Integrated Approach to Remediatiion of Multiple Uranium Mill Tailing Sites for the US DOE in the Western United States

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Van Dyke ◽  
Tom Dabrowski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Involvement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Maximum Efficiency ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Remedial Action ◽  
Low Level

This paper provides a case history of a highly successful approach that was developed and implemented for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the cleanup and remediation of a large and diverse population of uranium mill tailings sites located in the Western United States. The paper addresses the key management challenges and lessons learned from the largest DOE Environmental Management Clean-up Project (in terms of number of individual clean-up sites) undertaken in the United States. From 1986 to 1996, the Department of Energy’s Grand Junction Projects Office (GJPO) completed approximately 4600 individual remedial action site cleanup projects for large- and small-scale properties, and sites contaminated with residual hazardous and radioactive materials from former uranium mining and milling activities. These projects, with a total value of $597 million, involved site characterization, remedial design, waste removal, cleanup verification, transportation, and disposal of nearly 2.7 million cubic yards of low-level and mixed low-level waste. The project scope included remedial action at 4,200 sites in Grand Junction, Colorado, and Edgemont, South Dakota; 412 sites in Monticello, Utah; and, 44 sites in Denver, Colorado. The projects ranged in size and complexity from the multi-year Monticello Millsite Remedial Action Project, which involved investigations, characterization, remedial design, and remedial action at this uranium millsite along with design of a 2.5 million cubic yard disposal cell, to the remediation and reconstruction of thousands of smaller commercial and residential properties throughout the Southwestern United States. Because these projects involved remedial action at a variety of commercial facilities, businesses, churches, schools and personal residences, and the transportation of the waste through towns and communities, an extensive public involvement program was the cornerstone of an effort to promote stakeholder understanding and acceptance. The Project established a DOE model for rapid, economical, and effective remedial action. During the ten years of the contract, the management operations contractor (Duratek) met all project milestones on schedule and under budget, with no cost growth from the original scope. By streamlining remediation schedules and techniques, ensuring effective stakeholder communications, and transferring lessons learned from one project to the next, the contractor achieved maximum efficiency and the lowest remediation costs of any similar DOE environmental programs at the time.

Best Practices and Lessons Learned from Nuclear Materials Retrieval Programs of the United States Department of Energy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaatrin Abbott ◽  
Zachary Geroux
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nuclear Material ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Nuclear Materials ◽  
United States Department

Abstract The Atomic Energy Act, as amended, authorizes the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies to distribute nuclear materials to public or private institutions for the purposes of education as well as research and development. Significant transformations throughout the nuclear industry have led to changes in programmatic responsibility for loaned nuclear materials. DOE has established several programs to catalog, transfer ownership, retrieve, and/or dispose of these loaned nuclear materials. The variety of loaned nuclear material types, as well as operational and regulatory variations between facility licensees have created unique challenges for the retrieval and dispositioning processes. These include packaging and transportation, confirmation of regulatory jurisdiction, property transfer, and disposal of sources with no remaining economic value. This paper explores the methods and actions taken by DOE to address these challenges. Lessons learned and best practices identified from these programs are also presented.

Sharing Lessons Learned and Best Practices in Deactivation and Decommissioning Techniques Among U.S. Department of Energy Contractors

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael B. Lackey ◽  
Sandra L. Waisley ◽  
Lansing G. Dusek
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Significant Progress ◽  
Energy Facility ◽  
Engineering And Technology ◽  
Implementation Guidelines

Approximately $153.2 billion of work currently remains in the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Environmental Management (EM) lifecycle budget for United States projects. Contractors who manage facilities for the DOE have been challenged to identify transformational changes to reduce the lifecycle costs and develop a knowledge management system that identifies, disseminates, and tracks the implementation of lessons learned and best practices. At the request of the DOE’s EM Office of Engineering and Technology, the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) responded to the challenge with formation of the Deactivation and Decommissioning (D&D) and Facility Engineering (DD/FE) Working Group. Since October 2006, members have already made significant progress in realizing their goals: adding new D&D best practices to the existing EFCOG Best Practices database; participating in lessons learned forums; and contributing to a DOE initiative on identifying technology needs. The group is also participating in a DOE project management initiative to develop implementation guidelines, as well as a DOE radiation protection initiative to institute a more predictable and standardized approach to approving authorized limits and independently verifying cleanup completion at EM sites. Finally, a D&D hotline to provide real-time solutions to D&D challenges is also being launched.

scholarly journals Nuclear Facility Safety at the United States Department of Energy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Frias ◽  
José R. O. Muñoz ◽  
Louis Restrepo ◽  
James L. Tingey ◽  
David L. Y. Louie
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nuclear Safety ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Nuclear Facility ◽  
Near Misses ◽  
States Department ◽  
Safety Research

Abstract Nuclear facility safety is crucial to preventing and/or reducing high consequence-low probability accidents and, thus reducing the potential risks posed by United States Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) operations at their facilities/activities. DOE/NNSA has the responsibility of developing, issuing, maintaining, and enforcing nuclear safety Directives while fostering a culture that promotes nuclear safety research and development. Lessons learned from past accidents, near misses, and experiments/analyses are also important resources for improving operational nuclear safety in the safety community. This paper first identifies and describes the current Directives in place, including safety review and regulatory process, and safety programs that support implementation of the Directives. This paper also describes a contractor’s approach to identifying and implementing safety using these Directives and lessons-learned in multiple discipline areas of nuclear safety.

Decommissioning in the United States: Past, Present and Future

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jas S. Devgun
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Spent Nuclear Fuel ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Research Reactors ◽  
The Past ◽  
The U.S

The experience related to decommissioning of nuclear facilities in the United States is very substantial and covers power reactors, research reactors, and many facilities in the Department of Energy complex. The focus of this paper however is on the commercial power plants. With 104 operating reactors, the U.S. fleet of civilian reactors is still the largest in the world. Nuclear power industry in the United States has undergone a dramatic upturn after decades of stalemate. One effect of this nuclear renaissance has been that the plans have changed for several reactors that were initially destined for decommissioning. Instead, the focus now is on relicensing of the reactors and on power uprates. In fact, after the peak period between 1987 and 1998, no additional power reactors have been shutdown. On the contrary, power uprates in the past twenty years have added a cumulative capacity equivalent to five new reactors. Almost all the operating reactors plan to have license extensions, thus postponing the eventual decommissioning. Nevertheless, in addition to the 9 reactors where licenses have been terminated following decommissioning, 12 power and early demonstration reactors and 14 test & research reactors are permanently shutdown and are in decommissioning phase. Substantial experience and lessons learned are available from the U.S. projects that are of value to the international decommissioning projects, especially where such projects are in early stages. These lessons cover a wide array of areas from decommissioning plans, technology applications, large component removal, regulatory and public interface, decommissioning funding and costs, clean up criteria, surveys of the decommissioned site, and license termination. Additionally, because of the unavailability of a national spent fuel disposition facility, most decommissioning sites are constructing above ground interim storage facilities for the spent nuclear fuel. The U.S. nuclear power projects are also gearing up for the design and licensing of new reactors. Lessons from the past are useful in the development of such designs so that along with the other factors, the designs are optimized for eventual decommissioning as well. This paper provides an overview of the past reactor decommissioning, lessons learned from the past experience, and status of the current decommissioning activities and issues. It also presents some long term projections for the future of decommissioning in the United States.

Lessons Learned at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: Share, Listen, and Learn to Earn Stakeholder Acceptance

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leif G. Eriksson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Pilot Plant ◽  
Role Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Host Community ◽  
Deep Geological Repository ◽  
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant ◽  
Geological Repository

Abstract On March 26, 1999, the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) opened the nation’s first deep geological disposal system (repository) for long-lived radioactive wastes/materials (LLRMs) at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site, New Mexico, United States of America (USA). The opening of WIPP embodies gradually achieved acceptance, both local and global, on scientific, institutional, regulatory, political, and public levels. In the opinion of the author, five significant determinants for the successful siting, certification, and acceptance of WIPP, were the existence of: • A willing and supportive host community; • A strong, independent regulator; • A regulatory framework widely perceived to (over)protect public health and the environment; • A structurally simple, old, stable, host-rock with excellent radionuclide containment and isolation characteristics; and • An open siting, site characterization, repository development, certification and recertification process with regularly scheduled opportunities for information exchanges with affected and interested parties, including a) prompt responses to non-DOE concerns and b) transparency/traceability of external-input into, and the logic behind, the DOE’s decision-making process. The nation’s and the world’s next deep geological repository for LLRMs is currently scheduled to open in 2010. As follows, in addition to providing a national solution to safe disposal of LLRMs, the opening and continued safe operation of WIPP provides an international role model that effectively dispels the global myth that LLRMs cannot be safely disposed in a deep geological repository.

Writing Time in Metaphors

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Entire System ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Space Race ◽  
Do So

Coherence of place often exists alongside irregularities in time in cycles, and chapter three turns to cycles linked by temporal markers. Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950) follows a linear chronology and describes the exploration, conquest, and repopulation of Mars by humans. Conversely, Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine (1984) jumps back and forth across time to narrate the lives of interconnected families in the western United States. Bradbury’s cycle invokes a confluence of historical forces—time as value-laden, work as a calling, and travel as necessitating standardized time—and contextualizes them in relation to anxieties about the space race. Erdrich’s cycle invokes broader, oppositional conceptions of time—as recursive and arbitrary and as causal and meaningful—to depict time as implicated in an entire system of measurement that made possible the destruction and exploitation of the Chippewa people. Both volumes understand the United States to be preoccupied with imperialist impulses. Even as they critique such projects, they also point to the tenacity with which individuals encounter these systems, and they do so by creating “interstitial temporalities,” which allow them to navigate time at the crossroads of language and culture.

Winning the Argument and Moving the Fight: The Legacy of a Grassroots Humanitarian

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Mary Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Winning Strategy ◽  
Supreme Court Decision ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Trade Offs

The author of this article argues that the two-decades-long litigation struggle was necessary to push the political actors in Mississippi into a more virtuous than vicious legal/political negotiation. The second and related argument, however, is that neither the 1992 United States Supreme Court decision in Fordice nor the negotiation provided an adequate riposte to plaintiffs’ claims. The author shows that their chief counsel for the first phase of the litigation wanted equality of opportunity for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), as did the plaintiffs. In the course of explicating the role of a legal grass-roots humanitarian, Coleman suggests lessons learned and trade-offs from that case/negotiation, describing the tradeoffs as part of the political vestiges of legal racism in black public higher education and the need to move HBCUs to a higher level of opportunity at a critical juncture in the life of tuition-dependent colleges and universities in the United States. Throughout the essay the following questions pose themselves: In thinking about the Road to Fordice and to political settlement, would the Justice Department lawyers and the plaintiffs’ lawyers connect at the point of their shared strength? Would the timing of the settlement benefit the plaintiffs and/or the State? Could plaintiffs’ lawyers hold together for the length of the case and move each piece of the case forward in a winning strategy? Who were plaintiffs’ opponents and what was their strategy? With these questions in mind, the author offers an analysis of how the campaign— political/legal arguments and political/legal remedies to remove the vestiges of de jure segregation in higher education—unfolded in Mississippi, with special emphasis on the initiating lawyer in Ayers v. Waller and Fordice, Isaiah Madison

scholarly journals Preparedness and response to an emerging health threat—Lessons learned from Candida auris outbreaks in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Diane Meyer ◽  
Elena K. Martin ◽  
Syra Madad ◽  
Priya Dhagat ◽  
Jennifer B. Nuzzo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Infection Prevention And Control ◽  
Healthcare Organizations ◽  
Candida Auris ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Healthcare Facilities

Abstract Objective: Candida auris infections continue to occur across the United States and abroad, and healthcare facilities that care for vulnerable populations must improve their readiness to respond to this emerging organism. We aimed to identify and better understand challenges faced and lessons learned by those healthcare facilities who have experienced C. auris cases and outbreaks to better prepare those who have yet to experience or respond to this pathogen. Design: Semi-structured qualitative interviews. Setting: Health departments, long-term care facilities, acute-care hospitals, and healthcare organizations in New York, Illinois, and California. Participants: Infectious disease physicians and nurses, clinical and environmental services, hospital leadership, hospital epidemiology, infection preventionists, emergency management, and laboratory scientists who had experiences either preparing for or responding to C. auris cases or outbreaks. Methods: In total, 25 interviews were conducted with 84 participants. Interviews were coded using NVivo qualitative coding software by 2 separate researchers. Emergent themes were then iteratively discussed among the research team. Results: Key themes included surveillance and laboratory capacity, inter- and intrafacility communication, infection prevention and control, environmental cleaning and disinfection, clinical management of cases, and media concerns and stigma. Conclusions: Many of the operational challenges noted in this research are not unique to C. auris, and the ways in which we address future outbreaks should be informed by previous experiences and lessons learned, including the recent outbreaks of C. auris in the United States.

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