Advice on the Department of Energy's Cleanup Technology Roadmap Gaps and Bridges (2009) / Chapter Skim
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3 Expertise and Infrastructure
3 Expertise and Infrastructure
Pages 81-94
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From page 81... ...
, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory [PNNL] , and Savannah River National Laboratory [SRNL]
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From page 82... ...
Then this list was culled based on consideration of which capabilities were essentially unique to the DOE cleanup situation. The result was the following four: • Handling radioactive materials, • Conducting engineering and pilot-scale tests, • Determining contaminant behavior in the environment, and • Utilizing state-of-the-art science to develop advanced technologies.
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From page 83... ...
FIGURE 3.1 Glove box in a radiochemical laboratory. Glove boxes provide safe containment for laboratory work with radioactive or chemically hazardous materi Fig 3-1 als.
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From page 84... ...
Support services include radiochemical laboratories to provide sample analyses, standardized and quality-controlled radioactive sources, and equipment calibration. Monitoring, dosimetry, and other worker protection services -- often referred to as radiation protection or health physics -- are also required.
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From page 85... ...
Radioanalytical laboratories house the same types of instruments used in well-equipped chemistry laboratories, such as inductively coupled plasma optical emission and mass spectroscopy, digital autoradiography, bulk and micro x-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy with wavelength dispersive spectroscopy, electron microprobe, liquid and ion chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, and multipoint surface area analysis. These instruments may themselves be contained in radiochemical hoods or glove boxes.
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From page 86... ...
. The mock-ups allow the simulation of limited equipment access to the tank interior, as is the case for the actual tanks, and for SRS, the ability to reproduce the complicated internal cooling coil geometries that make tank cleaning especially challenging for that site (Chapter 2, Figure 2.3)
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From page 87... ...
. SRNL highlighted its engineering development laboratory during the committee's site visit.
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From page 88... ...
Further, if the technicians and operators have experience with the site problems that their project is addressing, they often contribute innovative, practical ideas toward their solutions. DETERMINING CONTAMINANT BEHAVIOR IN THE ENVIRONMENT Each of the DOE sites has a unique history in the disposal or release of contamination and unique geohydrological characteristics, which largely control the movement of these contaminants.
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From page 89... ...
All national laboratories visited have field test facilities and are actively conducting field tests to determine contaminant fate and transport at their associated sites. ORNL highlighted its Field Research Center during the committee's site visit (Figure 3.4)
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From page 90... ...
However, only the national laboratories have the long-term capabilities to maintain and synthesize all of this information into sufficiently detailed conceptual understanding and site models to guide EM's remediation work and DOE's long-term stewardship planning. Geoscience and geotechnical laboratories that support site cleanup are often equipped for handling low levels of radionuclides as well as for engineering tests, for example, tests to determine sorption of contaminants onto soils and rocks and their permeabilities.
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From page 91... ...
A particularly important SC-funded resource for EM-related studies has been the capability for x-ray and infrared spectroscopies, microspectroscopies, and tomography available at the nation's synchrotron light sources (including the Advanced Photon Source, the National Synchrotron Light Source, the Advanced Light Source, and other sources located at DOE laboratories) . Through studies led by researchers from universities EM researchers have made significant use of DOE SC synchrotron facilities and the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL)
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From page 92... ...
spectroscopies; identified the speciation of Pu, U, and other heavy metals in soils and sediments, in association with plants and microbes, and on engineered surfaces requiring decontamination; and aided in the evaluation of chemical remediation strategies through providing data to better model the mobility and fate of contaminants. For example, Los Alamos researchers were able to use x-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy to identify the speciation of plutonium in contaminated soil and concrete samples from the Rocky Flats site, data that were very valuable in informing cleanup efforts (LANL 2002)
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From page 93... ...
Surface analytical capabilities include those at the EMSL at PNNL such as time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopies, and high-sensitivity surface probe microspectroscopies. SRNL reported surface analytical capabilities, including glove-box-contained electron microscopies and vibrational and electron spectroscopies.
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