Development of technology performance specifications for volatile organic compounds.

摘要

The Office of Technology Development (OTD) within the Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management of the Department of Energy has a mission to deliver needed and usable technologies to its customers. The primary customers are individuals and organizations performing environmental characterization and remediation, waste cleanup, and pollution prevention at DOE sites. DOE faces a monumental task in cleaning up the dozen or so major sites and hundreds of smaller sites that were or are used to produce the US nuclear weapons arsenal and to develop nuclear technologies for national defense and for peaceful purposes. Contaminants and waste materials include the radionuclides associated with nuclear weapons, such as plutonium and tritium, and more common pollutants and wastes of industrial activity such as chromium, chlorinated solvents, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Quite frequently hazardous wastes regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency are co-mingled with radioactive wastes regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to yield a (open quotes)mixed waste,(close quotes) which increases the cleanup challenges from several perspectives. To help OTD and its investigators meet DOE's cleanup goal, technology performance specifications are being implemented for research and development and DT&E projects. Technology performance specifications or (open quotes)performance goals(close quotes) describe, quantitatively where possible, the technology development needs being addressed. These specifications are used to establish milestones, evaluate the status of ongoing projects, and determine the success of completed projects.