Environmental Remediation Sciences BERAC Meeting April 30, 2003

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Environmental Remediation SciencesBERAC Meeting
April 30, 2003

• Teresa Fryberger
• Office of Biological and Environmental Research

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Office of Biological and Environmental Research
(BER)

Associate DirectorAri Patrinos
Environmental Remediation Sciences
Division Teresa Fryberger, Director
Climate Change Research Division Jerry Elwood,
Director
Life Sciences Division Marv Frazier, Director
Medical Sciences Division Michael Viola, Director
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Outline

• BackgroundDOE cleanup problems
• Environmental Sciences Division
• Strategic Planning so far

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Environmental Management
The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
was created in 1989 to
Address the environmental legacy from over 50
years of nuclear weapons research, production,
and testing - some of the most technically
challenging and complex work of any environmental
program in the world
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Environmental Legacy Nuclear Weapons Production
SOURCE Accumulation from 50 years of nuclear
weapons production by the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) and its predecessors
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DOE Environmental Legacy
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DOE Environmental Legacy

• DOE Problem Wastes - Examples
• - 403,000 cubic meters of high level waste (HLW)
• - 250,000 cubic meters of solid transuranic
  wastes (TRU)
• - 4.4 million cubic meters of low level waste
  (LLW)
• Non-radioactive hazardous wastes and mixed wastes
• 5,000 7000 contaminated facilities

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DOE Environmental Legacy

• DOE Environmental Problems
• 5,700 individual plumes contaminating soil and
  groundwater
• 7.8 Km2 plume at SRS
• 18.1 Km2 plume of CCl4 at Hanford
• 710,000 m3 of soil at NTS
• 1.5 million m3 of soil at Fernald

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The Legacy Continues

• More contamination and waste will be identified
  as characterization continues
• Decontamination wastes???
• Secondary waste streams from clean-up operations
• Long-term stewardship of sites where residual
  contamination remains

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Why Do We Need Basic Research for the Cleanup?

• We have never done this before
• To provide a technical basis for making decisions
• To provide new approaches to cut costs, or
  sometimes just to provide approaches
• To resolve technical problems as the cleanup
  progresses

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Hanford in the mid 1940s
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Hanford High Level Tank Wastes
EXAMPLE

• Single Shell Tanks
• 149 tanks
• 35M gallons of wastes
• 190K tons of chemicals
• 132M curies of radioactivity
• 75 Sr-90, 24 Cs-137
• 65 leakers
• Double Shell Tanks
• 28 tanks
• 20M gallons of wastes
• 55K tons wastes
• 82M curies of radioactivity
• 72 Cs-137, 27 Sr-90

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High-Level Tank Wastes how was it created?

• DOE Spent Fuel
• Reprocess
• Acid Waste

Neutralization
Underground Storage Tanks 403,000 m3
Sludge (Oxides, Hydroxides, Carbonates Sr,
Cs,TRU) Saltcake and Supernate (Nitrates,
Nitrites, Cs, Sr, Tc)
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Treatment of HLW Tanks
LLW
TRUs Cs,Sr,Tc
Liquid

Volume!!! Cost!!! Quality!!!
Separate Cs,Sr, (Tc)?
?
Alkaline High Level Waste
Sludge
0.03 Radionuclides
TRUs, Sr, Cs, Tc, Metals
HLW Glass
1-2M/glass log
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Hanford High Level Waste

• Science issues
• Chemistry of high pH solutions to predict waste
  behavior
• Tailored separations processes to
• Cut costs
• Reduce volume
• Improve waste form performance
• Designer materials for wasteforms
• Improve performance
• Reduce volume/costs
• Remote characterization and online monitoring
  tools

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Hanford High Level Wastes
65 Known Leakers Subsurface
Contaminants
Cesium Strontium Uranium Technetium Cyanides Chrom
ium Cobalt Nitrates
What happens during retrieval?? What does it mean
to say were done??
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Understanding Contaminant Transport

• Science issues
• Modeling/Prediction
• Complexity
• Scaling
• Characterization/monitoring
• In situ remediation/immobilization
• Surficial Transport
• Trophic Transfer

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Galvin Commission, 1995

• There is a particular need for long term, basic
  research in disciplines related to environmental
  cleanup Adopting a science-based approach that
  includes supporting development of technologies
  and expertise could lead to both reduced
  cleanup costs and smaller environmental impacts
  at existing sites and to the development of a
  scientific foundation for advances in
  environmental technologies.
• From the 1995 Galvin Commission Report On the
  Department of Energy Laboratories

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Environmental Remediation Sciences
Division
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Environmental Remediation Sciences Division

• STAFF
• Judy Nusbaum
• Anna Palmisano
• Paul Bayer
• Roland Hirsch, Medical Applications Div.
• Brendlyn Faison, Hampton University
• Henry Shaw, LLNL
• 3-4 new slots (hopefully)

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Environmental Remediation Sciences
RD for solutions to DOEs long-term
environmental cleanup challenges

• The Environmental Management Science Program
  (EMSP) is developing the scientific basis for
  risk-based decision making and breakthrough
  approaches to cleaning up the nuclear weapons
  complex.
• Bioremediation Research (NABIR) provides the
  understanding of how microbes that naturally
  exist in soils can stabilize metals and
  radionuclides. Studies span the range of
  microbial genetics of all the way to field
  studies at actual contaminated sites.
• The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
  (EMSL) is serving environmental users from around
  the world by providing the leading edge of
  computational and experimental capabilities for
  understanding processes at the molecular level.
• The Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) is
  studying the ecological impacts of remediation
  activities in real time at the Savannah River
  Site while providing hands-on educational
  programs at the Site.

complexation ions with tetramethoxycalix4arene
of cesium
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Environmental Remediation Sciences FY03 Budget
(thousands of )

• NABIR 24,720
• EMSP 29,900
• EMSL 38,000 (operations)
• SREL 6,800
• Misc. 10,100
• Total 109,500

Minus 12M for unfunded Congressional earmarks in
FY03!
Largest program of its kind anywhere!
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Strategic Planning for Environmental Remediation
Sciences

• NRC Recommendation
• that DOE develop a strategic vision for its
  Environmental Quality (EQ) RD portfolio. This
  vision should provide the framework for
  developing the science and technology necessary
  to address EQ problems that extend beyond the
  present emphasis of short-term compliance and
  should incorporate the principal of continual
  improvement.
• A Strategic Vision for DOE Environmental
  Quality RD(National Academy Press, 2001)

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Strategic Planning

• 2 Strategic Planning workshops (July and
  September, 2002)
• Involved scientists from all relevant
  disciplines, other DOE offices, other agencies
• Used NRC Reports on EM Science needs as a basis
• Formation of BERAC Subcommittee
• 1st meeting in April 2003
• Reviewed Strategic Plan Draft
• Draft II is on its way!

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Environmental Remediation Sciences Mission
Enable scientific advances that help solve
currently intractable environmental problems or
otherwise provide break-through opportunities for
DOE environmental missions, while also
contributing to the general advance of the
scientific fields involved.
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Environmental Remediation Sciences Goals

• Provide science to inform decisions about
  environmental remediation and stewardship
• Advance scientific foundations that enable
  innovative remediation technologies and
  methodologies
• Synthesize and integrate across disciplines to
  foster new scientific approaches that match the
  complexity of the problems

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ERSD Characteristics

• Primary focus is on a subset of DOE-EM relevant
  issues
• That are currently intractable
• Where science can have the greatest impact
• Highly interdisciplinary integrates results
  from biology, geology, chemistry, ecology, etc.
• Committed to developing and supporting a suite of
  field research sites
• Develop a toolbox of characterization and
  monitoring tools.

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Environmental Remediation Sciences Program
Emphasis

• Improve our understanding of contaminant fate and
  transport by investigating and linking relevant
  processes
• Focus on interdisciplinary hypothesis-driven
  field studies to address complexity, scaling, and
  validation of models and lab results
• Understand natures tools for cleaning up the
  environment harness the cleanup potential of
  microorganisms and geochemistry

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Environmental Remediation SciencesProgram
Emphasis (continued)

• Help develop the next generation of computational
  and experimental capabilities for understanding
  contaminant behavior
• Provide the basis for new characterization and
  monitoring capabilities
• Provide the basis for new separations and waste
  management options

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Collaborating/Coordinating

• Interagency Steering Committee on Multimedia
  Environmental Modeling
• National Science and Technology Council
  committees
• Collaborations/Joint Research Calls with
• EPA, NSF, NIEHS
• Other BER Genomes to Life, Ecology, Microbial
  Genome
• Other DOE Environmental Management, Basic Energy
  Sciences, Advanced Scientific Computing, Yucca
  Mountain Project

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The Office of ScienceProgram Offices and
Environmental Capabilities
Director Raymond L. Orbach Principal Deputy
Director James F. Decker Deputy Director for
Operations Milton D. Johnson Chief of Staff
Jeffrey T. Salmon
Office of Basic Energy Sciences Associate
Director Patricia M. Dehmer
Office of Biological and Environmental
Research Associate Director Aristides Patrinos
Office of High Energy and Nuclear
Physics Associate Director S. Peter Rosen
Office of Fusion Energy Sciences Associate
Director N. Anne Davies
Office of Advanced Scientific Computing
Research Associate Director C. Edward Oliver
Geosciences Heavy Element Chem. Analytical
Separations Chemistry User Facilities synchrotron
light sources, (nanoscience centers, neutron
source)
Climate Change Genomes to Life Microbial
Research Ecology Bioremediation Low Dose
Radiation EM Science Program User Facility EMSL
Computation Initiatives Genomes to
Life (Contaminant Flow and Transport)
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Programmatic Challenges

• Integrating the science across the division
  programs
• Fostering interdisciplinary research teams
• Nurturing truly innovative ideas
• Getting our science used

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Getting our science used

• Work directly with cleanup staff at sites to
  identify and collaborate on the field research
  sites.
• Work on specific site problems
• Sponsor frequent technical exchange workshops
  with sites
• Develop a strategy to advertise our successes.

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Opportunities

• to revolutionize environmental studiesbringing
  much-needed rigor and the new tools of genomics,
  nanoscience, and computing to bear.
• to have far-reaching impacts on the way
  environmental issues are approached.
• to apply to a broader set of problems (e.g. water
  quality, future energy options, waste
  minimization, mining and industrial wastes)