Licensing strategy for deployment of commercial technologies procured through a service contract in DOE-owned facilities

摘要

The US Department of Energy's Hanford Tank Farm Remediation System (TWRS) is responsible for the safe storage of waste in 177 underground waste storage tanks. TWRS is also responsible for the cleanup and final closure of these tanks. In the performance of this mission TWRS has historically designed its own equipment. The safety of the equipment for deployment in TWRS facilities has been assured through the development of detailed engineering specifications and close QA/QC monitoring during fabrication and testing. In order to address the complex and costly cleanup mission Hanford is looking for ways to apply private sector technologies to the cleanup mission. The Hanford Tanks Initiative (HTI) is a five year, EM 30/50 expense-funded project with a primary objective of demonstrating the extent to which the Hanford Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) tanks can be cleaned using commercially available technologies. To accomplish this objective, in August 1996 HTI issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for services to remove the hard heel waste from tank 241-C- 106, following retrieval of the majority of the waste by sluicing. While certain specification guidance was provided in the RFP such as, must be capable of operation in a flammable gas environment, the RFP was careful in avoiding language that would place limitations on the technologies that industry could provide. The challenge for HTI was to develop a licensing strategy that would provide maximum flexibility to the technology vendors while meeting the stringent documentation requirements of the US Department of Energy (DOE). This strategy must also provide assurance that the technology can be shown to be within the TWRS authorization basis and be safely deployed. A 35-step process (Figure 1) was developed by HTI to accomplish this objective.