Advice on the Department of Energy's Cleanup Technology Roadmap Gaps and Bridges (2009) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Appendix E: Idaho National Laboratory
Appendix E: Idaho National Laboratory
Pages 200-221
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 200... ...
Twin Falls Tw in Fall s FIGURE E.1 The Idaho National Laboratory site encompasses 890 square miles in eastern Idaho. It was established in 1949 p rimarily for the development and testing of nuclear reactors, which continues to be a major mission for the site.
|
From page 201... ...
through presentations and tours by Department of Energy (DOE) staff and their contractors. This appendix provides a factual summary of the information related to the four items in the committee's SOT obtained during the meeting, the site visits, and documents provided to the committee.
|
From page 202... ...
Today, INL is a science-based, applied engineering national laboratory dedicated to addressing national environmental, energy, nuclear technology, and national security needs, while cleanup continues under the separate Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP)
|
From page 203... ...
The identified cleanup goals, on which some progress has already been made, are to: • Transfer spent nuclear fuel from wet to dry storage and prepare for final disposition at an offsite repository; • Treat liquid radioactive waste at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) ; Adapted from https://idahocleanupproject.com/, the NRC (2005)
|
From page 204... ...
Progress made includes disposition of nuclear material items, transfer of approximately half of the spent nuclear fuel units from wet storage to dry storage in casks, and grouting seven 300,000-gallon HLW storage tanks. Approval has been received to begin construction of the IWTU, which is intended to treat the remaining high-level liquid wastes (CWI 2007)
|
From page 205... ...
Data from these reactors helped establish the technical bases for the design of subsequent reactors and the regulation of nuclear energy. Past disposal of industrial, sanitary, and radioactive wastes to unlined ponds, and industrial wastes to injection wells, resulted in contaminated soil and groundwater perched above the Snake River Plain Aquifer and tritium, chromium, and sulfate contamination in the aquifer itself.
|
From page 206... ...
The AMWTP is currently treating and shipping TRU waste to WIPP near Carlsbad, New Mexico, which is the nation's permanent deep-geologic repository for TRU waste. The major cleanup goals, which are in progress, are to: • Remove and dispose of targeted waste from specified portions of the SDA, • Continue extracting organic vapors from the subsurface until remediation goals are met, • Demolish excess facilities, and • Ship TRU waste offsite.
|
From page 207... ...
: • TRU disposition, including sodium-bearing waste (SBW) treatment and operation of the IWTU; • Calcine disposition; • Low-level and mixed low-level waste disposition; • Pperation of the advanced mixed waste treatment facility (AMWTF)
|
From page 208... ...
the key issue is whether the calcined wastes in their present form, suitably packaged for transportation and geologic storage, will meet regulatory requirements for disposal at a high-level radioactive waste repository. If this is not the case, INL has three alternative paths (1)
|
From page 209... ...
The proposed process is based on a Thor Treatment Technologies flow sheet. FBSR was demonstrated for application to Hanford's low-activity tank waste at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Savannah River National Laboratory under a 2001 contract with Bechtel National, Inc.
|
From page 210... ...
Eight of these were constructed with cooling coils to remove decay heat from highly radioactive wastes; three have no cooling coils. In addition, four smaller, 30,000-gallon stainless steel tanks were used for storage, but taken out of service in the early 1980s.
|
From page 211... ...
. There are nearly 425,000 containers of mixed waste, 230,000 of which are from the former Rocky Flats plant (deposited pre-1970)
|
From page 212... ...
Accomplishments thus far include increased dissolution of the source material to make it more available for biodegradation, increased mass of the microbe population capable of degrading the TCE around the source area, and increasing the biological activity surrounding the residual source area. The research also includes evaluating alternative remediation technologies in the medial zone.
|
From page 213... ...
Also at INTEC, extensive cleanup of the Flourinel Dissolution Process hot cell located in building CPP-666 is required to support the RemoteHandled Waste Disposition Project (Jines 2007)
|
From page 214... ...
AND SPECIAL NUCLEAR MATERIALS (SNM) As a part of the Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP)
|
From page 215... ...
Recent Navy fuel operations involving welding of fuel canisters for disposal in a geologic repository have identified needs for similar improvements in the remote systems used for fuel packaging. • For D&D and waste retrieval, the primary failure modes re lated to poor maintainability and equipment failure include clogging by the dust/effluvium inherent in the excavation environment and vibra tion from both continuous and periodic (impact)
|
From page 216... ...
was declared as a "waste with no path to disposition." This is a result of the recognition that the beryllium reflector blocks removed from the ATR were contaminated with cobalt-60, carbon14, tritium, and TRU elements (as a result of initial uranium impurities in the Be)
|
From page 217... ...
Nuclear science and technology: • R&D for Generation IV (GEN IV) reactors, • nuclear fuel cycle development, and • modeling and simulation.
|
From page 218... ...
Waste processing: • basic science and technology including: – computational chemistry, – coordination and separations chemistry, – molten salt chemistry, – radiochemistry and trace element analysis, and – thermodynamics of aqueous, nonaqueous, and ionic liquids. • solvent extraction-based separations, • thermal processing and immobilization with cold-crucible in duction melter technology, • immobilization using HIP capabilities, • fluidized bed calcination and steam reforming, and • advanced fuel cycle and Global Nuclear Energy Partner ship (GNEP)
|
From page 219... ...
The infrastructure that the committee observed during its site visit, and which might be relevant to addressing the R&D needs at Idaho and the other DOE sites, includes the following: • The hot cell capabilities and the remote handling capabilities, • The test reactor to provide high neutron fluxes to generate samples for test work, • The CPP-666 fuel storage basin facility, • The waste compaction ("super compactor") facility, • The test area for grout fill applications, • The FBSR project developed for treatment of SBW, • The radiological calibration laboratory and the radiation detection laboratory, • Facilities within the Advanced Separations and Radiochemistry department, • The cold crucible research facility, • The geo-centrifuge facility, and • The AMWTP.
|
From page 220... ...
Disposition Project. Presented to the Committee on Development and Implementation of a Cleanup Technology Roadmap, Idaho Na tional Laboratory, Idaho Falls, August 29.
|
From page 221... ...
Treatment Project. Presented to the Committee on Development and Implementation of a Cleanup Technology Roadmap, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, August 29.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.