Energy Research Abstracts

Energy Research Abstracts

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1977

Total Pages: 564

ISBN-13:

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Semiannual, with semiannual and annual indexes. References to all scientific and technical literature coming from DOE, its laboratories, energy centers, and contractors. Includes all works deriving from DOE, other related government-sponsored information, and foreign nonnuclear information. Arranged under 39 categories, e.g., Biomedical sciences, basic studies; Biomedical sciences, applied studies; Health and safety; and Fusion energy. Entry gives bibliographical information and abstract. Corporate, author, subject, report number indexes.


Tank Waste Retrieval, Processing, and On-site Disposal at Three Department of Energy Sites

Tank Waste Retrieval, Processing, and On-site Disposal at Three Department of Energy Sites

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2006-09-12

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 0309180147

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DOE Tank Waste: How clean is clean enough? The U.S. Congress asked the National Academies to evaluate the Department of Energy's (DOE's) plans for cleaning up defense-related radioactive wastes stored in underground tanks at three sites: the Hanford Site in Washington State, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and the Idaho National Laboratory. DOE plans to remove the waste from the tanks, separate out high-level radioactive waste to be shipped to an off-site geological repository, and dispose of the remaining lower-activity waste onsite. The report concludes that DOE's overall plan is workable, but some important challenges must be overcomeâ€"including the removal of residual waste from some tanks, especially at Hanford and Savannah River. The report recommends that DOE pursue a more risk-informed, consistent, participatory, and transparent for making decisions about how much waste to retrieve from tanks and how much to dispose of onsite. The report offers several other detailed recommendations to improve the technical soundness of DOE's tank cleanup plans.


Research Needs for High-Level Waste Stored in Tanks and Bins at U.S. Department of Energy Sites

Research Needs for High-Level Waste Stored in Tanks and Bins at U.S. Department of Energy Sites

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2001-10-05

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 0309075653

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The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has approximately 400 million liters (100 million gallons) of liquid high-level waste (HLW) stored in underground tanks and approximately 4,000 cubic meters of solid HLW stored in bins. The current DOE estimate of the cost of converting these liquid and solid wastes into stable forms for shipment to a geological repository exceeds $50 billion to be spent over several decades (DOE, 2000). The Committee on Long-Term Research Needs for Radioactive High-Level Waste at Department of Energy Sites was appointed by the National Research Council (NRC) to advise the Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) on a long-term research agenda addressing the above problems related to HLW stored in tanks and bins at DOE sites.


Science and Technology for Environmental Cleanup at Hanford

Science and Technology for Environmental Cleanup at Hanford

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2001-11-23

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 0309075963

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The Hanford Site was established by the federal government in 1943 as part of the secret wartime effort to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. The site operated for about four decades and produced roughly two thirds of the 100 metric tons of plutonium in the U.S. inventory. Millions of cubic meters of radioactive and chemically hazardous wastes, the by-product of plutonium production, were stored in tanks and ancillary facilities at the site or disposed or discharged to the subsurface, the atmosphere, or the Columbia River. In the late 1980s, the primary mission of the Hanford Site changed from plutonium production to environmental restoration. The federal government, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), began to invest human and financial resources to stabilize and, where possible, remediate the legacy of environmental contamination created by the defense mission. During the past few years, this financial investment has exceeded $1 billion annually. DOE, which is responsible for cleanup of the entire weapons complex, estimates that the cleanup program at Hanford will last until at least 2046 and will cost U.S. taxpayers on the order of $85 billion. Science and Technology for Environmental Cleanup at Hanford provides background information on the Hanford Site and its Integration Project,discusses the System Assessment Capability, an Integration Project-developed risk assessment tool to estimate quantitative effects of contaminant releases, and reviews the technical elements of the scierovides programmatic-level recommendations.


The Hanford Tanks

The Hanford Tanks

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1996-10-10

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 0309055857

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The Hanford Site (also known as the Hanford Reservation) occupies approximately 1,450 km2 (560 square miles) along the Columbia River in south-central Washington, north of the city of Richland. The site was established by the federal government in 1943 to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. Currently, the mission of the site, under the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is management of wastes generated by the weapons program and remediation of the environment contaminated by that waste. As part of that mission, DOE and the State of Washington Department of Ecology prepared the Hanford Site Tank Waste Remediation System Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The Hanford Tanks is a general review of the DEIS. Its findings and recommendations are the subject of this report. Selection of a disposition plan for these wastes is a decision of national importance, involving potential environmental and health risks, technical challenges, and costs of tens to hundreds of billions of dollars. The last comprehensive analysis of these issues was completed 10 years ago, and several major changes in plans have occurred since. Therefore, the current reevaluation is timely and prudent. This report endorses the decision to prepare this new environmental impact statement, and in particular the decision to evaluate a wide range of alternatives not restricted to those encouraged by current regulatory policies.


Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXV

Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXV

Author: Materials Research Society. Meeting

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 962

ISBN-13: 9781558996496

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This volume opens with a keynote lecture by Rodney Ewing, member of the Board of Radioactive Waste Management of the National Research Council. Ewing summarizes 25 years of materials research in nuclear waste, emphasizing the progress that has been made and the challenges that still confront investigators and technologists in materials science and repository performance evaluation. The session is followed by one on container materials and engineered barriers, and includes a discussion on the corrosion performance expected for waste packages in the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Invited papers on performance assessment and repository studies for different national programs are also highlighted, with representation from the United States, Sweden, Japan, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. A large number of papers focus on the structure, properties, and degradation of various waste forms such as glasses, ceramics (mostly for plutonium immobilization), cements, and spent nuclear fuel. For the second consecutive time, the number of papers on ceramics far exceeds those on glass, which had been the dominant material discussed at this symposium over the prior 23 years. New studies on zirconates confirm the recently discovered high radiation damage-resistance of this material. Additional topics include: performance assessment in high-level waste disposal; performance assessment in low-level waste disposal; ceramic structure and corrosion; radiation effects in ceramics; glass structure and corrosion; spent fuel; spent fuel cladding and alternative waste forms; cements in radioactive waste immobilization; contaminant transport; natural analogs; and waste processing.