The Closing of the Toxic Substances Control Act Incinerator,A Mission Well Done

摘要

The Oak Ridge, Tennessee Toxic Substances Control Act Incinerator (TSCAI) was designed and permitted to treat Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) wastes including Characteristic and Listed wastes, PCB-contaminated waste, and wastes containing radioactive constituents. The incinerator is at the end of a mission to efficiently manage the Department of Energy's generated wastes requiring treatment by incineration. A retrospective of the life of the incineration system is presented.Conceptual design of the incineration system began in the late 1970's. Construction activities occurred in the mid 1980's with permitting consuming the late 1980's. The incineration system's production life occurred from 1991 to 2009. This paper will recount the performance achievements of the incineration system as well as the tremendous quantities of resources used to complete this mission. This historical information includes the quantities of liquid and solid wastes including the radioactive constituents treated by the incineration system. A breakdown of the waste streams (type and quantity) received from the various DOE sites across the country highlighting the difficult waste streams that were treated. The most effective resources for mission completion are the tremendous dedication and efforts of the staff of the incinerator. The quantity of the human effort in person-hours is stated. The construction and operating cost information will be stated. The consumption of utilities including compressed air, water, electricity, natural gas, sodium hydroxide, and nitrogen are stated. The incineration system documents a treatment campaign through the use of a burn sheet. The burn sheet shows compliance with all administratively controlled permitting parameters. The burn sheet relates the numbers of samples and constituent analysis results used to show regulatory compliance and are also quantified. The operation of the incineration system generates instrumentation output values that are recorded with time. The massive quantity of data recorded is also stated. Also reported is the effort to demonstrate the variety and numbers of Continuous Emission Monitors (CEM) deployed at the incineration system.