SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR DOE SITE CLEANUP
WORKSHOP SUMMARY
Kevin D. Crowley, Rapporteur
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management contract #DE-FC01-04EW07022. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
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EM ROADMAP WORKSHOP ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
EDWIN P. PRZYBYLOWICZ,
Eastman Kodak (retired)
ALLEN G. CROFF,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (retired)
CAROLYN L. HUNTOON,
CLH Associates, Inc.
Staff
KEVIN D. CROWLEY, Rapporteur
RICK JOSTES, Senior Program Officer (deceased)
JOHN R. WILEY, Senior Program Officer
TONI GREENLEAF, Administrative Associate
MANDI M. BOYKIN, Senior Program Assistant
SHAUNTEÉ WHETSTONE, Senior Program Assistant
NUCLEAR AND RADIATION STUDIES BOARD
RICHARD A. MESERVE (Chairman),
Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, D.C.
S. JAMES ADELSTEIN (Vice Chairman),
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
JOEL S. BEDFORD,
Colorado State University, Fort Collins
SUE B. CLARK,
Washington State University, Pullman
ALLEN G. CROFF,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (retired), St. Augustine, Florida
DAVID E. DANIEL,
University of Texas at Dallas
SARAH C. DARBY,
Clinical Trial Service Unit, Oxford, United Kingdom
ROGER L. HAGENGRUBER,
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
DANIEL KREWSKI,
University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
KLAUS KÜHN,
Technische Universität Clausthal, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany
MILTON LEVENSON,
Bechtel International (retired), Menlo Park, California
C. CLIFTON LING,
Memorial Hospital, New York City, New York
PAUL A. LOCKE,
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
WARREN F. MILLER,
Texas A&M University, Albuquerque, New Mexico
ANDREW M. SESSLER,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California
JOHN C. VILLFORTH,
Food and Drug Law Institute (retired), Gaithersburg, Maryland
PAUL L. ZIEMER,
Purdue University (retired), West Lafayette, Indiana
Staff
KEVIN D. CROWLEY, Director
EVAN B. DOUPLE, Scholar
RICK JOSTES, Senior Program Officer (deceased)
MICAH D. LOWENTHAL, Senior Program Officer
JOHN R. WILEY, Senior Program Officer
NAOKO ISHIBE, Program Officer
TONI GREENLEAF, Administrative and Financial Associate
LAURA D. LLANOS, Administrative and Financial Associate
COURTNEY GIBBS, Senior Program Assistant
MANDI M. BOYKIN, Senior Program Assistant
SHAUNTEÉ WHETSTONE, Senior Program Assistant
JAMES YATES, JR., Office Assistant
Preface
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) is developing a technology “roadmap” to guide planning and possible future congressional appropriations for its technology development programs. It asked the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies to provide technical and strategic advice to support the development and implementation of this roadmap, specifically by undertaking a study that identifies the following:
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Principal science and technology gaps and their priorities for the cleanup program based on previous National Academies reports, updated and extended to reflect current site conditions and EM priorities and input from key external groups, such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, Environmental Protection Agency, and state regulatory agencies.
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Strategic opportunities to leverage research and development from other DOE programs (e.g., in the Office of Science, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, and the National Nuclear Security Administration), other federal agencies (e.g., Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency), universities, and the private sector.
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Core capabilities at the national laboratories that will be needed to address EM's long-term, high-risk cleanup challenges, especially at the four laboratories located at the large DOE sites (Idaho National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Savannah River National Laboratory).
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The infrastructure at these national laboratories and at EM sites that should be maintained to support research, development, and bench- and pilot-scale demonstrations of technologies for the EM cleanup program, especially in radiochemistry.
This report addresses the first bullet of this study task. It provides a high-level synthesis of principal science and technology gaps identified in previous NRC reports. The NRC has been advising DOE and its predecessor agencies on the use of science and technology for waste management and environmental cleanup since the mid-1950s. Its published reports have identified, either directly or indirectly, science and technology gaps in the cleanup program. A complete list of NRC reports on waste management and environmental cleanup of DOE sites is provided in Appendix A.
Chapter 2 of this report is based on a discussion paper that was prepared for the March 13, 2007, NRC workshop entitled “Development and Implementation of a Cleanup Technology Roadmap for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.” The objective of the workshop was to bring together the key external groups identified in the first bullet of the study task to discuss current site conditions and science and technology needs. The workshop agenda and participants are provided in Appendixes B and C, respectively.
A summary of the workshop presentations and discussions is provided in Chapter 3 of this report. It is intended to update and extend the Chapter 1 summary by providing comments on current cleanup priorities at four DOE sites (Hanford, Idaho, Oak Ridge, and Savannah River). Chapter 3 also provides a summary of workshop presentations and discussions on promoting more effective use of science and technology for DOE site cleanup. This discussion is intended to inform the next study phase, which is described below.
The remainder of the study task will be addressed in a Phase 2 activity that is being carried out by an NRC-appointed committee; the committee membership is given in Appendix D. The committee may also offer additional comments on the first bullet of the study task. The committee is planning to visit the four sites that are the subject of this workshop and their associated national laboratories. The final report from the Phase 2 study is expected to be issued in the fall of 2008.
Acknowledgments
This workshop was organized on very short notice to inform the development of the Department of Energy’s technology roadmap. The rapporteur and the National Research Council (NRC) would like to thank the panelists and other participants for making this workshop a success. Special thanks go to Mark Gilbertson and his staff for helping recruit Department of Energy (DOE) panelists; Terry Tyborowski for providing an important congressional perspective on the use of technology for DOE site cleanup; members of the workshop organizing committee (Ed Przybylowicz, Allen Croff, and Carolyn Huntoon) for helping organize and run the workshop; and members of the Phase 2 study committee (Appendix D) for their insights on the workshop discussions. The rapporteur would also like to thank NRC staff, especially John Wiley, Rick Jostes, Greg Symmes, Toni Greenleaf, and Mandi Boykin, for their help with the workshop and this summary. It was truly a team effort.
This summary has been reviewed in draft form by persons chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purposes of this review are to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making the published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards of objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their participation in the review of this report:
Patricia J. Culligan, Columbia University
Paul A. Locke, The Johns Hopkins University
John Marra, Savannah River National Laboratory
Andrew M. Sessler, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (retired)
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by the Division on Earth and Life Studies of
the NRC, which was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of the report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered.
This report presents the rapporteur’s summary of workshop and does not necessarily represent the views of the workshop participants or the NRC. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the rapporteur and the NRC.