DOE’s “New” National Strategy for Waste Management

Christine GellesDirector, Commercial Disposition Options, EM-12

Office of Environmental Management

Federal Facilities Task Force Meeting

Office of Environmental Management

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“A decade ago, environmental cleanup was a ‘boutique industry.’ Today, it’s a cost of doing business.”

- Former Under Secretary of Energy

Robert Card

Office of Environmental Management

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EM’s “Sweet 16” Programmatic Waste Management Environmental

Impact Statement -- a decade old 1st five years – planning, scoping

2nd five years – analysis, negotiation, coordination3rd five years – decisions, wide-spread

implementation, reform Today – refining strategy, significant results

Getting to this point…

Office of Environmental Management

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Along the way… Budgets grew…and peaked in FY 2005 (~$7.1B) Strategies matured

Technical, acquisition, project planning

Priorities identified Risk reduction, safety, acceleration

Significant results achieved Team diversified Increased use of commercial services

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Curtailed corporate life-cycle waste projections Obstacles to disposition paths Legal challenges to waste management policy Technical issues Contract protests Ambitious goals Unsuccessful realignment proposals Programmatic vulnerabilities Key stakeholder concerns

Growing pains?

Office of Environmental Management

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EM Project overview EM project is well defined with controlled scope, cost and

schedule— Complete cleanup by 2035, at a cost of ~$142B.

EM budget reflects significant progress to close major sites by 2006.— FY 2005 Comparable Appropriation -- $7.054B— FY 2006 Congressional Budget Request -- $6.505B

Scope includes remediation and processing of approximately:– 25 tons of plutonium– 108 tons of plutonium residues– 88 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste– 2,500 tons of spent nuclear fuel– 137,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste– 1.3 million cubic meters of low-level waste– 324 nuclear facilities, 3,300 industrial facilities, hundreds of radiological facilities

Office of Environmental Management

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Ensuring disposition paths are identified for all EM waste and materials

Providing and coordinating disposition resources Optimizing operations of DOE’s waste management

facilities Improving EM’s transportation infrastructure and

ensuring all shipments are completed safely and compliantly

Responding to dynamic circumstances Addressing “gridlock”

Transportation logistics and waste disposition are key to the success of the EM Project

Office of Environmental Management

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EM’s transportation efforts are significant

In FY 2004, we completed approximately 20,000 shipments of radioactive waste and material— Most were LLW (~15,000) & MLLW (~1,500)— Include both Highway (~18,600) & Rail (~1,400)

In FY 2005, potential for 40,000 shipments

A complex network… Shipment lines do not portray actual transportation routes. This map is not inclusive of all past or planned shipments.

DOE Generator Site (no on-site disposal facility) DOE Offsite Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility (NTS and Hanford are also generator sites and dispose of some waste onsite)

DOE Offsite Radioactive Waste Treatment Facility

Commercial Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility (Note: Envirocare also treats waste)

DOE Onsite Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

Nevada Test Site

Lawrence Livermore

Hanford

Yucca Mtn (proposed)

Envirocare

Rocky Flats

Idaho National Lab

Waste Control Specialists Savannah River

Los Alamos

West Valley Brookhaven

Oak Ridge

Paducah

Portsmouth

Mound

Fernald

To Nevada Test Site

To Nevada Test Site

To Envirocare

To Yucca Mtn

To Hanford

Transuranic Waste Disposal Shipment Low-Level Waste/Mixed Low-Level Waste Disposal ShipmentSpent Nuclear Fuel/High-Level Waste Disposal Shipment

Commercial Radioactive Waste Treatment Facility

Permafix

To Oak Ridge Treatment

To Oak Ridge Treatment

Low-Level Waste/Mixed Low-Level Waste Treatment Shipment

Permafix

Pacific EcoSolutions

Argonne

Transuranic Waste Processing/Storage Shipment Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage, Treatment, or Repackaging Shipment

Columbus

To Waste Isolation Pilot

Plant

To Permafix

From Naval Reactor sites located in several

states

From Naval Reactor sites located in several states

Stanford Linear AcceleratorPrinceton

Fermi

Major DOE Radioactive Waste Transfers (includes commercial facilities)Waste exports from DOE Generator Sites are shown in the incoming shipment boxes for the treatment and disposal facilities. This map is not inclusive of all past or planned shipments.

Incoming Waste Shipment

Outgoing Waste Shipment

EXHIBIT B

Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL)

Stanford Linear Accelerator Lab (SLAC)

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

Nevada Test Site (NTS)

Hanford

•MLLW/LLW from ANL-E, BNL, Fermi, Hanford, INL, Naval Reactor Sites, Paducah, Portsmouth, PPPL, RF, SLAC, and SR for disposal [Naval Reactor sites are located in several states and are not shown on map]•TRU from Columbus for processing/storage

•SNF and HLW to Yucca Mtn for disposal•SNF to INL for storage•TRU to WIPP for disposal •MLLW to PEcoS, Permafix, and OR for treatment

•SNF from Hanford, OR, and WV, and D/FRR for storage, treatment, or repackaging •M/LLW from INL for disposal

•HLW, SNF, and D/FRR to Yucca Mtn for disposal•TRU to WIPP for disposal•MLLW/LLW to Envirocare, Hanford, and NTS for disposal•MLLW to PEcoS, Permafix, and OR for treatment

Yucca Mtn (proposed)

HLW and SNF from Hanford, INL, SR, and WV, and D/FRR for disposal

Envirocare

MLLW/LLW from ANL-E, BNL, Columbus, Fermi, Fernald, INL, LANL, LLNL, Mound, Paducah, Portsmouth, OR, RF, SLAC, SR, and WV for treatment and/or disposal

Rocky Flats (RF)

Idaho National Lab (INL)

•MLLW to OR for treatment•TRU to WIPP for disposal

MLLW/LLW from ANL-E, Fernald, INL, LANL, LLNL, Mound, NTS, Paducah, Portsmouth, PPPL, OR, RF, SR, and WV for disposal

TRU from ANL-E. BNL, Hanford, INL, LANL, LLNL, NTS, OR, RF, SR, and WV for disposal

Waste Control Specialists

MLLW from RF for treatment

•SNF from OR and D/FRR for storage, treatment, or repackaging •TRU from Mound for processing/storage•LLW from SR and Naval Reactors for disposal

•HLW and SNF to Yucca Mtn for disposal•TRU to WIPP for disposal•MLLW/LLW to Envirocare, Hanford, and NTS for disposal•MLLW to OR for treatment

Savannah River (SR)

Los Alamos National Lab (LANL)

West Valley (WV)Brookhaven National Lab (BNL)

•MLLW from Fernald, Hanford, INL, LLNL, NTS, OR, Paducah, Portsmouth, RF, and SR for treatment•MLLW/LLW from OR for disposal

•SNF to INL and SR for storage, treatment, or repackaging •TRU to WIPP for disposal•MLLW/LLW to Envirocare and NTS, for disposal

Oak Ridge (OR)

Paducah

Portsmouth

Mound

Fernald

Argonne National Lab-East (ANL-E)

Pacific EcoSolutions (PEcoS)

MLLW from Hanford, INL, and RF for treatment

MLLW from INL and RF for treatment

Permafix

Permafix

MLLW from Hanford, INL, LLNL, RF, and SR for treatment

DOE Generator Site (no on-site disposal facility) DOE Off-site Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility (NTS and Hanford are also generator sites and dispose of some waste on-site)

DOE Off-site Waste Treatment Facility

DOE On-site Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility

Low-Level Waste (LLW) Mixed Low-Level Waste (MLLW) High-Level Waste (HLW) Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Domestic/Foreign Research Reactor Fuel (D/FRR) Transuranic Waste (TRU)

Commercial Radioactive Waste Treatment Facility

Commercial Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility (Note: Envirocare also treats waste)

Columbus

Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (PPPL)

Fermi National Accelerator Lab

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DOE’s Waste Disposal Facility Configuration

Hanford

Pantex Plant

Rocky Flats

Brookhaven

Knolls

Princeton (PPPL)

Savannah River

Oak Ridge

ITRIGeneral Atomics

ETECSandiaSLAC

LBNL LEHR

LLNL

Ames RMI

ANL-E

Fermi

Portsmouth

Paducah

Mound

BCL

Bettis

Kansas City

ANL-W

NTS

INL

CERCLA Disposal Facility

Fernald

Regional Disposal Facility

DOE Generator Site (no on-site disposal facility)

LLW Operations Disposal Facility

MLLW Operations Disposal Facility

MLLW Operations Disposal Facility (currently on-site waste only)

Legend

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

LANL

Sandia

WIPP

West Valley

Office of Environmental Management

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Key lessons to date…

Circumstances will change – flexibility is a must Seeking alternate strategies for wastes planned for

disposal at Hanford pending resolution of litigation Alternate strategy for Fernald silo wastes, managed as

11e.(2) by-product material Re-evaluation of planned closure of the TSCA

Incinerator at Oak Ridge Get back to basics

Core project management – clear scope and realistic schedule goals

Incentivize performance Pursue economies of scale Seek and preserve alternatives

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The “new” strategy for waste management Document the complex-wide program in formal

schedules Integrate sites’ baselines Identify interfaces Gap analysis Cost analysis

Target problem waste streams (“orphans”) Resume corporate life-cycle waste data system Provide corporate treatment opportunities

Complete broad spectrum Pursue new acquisition

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Integration is our organizational mandate

Developing national strategies – business cases – for transportation and waste disposition

Integrating sites’ parallel efforts to accelerate cleanup Enabling and improving on baseline plans

Deputy Asst. Secretary for Logistics and Waste Disposition Enhancements

Frank Marcinowski

Transportation

Dennis Ashworth

Federal Disposition Options

Cynthia Anderson

Commercial Disposition Options

Christine Gelles

HLW, SNF, SNM, TRUGTCC, LLW, MLLW, 11e2

Most wastes/materials

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Additional Detail

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Current DOE/EM Waste Management Policy

LLW and MLLW: If practical, disposal on the site at which it is generated If on site disposal not available, at another DOE disposal facility At commercial disposal facilities if compliant, cost effective, and

in best interest of the Department

TRU waste: If defense, disposed at Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, New Mexico If non-defense, safe storage awaiting future disposition

HLW and SNF Stabilization, if necessary, and safe storage until geologic disposal

is available

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Multiple onsite disposal cells (mostly CERCLA) for site-specific remediation wastes

Two regional LLW disposal facilities – Hanford and Nevada Test Site (NTS)

Planned: Two regional MLLW disposal facilities Hanford currently limited to onsite MLLW

NTS has submitted application for RCRA Part B Permit National repository for defense TRU waste – WIPP (Carlsbad, NM) TSCA Incinerator (Oak Ridge, TN) However, EM also disposes of large volumes of LLW and MLLW at

commercial facilities

EM’s Waste Management Assets

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Use of commercial capabilities allows optimization of resources and supports acceleration efforts

Treatment and packaging Certification to disposal criteria Interim storage Disposal Transfer for future release and disposal Support for accelerated site closure

In many cases, the resolution of waste issue requires cooperation among multiple vendors and sites

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EM senior management monitors transportation activity and events closely

EM Office of Transportation established and deployed to institutionalize transportation safety o Transportation Risk Reductiono Legislative & Regulatory Complianceo Site Support & Logisticso Emergency Preparedness & Outreach

In FY 2004, we completed approximately 23,000 shipments of radioactive waste and material— Shipment numbers significantly increased as site cleanup and

closure continue— Utilized both highway and rail shipments

Transportation safety is critical….

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Significantly increased volumes of waste disposed

Worked off vast majority of stored legacy waste

Resolved large quantities of “orphan wastes” at closure sites

Took steps to fully implement DOE’s complex-wide waste management policies and strategies

Over the last several years, we’ve made tremendous progress in waste management

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In FY04, EM had 23 reported off-site incidents.— Most significant incident was the release of radioactive material

onto road surfaces at Oak Ridge— Other areas of concern -- load securement and shipping paper

violations

FY04 Incident Rate = 23/2.0 = 11.5 Incidents/10,000 Shipments

In FY05 year-to-date, EM has had 9 reported incidents representing a ~30% reduction from the same period in FY04.—Transportation Incident Review -- Management review of

corrective actions and sharing of lessons learned among sites

Transportation safety is critical

Office of Environmental Management

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There will be significant developments in 2005

National strategy for LLW/MLLW disposition

— Workshop in May 2005 Complex-wide treatment acquisition

— Broad Spectrum contract expires mid-2005— Seeking commercial alternatives to TSCAI

Initiation of NEPA for greater-than-class C waste disposition Re-evaluation of commercial waste disposal needs and the Low-

Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act

— Maintaining delicate balance between Federal and private sectors

Office of Environmental Management

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EM’s Top to Bottom Review Secretary of Energy concerned by EM program’s lack of

focus and the uncontrolled cost and schedule required to complete the cleanup mission

Top to Bottom Review (Feb 2002) concluded significant opportunities existed to accelerate risk reduction and better focus resources on cleanup

Top to Bottom Review became a mandate for significant changes within the program Strategic plans to accelerate risk reduction and cleanup (Site “Accelerated

Cleanup Plans”) Project controls and validated baselines Aggressive contract reform Realignment of resources and refined mission focus Reorganization