remotely delivered and robotic characterization of the Hanford U Plant. The CDI Remote Characterization System, an adaptation of the commercially available “Andros” tethered robot owned by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, was deployed in summer 1998 to characterize a railroad tunnel as an initial step in the process (see Initiatives, Fall 1998).

Teaming with commercial utilities
FY98 also brought the signing of a historic memorandum of understanding among DOE, commercial nuclear utilities, and the technical community to establish the path forward for D&D technology research, development, and demonstration into the next century. The MOU provides a framework to identify areas for joint research, development, and demonstration between DOE and private industry and to share best practices and lessons learned. Its goal is to ensure that both the government and industry achieve potential synergistic benefits through collaborative identification, selection, and management of advanced D&D technologies.

DOE is represented in the MOU by the Office of Environmental Restoration, the Office of Science and Technology, the Federal Energy Technology Center, and the Chicago Operations Office. The commercial nuclear utility industry is represented by Consumers Energy Company, Duke Engineering and Services, ComEd, Yankee Atomic Electric, and General Public Utilities. The technical community is represented by the Electric Power Research Institute, Argonne National Laboratory, and Florida International University's Hemispheric Center for Environmental Technology.

For further information, contact Paul Hart, Focus Area Lead, DOE-FETC, (304) 285-4358,  or visit the DDFA Web site.