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APPENDIX F
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SELECTED
RECENT NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
REPORTS
,.................................................................................................................
NUCLEAR WASTES: TECHNOLOGIES FOR SEPARATIONS AND
TRANSMUTATION (NRC, 1995)
This report describes the state of the art in separations and transmuta-
tion technologies, and considers their application to U.S. high-level ra-
dioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. It concludes that a modestly
funded research and development (R&D) program in particular technical
areas is of value, but that R&D work is not sufficiently viable to justify
delays in geological repository development at Yucca Mountain.
THE WASTE ISOLATION PILOT PLANT: A POTENTIAL SOLUTION
FOR THE DISPOSAL OF TRANSURANIC WASTE (NRC, 1996a)
This report addresses the suitability of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
(WIPP) as a geological repository for transuranic waste by examining
scenarios for the possible release of radionuclides to the environment
after the repository is filled and sealed. The committee's conclusions
were that (1) human exposure to radionuclide releases from WIPP is
likely to be low compared to U.S. and international standards and (2) if
the repository were sealed effectively and undisturbed by human activity,
there would be no credible or probable scenarios for release of radionu-
clides to the environment. The committee also made several recommen-
dations for additional work that should be done by the Department of En-
ergy (DOE) and its contractors to assess the likelihood of future human
disturbance to the repository and to reduce the impacts of such distur-
bances if they occur. This report (and earlier reports by the same com-
mittee) was instrumental in DOE's efforts to gain regulatory approval to
open the first U.S. geological repository. The Environmental Protection
Agency also used the report in its review of DOE's license application.
The WIPP repository received its first shipment of waste in early 1999.
160
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Appendix F Annotated Bibliography of Selected Recent NRC Reports 161
THE HANFORD TANKS: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND POLICY
CHOICES (NRC, 1996b)
This report reviews a draft environmental impact statement for the reme-
diation of high-level radioactive waste in tanks at the Hanford Site,
Washington. The report recommends that remediation activities use a
phased decision strategy, proceeding with current cleanup operations
while filling in important information gaps before making a final decision
as to which technologies and methodologies will ultimately be imple-
mented. Remediation of the tanks should be consistent with plans for the
entire Hanford Site, including the environment and future land use.
BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
SCIENCE PROGRAM: FINAL ASSESSMENT (NRC, 1997)
This report summarizes the potential value of basic research to DOE's
cleanup mission and advises DOE on the structure and management of
its Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP). The reports
includes the following recommendations to improve the program: (1) de-
velop a science plan for the program; (2) examine the entire review pro-
cess for the EMSP with the goal of increasing its transparency and tech-
nical credibility; (3) find a solution to the problem of not being able to
"forward fund" projects at national laboratories, and fully fund all awards
in the first year; (4) establish an EMSP program director responsible for
management of the program who reports directly to the Under Secretary
of Energy; (5) convene an independent review panel to review the per-
formance and effectiveness of the program; and (6) convene annual
workshops, seminars, and symposia to help facilitate information flow
and stimulate new research ideas.
PEER REVIEW IN ENVIRON M ENTAL TECHNOLOGY
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS: THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY'S
OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (NRC, 1998)
This report provides an overview of an effective peer review program and
its use in R&D decision making. In particular, the report focuses on how
peer review can be used to evaluate the technical merit of environmental
remediation technologies at various stages of development from basic
research through demonstration to deployment. The report includes rec-
ommendations on how the Office of Science and Technology (OST) in
DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM) could improve its peer
review process, and the linkage of peer reviews to its decision-making
processes.
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162
A Strategic Vision for DOE Environmental Quality R&D
DECISION MAKING IN THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY'S
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY (NRC, 1999a)
This report examines the prioritization and decision-making processes of
DOE-EM's OST. The committee found that OST's decision process is
closely linked with the DOE-EM organizational structure, institutional
procedures, and program management. The committee framed its major
recommendations around the four decision process issues raised in the
study charter: appropriateness and effectiveness of OST's decision-
making process, appropriate technical factors and the adequacy with
which they can be measured, role and importance of effective reviews,
and program challenges and measures of success. Specific recommen-
dations include (1) OST should use the best available information on
DOE-EM site technology needs as a guide for tailoring program goals;
(2) the decision process should be structured using quantifiable attrib-
utes wherever applicable but also should allow for managerial flexibility;
(3) OST should use the minimum number of stages and gates needed to
track a project and should use peer reviews; and (4) the gate reviews of
stage-and-gate tracking system should also assess estimations of cost,
risk, and schedule.
GROUNDWATER AND SOIL CLEANUP: IMPROVING MANAGEMENT
OF PERSISTENT CONTAMINANTS (NRC, 1999b)
This report advises DOE on technologies and strategies for cleaning up
three types of contaminants in groundwater and soil: (1) metals, (2)
radionuclides, and (3) dense nonaqueous-phase liquids (DNAPLs), such
as solvents used in manufacturing nuclear weapons components. Metals
and DNAPLs are common not only in the weapons complex but also at
contaminated sites nationwide owned by other federal agencies and
private companies. They have proven especially challenging to clean up,
not just for DOE but also for others responsible for contaminated sites.
The report makes a number of recommendations, including the following:
(1) in situ remediation should receive a higher priority in the Subsurface
Contaminants Focus Area (SOFA); (2) SOFA should work more closely
with technology end users in setting its overall program direction; (3)
SOFA should sponsor more field demonstrations; and (4) DOE
managers should reassess the priority of subsurface cleanup relative to
other problems and, if the risk is sufficiently high, they should increase
remediation technology development funding accordingly. Although the
recommendations are designed for DOE, the bulk of the report will be
useful to anyone involved in the cleanup of contaminated sites. The
report also contains reviews of regulations applicable to contaminated
sites, the state of the art in remediation technology development, and
obstacles to technology development that apply well beyond sites in the
DOE weapons complex.
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Appendix F Annotated Bibliography of Selected Recent NRC Reports 163
AN END STATE METHODOLOGY FOR IDENTIFYING TECHNOLOGY
NEEDS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, WITH AN EXAMPLE
FROM THE HANFORD SITE TANKS (NRC, 1999c)
While DOE has a process based on stakeholder participation for
screening and formulating technology needs, it lacks transparency (in
terms of being apparent to all concerned decision makers and other in-
terested parties) and a systematic basis (in terms of identifying end
states for the contaminants and developing pathways to these states
from the present conditions). The primary purpose of this study is to de-
scribe an approach for identifying technology development needs that is
both systematic and transparent to enhance the cleanup and remediation
of the tank contents and their sites. The committee believes that the rec-
ommended end-state-based approach can be applied to DOE waste
management in general, not just to waste in tanks. The approach is illus-
trated with an example based on the tanks at the DOE Hanford Site in
Washington state, the location of some 60 percent (by volume) of the
tank waste residues.
ALTERNATIVE HIGH-LEVEL WASTE TREATMENTS AT THE IDAHO
NATIONAL ENGINEERING AND ENVIRONMENTAL LABORATORY
(NRC, 1999d)
This report assesses the technical alternatives to calcining of high-level
waste (HLW) at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Labo-
ratory (INEEL). The calcination process injected waste into a fluidized
bed at elevated temperatures to evaporate the water and decompose
other material into calcine, a granular ceramic. The calcine was sent to
storage in partially buried stainless steel bins enclosed by a concrete
vault. As tanks were emptied of HLW, they were used to store liquid
waste. The liquid is mixed transuranic (TRW) waste high in sodium, re-
ferred to as sodium-bearing waste (SBW). Some of the SBW has been
calcined, and for several decades, R&D activities at INEEL have studied
technical alternatives for the future remediation, storage, and ultimate
disposition of HLW calcine and SBW. The committee concluded that the
interim storage of calcine in the bins should be maintained until it be-
comes clear (1) where the material can be sent, (2) what disposal
Formosa are acceptable, and (3) that an approved transportation pathway
to a disposal site is available. The committee also concluded that DOE
should solidify the SBW as soon as practicable and recommends that
solidification options other than calcination be identified. The committee
also concluded that a major consideration in deciding how (and whether)
to process any radioactive waste for long-term conditioning is that of the
risks being added and/or mitigated.
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A Strategic Vision for DOE Environmental Quality R&D
LONG-TERM INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT OF U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY LEGACY WASTE SITES (NRC, 2000a)
This study examines the capabilities and limitations of the scientific,
technical, and human and institutional systems that compose the meas-
ures that DOE expects to put into place at potentially hazardous, residu-
ally contaminated sites. The committee found that, at a minimum, DOE
should plan for site disposition and stewardship much more systemati-
cally than it has to date. At many sites, future risks from residual wastes
cannot be predicted with any confidence, because numerous underlying
factors that influence the character, extent, and severity of long-term
risks are not well understood. Among these factors are the long-term
behavior of wastes in the environment, the long-term performance of en-
gineered systems designed to contain wastes, the reliability of institu-
tional controls and other stewardship measures, and the distribution and
resource needs of future human populations.
RESEARCH NEEDS IN SUBSURFACE SCIENCE: U.S. DEPARTMENT
OF ENERGY'S ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
PROGRAM (NRC, 2000c)
The report provides an overview of the subsurface contamination prob-
lems across the DOE complex and shows by examples from the six larg-
est DOE sites (Hanford Site, Idaho Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory, Nevada Test Site, Oak Ridge Reservation, Rocky Flats Envi-
ronmental Technology Site, and Savannah River Site) how advances in
scientific and engineering knowledge can improve the effectiveness of
the cleanup effort. The committee analyzed the current EMSP portfolio of
subsurface research projects to assess the extent to which the program
is focused on DOE's contamination problems. The committee also re-
viewed related research programs in other DOE offices and other federal
agencies to determine the extent to which they are focused on DOE's
subsurface contamination problems. On the basis of these analyses, the
report identifies the highly significant subsurface contamination knowl-
edge gaps and research needs that the EMSP must address if the DOE
cleanup program is to succeed. The committee recommends that the
subsurface component of the EMSP have the following four research
emphases: (1) location and characterization of subsurface contaminants
and characterization of the subsurface, (2) conceptual modeling, (3)
containment and stabilization, and (4) monitoring and validation.
LONG-TERM RESEARCH NEEDS ON RADIOACTIVE HIGH-LEVEL
WASTE AT DEPARTM ENT OF EN ERGY SITES: INTERIM REPORT
(NRC, 2000d)
The committee was asked to provide this interim report to help the EMSP
develop a request for proposals (RFP) aimed at HLW management for
fiscal year 2001. The committee identified broad research areas that
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Appendix F Annotated Bibliography of Selected Recent NRC Reports 165
would benefit from a basic science plan and concluded that the REP
should solicit research projects in the following four fields, in order of
importance: (1 ) long-term issues related to tank closure and
characterization of surrounding areas; (2) high-efficiency, high
throughput separation methods that would reduce HLW program costs
over the next few decades; (3) robust, high-loading, immobilization
methods and materials that could provide enhancements or alternatives
to current immobilization strategies; and (4) innovative methods to
achieve real-time and, when practical, in situ characterization data for
HLW and process streams that would be useful for all phases of the
waste management program. The committee also provided
recommendations on several programmatic issues: (1) EMSP should
promote "needs driven" or"mission-directed" basic science supporting
research on fundamental processes and phenomena with potential high-
impact results; (2) EMSP should promote underlying science and
technology parallel to baseline or programmatic approaches to enable
HLW management efforts to be flexible in dealing with any unanticipated
difficulties; and (3) EMSP investigators should interact with problem
holders at the sites to learn about the nature of the problems to be
solved. The committee plans to produce a final report with more detailed
findings and recommendations in the summer of 2001.
LONG-TERM RESEARCH NEEDS FOR DEACTIVATION AND
DECOMMISSIONING AT DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY SITES:
INTERIM REPORT (NRC, 2000e)
The committee was asked to provide an interim report that addressed
the technical content of a fiscal year 2001 EMSP call for research
proposals and made recommendations on the areas of research where
the EMSP could make significant contributions to solving deactivation
and decommissioning (D&D) problems and adding to general scientific
knowledge. The committee identified three areas where EMSP-funded
research could make significant contributions: characterization,
decontamination, and remote systems. Within these areas, it made five
recommendations: (1 ) basic research toward identification and
development of real-time minimally invasive and field-usable means to
locate and quantify difficult contaminants significant to D&D; (2) basic
research that could lead to the development of biotechnological sensors
to detect contaminants of interest; (3) basic research toward fundamental
understanding of the interactions of important contaminants with the
primary materials of interest in D&D projects; (4) basic research on
biotechnological means to remove or remediate contaminants of interest
from surfaces within porous materials; and (5) basic research toward
creating intelligent remote systems that can adapt to a variety of tasks
and be readily assembled from standardized modules. The committee
also provided DOE with the following general advice on EMSP strategic
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A Strategic Vision for DOE Environmental Quality R&D
planning: (1) avoid focusing too narrowly on site-specific problems; (2)
develop a more comprehensive, coordinated, and specific definition of
complex-wide D&D needs; (3) allow DOE contractors and Site
Technology Coordinating Groups to contribute more toward identifying
true R&D opportunities; (4) help develop a scientific basis for setting
standards for the end states of D&D; and (5) consider further
interdisciplinary collaborations among relevant disciplines. The
committee plans to produce a final report in the spring of 2001, which will
provide more detail on the recommendations and advice in the interim
report.
ALTERNATIVES FOR HIGH-LEVEL WASTE SALT PROCESSING AT
THE SAVANNAH RIVER SITE (NRC, 20000
The original process developed to accomplish the processing of high-
level radioactive waste salt solutions stored at the Savannah River Site
was in-tank precipitation (ITP), which encountered unexpected problems.
A primary alternative selected by the Savannah River Site was a varia-
tion of ITP, known as small tank precipitation using sodium tetraphenyl-
borate (TPB) and a backup option, crystalline silicotitanate (CST) ion
exchange process. Other options, eliminated by the Savannah River
Site, include caustic side solvent extraction and direct grout. This report
reviews both the selection process of the two primary alternatives, and
the processing options themselves. The committee found that there are
potential barriers to implementation of all the alternative processing op-
tions and recommends that the Savannah River Site proceed with a
carefully planned and managed R&D program for three of the four alter-
native processing options (small tank precipitation using TPB, CST ion
exchange, and caustic side solvent extraction) until enough information
is available to make a more defensible and transparent downselection
decision.
NATURAL ATTENTUATION FOR GROUNDWATER REMEDIATION
(NRC, 2000h)
The term "natural attenuation" refers to the use of unenhanced natural
processes for site remediation. The biological, chemical, and physical
processes, such as biodegradation, take place in the subsurface and
may transform contaminants to less harmful forms or immobilize them to
reduce risks. This report takes a look at public concerns about natural
attenuation, the scientific bases for natural attenuation, and the criteria
for evaluating the potential success or failure of natural attenuation. The
principal findings of the report are that natural attenuation is an estab-
lished remedy for only a few types of contaminants, that rigorous proto-
cols are needed to ensure that natural attenuation potential is analyzed
properly, and that natural attenuation should be accepted as a formal
remedy for contamination only when the processes are documented to
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Appendix F Annotated Bibliography of Selected Recent NRC Reports 167
be working and are sustainable. Where communities are affected by
contamination, community members must be provided with documenta-
tion of these processes and given an opportunity to participate in deci-
sion making.
IMPROVING OPERATIONS AND LONG-TERM SAFETY OF THE
WASTE ISOLATION PILOT PLANT: INTERIM REPORT (NRC, 2000i)
This committee was asked to advise DOE on the operation of the WIPP
and to provide recommendations on two issues: (1) a research agenda
to enhance confidence in the long-term performance of WIPP and (2)
increasing the throughput, efficiency, and cost-benefit without compro-
mising safety of the national transuranic (TRW) program for characteriz-
ing, certifying, packaging, and shipping waste to WIPP. This interim re-
port provides DOE with recommendations on research to enhance confi-
dence in long-term repository performance and improvements to the na-
tional TRU program. The committee recommended that DOE develop
and implement a plan to sample oil-field brines, petroleum, and solids
associated with current hydrocarbon production to assess the magnitude
and variability of naturally occurring radioactive material in the vicinity of
the WIPP site; eliminate self-imposed waste characterization require-
ments that lack a legal or safety basis; derive a more realistic gas gen-
eration model; consider cost-effective ways to improve the reliability and
ease of use of the Transportation Tracking and Communication System;
and develop tools for maintaining information needed to respond to a
WIPP transportation accident.
DISPOSITION OF HIGH-LEVEL WASTE AND SPENT NUCLEAR
FUEL: THE CONTINUING SOCIETAL AND TECHNICAL
CHALLENGES (NRC, 2001)
The concept of geological disposal is not new, yet many national pro-
grams have been faced with significant challenges siting a geological
repository and emplacing spent nuclear fuel and HLW in it. This study,
authored by a committee of experts from seven countries, addresses
some of the challenges that national programs have confronted or are
currently dealing with. The committee concluded that focused attention
by world leaders is needed to address the substantial challenges posed
by disposal of spent nuclear fuel and HLW. In addition, the biggest chal-
lenges in achieving safe and secure storage and permanent waste dis-
posal are societal. Technically, there are only two feasible options: (1)
storage on or near the Earth's surface and (2) placement in deep under-
ground repositories. After four decades of study, the geological reposi-
tory option remains the only scientifically credible, long-term solution for
safely isolating waste without having the rely on active management.
Furthermore, although there are still some significant technical chal-
lenges, the broad consensus within the scientific and technical commu-
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f68
~ Saga ~~n ~r DOE Ames/ Oral R&D
new ~~ ~ ark_ ~ mar ~ Ilk
Cal disposal This approach ~ sound as long as ~ Evokes a step-by-
step, reversible deci~on-making process that takes advantage of tech-
nological advances and public participation.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
savannah river
