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Suggested Citation:"Glossary." National Research Council. 1999. An End State Methodology for Identifying Technology Needs for Environmental Management, with an Example from the Hanford Site Tanks. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6366.
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Glossary


amphoteric

capable of reacting chemically either as an acid or as a base.


brownfield

remediation of a contaminated site or facility to a level acceptable only for certain types of restricted industrial use with continuing institutional control and maintenance.


committee's reference scenario (committee's reference flowsheet)—

the remediation baseline developed by the committee which is somewhat analogous to the Hanford baseline scenario (flowsheet).


end state

the final product of a waste processing, remediation, or management scenario characterized well enough in terms of chemical, physical, and radioactive attributes to allow details of scenarios to be specified.


flowsheet

an outline that identifies the process step sequences at various levels of detail that are incorporated in a scenario leading to end states.

function

a generalized description of an activity that effects the desired changes leading to end states (e.g., chemical engineering unit operations).

functional flowsheet

a generalized description of processing operations (functions) used to demonstrate the transformation of initial radioactive wastes to end states.


greenfield

remediation of a contaminated site or facility to a level acceptable for unrestricted future use.


Hanford baseline scenario (Hanford baseline flowsheet)—

the DOE Hanford baseline for remediation of the HLW tanks.

high-level waste (HLW)—

radioactive waste material derived from the first cycle of solvent extraction from processing of irradiated fuel, or equivalent material from other parts of the processing operations, and spent nuclear fuel (from 10 CFR 50).


low activity waste (LAW)—

incidental radioactive waste derived from removal of radionuclides from HLW and having properties similar to those described by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) in 10 CFR 61, but not under the jurisdiction of the USNRC.

low-level waste (LLW)—

radioactive waste not classified as high-level radioactive waste, transuranic waste, spent nuclear fuel, or byproduct material described by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) in 10 CFR 61.


process step

description of the details of functions (processing operations) sufficient to identify applicable and required technologies.


risk

the answer to three questions, ''What can go wrong?", "How likely is it?", and "What are the consequences?".

Suggested Citation:"Glossary." National Research Council. 1999. An End State Methodology for Identifying Technology Needs for Environmental Management, with an Example from the Hanford Site Tanks. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6366.
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scenario

a qualitative description of the transition path of waste from its initial state to a specified end state.

solid

a material present in a liquid in excess of its solubility limit.

sludge

a semi-solid, viscous, amorphous material that is substantially insoluble.

slurry

a suspension of solids in a liquid.


technology needs

new information on chemical, physical, and engineering processes required to successfully carry out a function or process step.

Suggested Citation:"Glossary." National Research Council. 1999. An End State Methodology for Identifying Technology Needs for Environmental Management, with an Example from the Hanford Site Tanks. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6366.
×
Page 72
Suggested Citation:"Glossary." National Research Council. 1999. An End State Methodology for Identifying Technology Needs for Environmental Management, with an Example from the Hanford Site Tanks. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6366.
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Page 73
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An End State Methodology for Identifying Technology Needs for Environmental Management, with an Example from the Hanford Site Tanks Get This Book
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 An End State Methodology for Identifying Technology Needs for Environmental Management, with an Example from the Hanford Site Tanks
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A major issue in the cleanup of this country's nuclear weapons complex is how to dispose of the radioactive waste resulting primarily from the chemical processing operations for the recovery of plutonium and other defense strategic nuclear materials. The wastes are stored in hundreds of large underground tanks at four U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites throughout the United States. The tanks contain hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of radioactive and hazardous waste. Most of it is high-level waste (HLW), some of it is transuranic (TRU) or low- level waste (LLW), and essentially all containing significant amounts of chemicals deemed hazardous. Of the 278 tanks involved, about 70 are known or assumed to have leaked some of their contents to the environment. The remediation of the tanks and their contents requires the development of new technologies to enable cleanup and minimize costs while meeting various health, safety, and environmental objectives.

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 interested parties) and a systematic basis (in terms of identifying end states for the contaminants and developing pathways to these states from the present conditions). An End State Methodology for Identifying Technology Needs for Environmental Management, with an Example from the Hanford Site Tanks describes 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 authoring committee believes that the recommended end state based approach can be applied to DOE waste management in general, not just to waste in tanks. The approach is illustrated through an example based on the tanks at the DOE Hanford Site in southeastern Washington state, the location of some 60 percent by volume of the tank waste residues.

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