CAN THE COMMERCIAL SECTOR FILL THE POTENTIAL TREATMENT GAP FOR DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY’S MIXED LOW-LEVEL WASTE?

摘要

New air emissions standards, cost of incinerator operations, integration opportunities, and low projections of future mixed low-level waste (MLLW) volumes requiring incineration prompted a review of the demand for Department of Energy (DOE) incineration and the viability of commercial-sector alternatives. DOE has three waste treatment incinerators: the Waste Experimental Reduction Facility (WERF) at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, the Consolidated Incineration Facility (CIF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and the Toxic Substances Control Act Incinerator (TSCAI) at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. Currently only the TSCAI is operating and is scheduled to cease operations end of FY 2003. The WERF ceased incineration operations in November 2000. The CIF temporarily suspended operations in November 2000. A decision for a CIF re-start is scheduled for mid-FY 2002, with a possible re-start about FY 2005-2006. The commercial sector currently provides treatment for some waste types but has not yet demonstrated capability to broadly treat MLLW wastes requiring incineration or organic destruction. Consequently, an analysis of the complex-wide impact of this planned reduction in DOE treatment capacity was needed. The objectives of the analysisare as follows: 1. Document the current demand for incineration and assess the capacity available in the DOE system and in the commercial sector to meet this demand; 2. Quantify the amount of waste for which alternatives were not readily identifiable; and 3. Identify and recommend path forward to ensure viable treatment. To facilitate the analysis the Environmental Management Office of Technical Program Integration sponsored a workshop involving DOE staff and contractor representatives from nine field offices and sites. The workshop participants conducted a “bottoms-up” review of their waste treatment plans to determine if an alternative treatment path was possible. The site representatives were assisted in this determination by representatives of the DOE’s Transuranic and Mixed Waste Focus Area (TWFA), who provided information on alternative technologies. The results of the analysis found (1) the estimated lifecycle demand (through 2070) for incineration or an incineration alternative is approximately 46,000 cubic meters; (2) demand for treatment is adequate to justify maintaining operation of the TSCAI at least through 2003; (3) there are potentially near-term capacity shortages, considering DOE and commercial capacity; and (4) while commercial alternatives appear viable for all but a few DOE MLLW streams, approximately 6,100 cubic meters of waste have an unidentified treatment path.