A Strategic Vision for Department of Energy Environmental Quality Research and Development (2001) / Chapter Skim
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3. A Long-Term Vision for Department of Energy Environmental Quality Research and Development
3. A Long-Term Vision for Department of Energy Environmental Quality Research and Development
Pages 40-70
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From page 40... ...
Finally, the committee discusses five broad themes that DOE could use as "principal elements" of its EQ R&D portfolio. In sum, this chapter represents the committee's vision of a more effective portfolio of activities that incorporates a more "life-cycle based" (i.e., systematic consideration of the entire expected life-cycle of a technology or facility, from initial design, through operation, to closure and long-term stewardship)
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From page 41... ...
· leveraging results from DOE's Office of Science; and leveraging and supporting relevant R&D programs outside DOE. Addressing Long-Term, Currently Intractable EQ Problems The problems confronting the EQ business line are long-term, both because they involve materials that in some cases remain hazardous for thousands to hundreds of thousands of years and because they pose scientific questions that are so complex and unique that R&D will have to continue for decades to generate their solutions.2 This uniqueness and complexity demand that the EQ R&D portfolio have a strong, if not dominant, long-term component.
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From page 42... ...
In sum, many of DOE's waste management and disposal problems currently are, and will continue to be, intractable during the active clean-up
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, and disposing of uniquely hazardous, chemically complex substances, such as spent nuclear fuel, liquid high-level radioactive wastes, and mixtures of hazardous and radioactive compounds. It is also responsible for remediating a wide range of contaminated media and facilities (e.g., groundwater, soil, and nuclear production facilities)
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From page 44... ...
Environmental cleanup, waste management, and disposal activities will, of necessity, endure for generations, and long-term stewardship at most sites could continue indefinitely thereafter. Therefore, the future can provide opportunities for continual improvements in the methods used to address these issues and the possibility of breakthrough technologies that could greatly reduce the risks to human health and the environment and the costs to future generations.
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Improving Performance, Reducing Risks to Human Health and the Environment, Decreasing Cost, and Advancing Schedules The type of problem-driven R&D envisioned as part of DOE's EQ R&D portfolio should be viewed as an investment (see discussion in Chapter 4~. The results should be expected to improve performance, reduce risks to human health or the environment, decrease costs, or advance schedules.
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From page 46... ...
Furthermore, knowledge gained through R&D failures can be very useful. Even so, an important measure of the long-term success of the R&D portfolio is the degree to which it has led to improved performance, reduced risks to human health or the environment, decreased costs, and advanced schedules.
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From page 47... ...
For example, more efficient and cost-effective technologies based on improved technical understanding could reduce the costs of remediating contaminated DOE sites. However, numerous decisions on environmental remediation, waste management, materials storage, and facility decommissioning involve complex technical issues for which there are only limited data and partial scientific understanding.
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From page 48... ...
This latter approach does not preclude initiating R&D in parallel. Finding: Numerous decisions on environmental cleanup, waste management, materials storage, and facility decommissioning involve complex technical issues for which only limited data and partial scientific understanding exist.
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A Long Term Vision for DOE EQ R&D 49 Making Informed Decisions on Nuclear Energy Today it is not clear how and by which technologies the current problems facing nuclear energy may be resolved. What actually happens will depend on how safety, waste disposal, and proliferation concerns are resolved, and whether the greenhouse debate adds increasing importance to nuclear energy's "carbon benignness." (IIASA, 1995, p.
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. If and when a license application is submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management plans to decrease its R&D spending to a level sufficient to support performance confirmation activities at Yucca Mountain.
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Issues of particular importance include evaluating the effects of extended burn-up on spent fuel production, storage, transportation, and disposal and how to determine whether such spent fuel can meet waste acceptance criteria for a repository or affect repository licensing and performance. Although the Nuclear Energy's Research Advisory Committee's longterm R&D plan did not explicitly consider R&D to address the environmental legacies of nuclear power systems and nuclear weapons production, it did emphasize the importance of considering the environmental consequences of future nuclear power systems: "Perhaps the most important point is that all future nuclear energy programs should include a focus on environmental protection from the beginning of the program" (DOE, 2000k, p.
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From page 52... ...
needs regarding the storage, processing, possible uses, waste management, and disposal of excess special nuclear materials. In response, DOE established the National Nuclear Security business line, which is designed to enhance national security through the military application of nuclear technology and reduce the global danger from weapons of mass destruction (DOE, 2000f)
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and R&D portfolios (EQ, National Nuclear Security, and Energy Resources)
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Findinn: Information and technologies developed in the EQ R&D portfolio often are not promptly used in the field by DOE contractors. 7 EM's Office of Science and Technology formed Site Technology Coordination Groups at each major site to interact with local contractor personnel and others to obtain that site's environmental restoration and waste management technology needs.
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. An effective, adequately funded R&D portfolio that includes new starts, extensions of promising R&D, and periodic new initiatives has the potential to promote the development of the future nuclear and environmental scientists and engineers required to address the long-term problems described in this report.
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Leveraging Results from DOE's Office of Science DOE's Science business line is dedicated to"advancting] the basic research and instruments of science that are the foundations for DOE's applied missions, a base for U.S.
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Conclusion: Relevant research supported by DOE's Office of Science should be integrated and coordinated with EQ R&D. Leveraging and Supporting Relevant R&D Programs Outside of DOE To provide a broader context and as part of its task to consider whether the EQ R&D portfolio should incorporate related issues outside DOE, the committee considered relevant R&D programs in other agencies, the private sector, and other nations.
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From page 58... ...
The program supports, for example, R&D to develop improved approaches and processes to decrease the quantity of disposed wastes; to increase effective waste management efforts; and to decrease life-cycle, safety, and pollution impact costs. The Environmental Security Technology Certification Program, also in the Department of Defense, demonstrates and validates promising innovative technologies in the areas of environmental cleanup and compliance, pollution prevention, alternative waste processing technologies, and detection and remediation of unexploded ordnance.
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government R&D programs that are closely related to R&D activities supported by the EQ business line. Areas of significant overlap include remediating contaminated groundwater and sites, reducing waste generation, and understanding the fate
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Findinn: A number of programs in federal agencies outside DOE and in other countries support R&D closely related to DOE's EQ mission. Specific areas where there is significant overlap include remediating contaminated media, reducing waste generation, and disposing of waste.
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if 5. The portfolio should leverage R&D conducted by other DOE business lines, the private sector, state and federal agencies, and other nations to address EQ goals and objectives.
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Recommendation: The EQ R&D portfolio should include, at minimum, the following 5 principal elements: 1. Development and evaluation of approaches that reduce the impacts of wastes on human health and the environment through generation minimization; processing improvements, including volume reduction, stabilization, and containment; and disposal; ~ Although the committee has attempted to briefly synthesize the relevant message from each referenced work, readers interested in more details on any subject are encouraged to read the complete reports, where the rationales for conclusions and recommendations are described.
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Generation Minimization Minimizing the generation of DOE wastes (both new wastes and secondary wastes produced during remediation activities) is an essential element of the life-cycle approach to EQ problems emphasized throughout this report.
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. Disposal With regard to the disposal of high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel, a December 2000 letter report from the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board identified the conceptual design for the proposed geological repository at Yucca Mountain as one of the major technical challenges that remain with the program (NWTRB, 2000~.
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. Development of Methods and Techniques for Cutting-Edge Characterization and Remediation of Contaminated Media Several recent NRC studies identified long-term research on the location and characterization of subsurface contaminants, and characterization of the subsurface itself, as high priorities (NRC, 2000c,d)
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. The SLC's recent adequacy analysis found that the development of improved understanding of the fate and transport of contaminants in the vadose zone is a significant R&D gap (DOE, 2000g)
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Long-term R&D on such issues could assist DOE in addressing remaining risks to human health and the environment at closed sites (see also Sidebar 3.1~. The recent SLC adequacy analysis also identified a large
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SLC's recent adequacy analysis agreed with the needs described in the CRESP report and also identified the need for improved methods for communicating risks to stakeholders as a significant R&D gap in the EQ R&D portfolio (DOE, 20009~. In summary, what is needed are more accurate, comprehensive, and transparent approaches to assessing and communicating the risks of DOE wastes and contaminated media to human health and the environment so that DOE can make more informed decisions that are accepted by stakeholders.
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The committee answers this question with a qualified "yes." The committee believes it is appropriate for the EQ R&D portfolio to address environmental problems outside DOE, provided that such R&D is directly related to DOE's EQ mission. Earlier in this chapter, the committee concluded that DOE's EQ R&D should be closely coordinated and integrated with relevant parts of DOE's other business lines.
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From page 70... ...
The committee pointed out in Chapter 2 that inconsistencies and changes in descriptions of DOE's EQ responsibilities over time may have interfered with developing broad-based support for its EQ R&D efforts. Earlier in this chapter, the committee recommended that DOE establish a long-term, strategic vision for its EQ R&D portfolio.
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