Notice 97-03
Environmental Management Science Program
Department of Energy
Energy Research Financial Assistance Program Notice 97-03;
AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
ACTION: Notice inviting grant applications
SUMMARY: The Offices of Energy Research (ER) and Environmental
Management (EM), U.S. Department of Energy, hereby announce their
interest in receiving grant applications for performance of
innovative, fundamental research to support the management and
disposal of DOE radioactive, hazardous chemical, and mixed
wastes; the stabilization of nuclear materials and spent nuclear
fuel; remediation of contaminated sites; and the decontamination
and decommissioning of facilities.
The DOE Environmental Management program currently has ongoing
applied research and engineering efforts under its Technology
Development program. These efforts must be supplemented with
basic research to address long-term technical issues crucial to
the EM mission. Basic research can also provide EM with near-term
fundamental data that may be critical to the advancement of
technologies that are under development but not yet at full scale
nor implemented. Proposed basic research under this notice should
contribute to environmental management activities that would
decrease risk for the public and workers, provide opportunities
for major cost reductions, reduce time required to achieve EM's
mission goals, and, in general, should address problems that are
considered intractable without new knowledge. This program is
designed to inspire breakthroughs in areas critical to the EM
mission through basic research and will be managed in partnership
with ER. ER's well-established procedures, as set forth in the
Energy Research Merit Review System, as published in the Federal
Register, March 11, 1991, Vol. 56, No. 47, pages 10244-10246,
will be used for merit review of applications submitted in
response to this notice. This information is also available on
the World Wide Web at
http://www.er.doe.gov/production/grants/merit.html.
DATES: Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to submit a
brief preapplication. All preapplications, referencing Program
Notice 97-03, should be received by DOE by 4:30 P.M. E.S.T.,
January 15,1997. A response encouraging or discouraging a formal
application generally will be communicated to the applicant
within three weeks of receipt. The deadline for receipt of formal
applications is 4:30 P.M., E.D.T., April 16,1997, in order to be
accepted for merit review and to permit timely consideration for
award in Fiscal Year 1997.
ADDRESSES: All preapplications, referencing Program Notice 97-03,
should be sent to Dr. Roland F. Hirsch, ER-73, Mail Stop F-240,
Office of Health and Environmental Research, U.S. Department of
Energy, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, Maryland 20874-1290,
telephone: (301) 903-5349. Preapplications will be accepted if
submitted by United States Postal Service, including Express
Mail, commercial mail delivery service, or hand delivery, but
will not be accepted by fax, electronic mail, or other means.
After receiving notification from DOE concerning successful
preapplications, applicants may prepare formal applications using
the instructions in the Office of Energy Research Application
Guide and in the Supplementary Information in this notice.
Applications must be sent to: U.S. Department of Energy, Office
of Energy Research, Grants and Contracts Division, ER-64, 19901
Germantown Road, Germantown, Maryland 20874-1290, Attn: Program
Notice 97-03. The above address for formal applications must also
be used when submitting formal applications by U.S. Postal
Service Express Mail, any commercial mail delivery service, or
when hand carried by the applicant. Please note that notification
of a successful preapplication is not an indication that an award
will be made in response to the formal application.
Awards
Multiple-year funding of grant awards is anticipated, contingent
upon the availability of funds. Award sizes are expected to be on
the order of $100,000 - $300,000 per year for total project costs
for a typical three year grant. Applications for collaborative
projects involving several research groups or more than one
institution may receive larger awards if merited. Investigators
considering submitting collaborative projects are encouraged to
prepare a single application incorporating the entire research
program and a combined budget as well as separate budgets for
each collaborating institution. DOE reserves the right to fund in
whole or part any or none of the applications received in
response to this Notice.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Roland F. Hirsch, ER-73,
Mail Stop F-240, Office of Health and Environmental Research,
Office of Energy Research, U.S. Department of Energy, 19901
Germantown Road, Germantown, Maryland 20874-1290, telephone:
(301) 903-5349, fax: (301) 903-0567, electronic mail:
roland.hirsch@oer.doe.gov, or Dr. Carol J. Henry, Office of
Science and Technology, Office of Environmental Management, 1000
Independence Ave. SW, Washington, D.C. 20585, telephone:(202)
586-7150, electronic mail: carol.henry@em.doe.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office of Environmental
Management, in partnership with the Office of Energy Research,
sponsors the Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) to
fulfill DOE's continuing commitment to the cleanup of DOE's
environmental legacy. The program was initiated in Fiscal Year
1996.
Purpose
The need to build a stronger scientific basis for the
Environmental Management effort has been established in a number
of recent studies and reports. Among the important observations
and recommendations made by the Galvin Commission ( Alternative
Futures for the Department of Energy National Laboratories,
February 1995) are the following:
Basic research is solicited in all areas of science with the
potential for addressing one or more of the areas of concern to
the Department's Environmental Management program. The scientific
disciplines relevant to the program include, but are not limited
to, biology (including cellular and molecular biology, ecology,
bioremediation, genetics, biochemistry, and structural biology;
plant sciences are listed as a separate category below),
chemistry (including analytical chemistry, catalysis, heavy
element chemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry,
physical chemistry, and separations chemistry), computational
sciences (including research and development of mathematical/
numerical, informatics, and communication procedures and software
technology, for example for deterministic simulations and
optimization), engineering sciences (including control systems
and optimization, diagnostics, transport processes,
thermophysical properties and bioengineering), geosciences
(including geophysical imaging, physicochemical dynamics and
chemical transport in fluid-rock systems, and hydrogeology),
health sciences, materials science (including condensed matter
physics, metallurgy, ceramics, waste minimization, welding and
joining, degradation mechanisms, and remote sensing and
monitoring), physics (including atomic, molecular, optical, and
fluid physics) and plant science (including mechanisms of mineral
uptake, intercellular transport, and concentration and
sequestration).
Projects in bioremediation that fall within the scope of Notices
issued by the Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research
(NABIR) Program of the Office of Energy Research (such as Notice
97-04) should be submitted to that program rather than to the
Environmental Management Science Program. Projects outside the
scope of NABIR but within the scope of this Notice may be
submitted to the EMSP.
Applicants to the EMSP are strongly encouraged to collaborate
with researchers in other institutions, such as universities,
industry, non-profit organizations, the DOE National
Laboratories, and/or other Federal Laboratories, where
appropriate, and to incorporate cost sharing and/or consortia
wherever feasible. Applicants are encouraged to provide training
opportunities, including student involvement, in applications
submitted to the program.
Major Environmental Management Challenges
The following is an overview of the major technical challenges
facing the Environmental Management program that are the focus of
this announcement. More detailed descriptions of the specific
technical needs and areas of emphasis associated with these
problem areas can be found in the background section of this
Notice.
The Department is the guardian of over 300 large storage tanks
containing over 100 million gallons of highly radioactive wastes,
which include organic and inorganic chemical compounds, in solid,
colloidal, slurry, and liquid phases. The environment within the
tanks is highly radioactive and chemically harsh. A few of the
tanks have leaked to the environment while others are corroding.
The contents of these tanks need to be characterized, removed
from the tanks, treated, and converted to safe forms for
disposal.
The Department is the custodian of several thousand metric tons
of spent nuclear reactor fuels, resulting primarily from weapons
fabrication activities during the Cold War, but also including
fuel from research and naval reactors. The long-term containment
performance of the fuel under storage and disposal conditions is
uncertain. Such uncertainties affect the ability to license
disposal methods.
The Office of Environmental Management is the custodian of large
quantities of fissile materials which were left in the
manufacturing and processing facilities after the United States
halted its nuclear weapons production activities. These materials
include plutonium solutions, plutonium metals and oxides,
plutonium residues and compounds, highly enriched uranium, and
nuclides of other actinides. Additional scientific information is
required to choose processes for converting these materials to
stable forms.
The Department currently has on its sites over one hundred sixty
thousand cubic meters of waste containing both radioactive and
hazardous materials. This mixed waste contains a wide variety of
materials, as varied as protective clothing, machining products
and wastes, packaging materials, and process liquids. Fundamental
scientific data are needed to improve processes associated with
treatment systems, such as characterization, pre-treatment, and
monitoring.
The Department is committed to the safe disposal of all
radioactive wastes, including high-level wastes, mixed wastes,
and fissile materials. Safe disposal of these materials requires
that the wide range of potential waste streams be converted into
insoluble materials for long term storage. Some radioactive
material-containing forms have been successfully developed and
are being produced; however, at present, research challenges
still exist in developing suitable forms for each material to be
stored.
The Department is currently conducting cleanup activities at many
of its sites, and is preparing plans for additional remediation
work. There is much scientific uncertainty about the levels of
risk to human health at the end stages of the DOE clean-up
effort.
The aforementioned areas of emphasis do not preclude, and DOE
strongly encourages, any innovative or creative ideas
contributing to solving EM challenges mentioned throughout this
Notice.
Application Evaluation and Selection
External peer reviewers are selected with regard to both
their scientific expertise and the absence of conflict-of-interest issues. Non-federal reviewers may be used, and
submission of an application constitutes agreement that this
is acceptable to the investigator(s) and the submitting
institution.
Application format
Applicants are expected to use the following format in addition
to following instructions in the Office of Energy Research
Application Guide. Applications must be written in English, with
all budgets in U.S. dollars.
While the original application and seven required copies must be
submitted, applicants are encouraged to also provide a 3.5-inch
diskette containing the application in electronic format. The
label on the diskette must clearly identify the institution,
principal investigator, title of application, and the computer
system and program used to prepare the document.
Application Categories
In order to properly classify each preapplication and
application for evaluation and review, the documents must
indicate the applicant's preferred scientific research field and
environmental category, selected from the following lists. More
than one environmental category may be indicated if desired.
Field of Scientific Research:
1. Biology, not including plant science
Environmental Category:
A. Decontamination / Decommissioning
Program Schedule
Preapplications must be received by DOE on or before January 15,
1997, and full applications on or before April 16, 1997, at the
times and addresses noted above. It is anticipated that awards
will be made no later than September 30, 1997.
Program Funding
Up to a total of $20,000,000 of Fiscal Year 1997 Federal funds is
expected to be available for new Environmental Management Science
Program awards resulting from both this Notice and a parallel
announcement to government laboratories and Federally Funded
Research and Development Centers, including the DOE national
laboratories. All projects will be evaluated using the same
criteria, regardless of the submitting institution. The program
will be competitive and offered to investigators in universities
or other institutions of higher education, other non-profit or
for-profit organizations, non-Federal agencies or entities, or
unaffiliated individuals. Apart from this notice, the program
also will be offered to DOE national laboratories and other
Federal laboratories.
Preapplications
A brief preapplication may be submitted. The original and five
copies must be received by January 15, 1997, to be considered.
The preapplication should identify on the cover sheet the
institution, name, address, telephone, fax and electronic mail
address for the principal investigator, title of the project, and
the field of scientific research and category(ies) of
environmental application to which the project is responding
(using the list above). The preapplication should consist of up
to three pages of narrative describing the research objectives
and the plan for accomplishing them, and should also include a
paragraph describing the research background of the principal
investigator and key collaborators if any. A 3.5 inch diskette
containing the preapplication in any common word processing
format may also be submitted in addition to the required printed
copies.
Preapplications will be evaluated relative to the scope and
research needs of the DOE's Environmental Management Science
Program by qualified DOE program managers from both ER and EM.
Preapplications are strongly encouraged but not required prior to
submission of a full application.
Information
Information about the development, submission of applications,
eligibility, limitations, evaluation, the selection process, and
other policies and procedures may be found in 10 CFR Part 605,
and in the Application Guide for the Office of Energy Research
Financial Assistance Program. The Application Guide is available
from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Research,
ER-73, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, Maryland 20874-1290.
Telephone requests may be made by calling (301) 903-5349.
Electronic access to ER s Financial Assistance Application Guide
and forms is possible via the World Wide Web at
http://www.er.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html.
Background
The United States involvement in nuclear weapons development for
the last 50 years has resulted in the development of a vast
research, production, and testing network known as the nuclear
weapons complex. The Department has begun the environmental
remediation of the complex encompassing radiological and
nonradiological hazards, vast volumes of contaminated water and
soil, and over 7,000 contaminated structures. The Department must
characterize, treat, and dispose of hazardous and radioactive
wastes that have been accumulating for more than 50 years at 120
sites in 36 states and territories. By 1995, the Department had
spent about $23 billion in identifying and characterizing its
waste, managing it, and assessing the remediation necessary for
its sites and facilities. Over the next ten years at current
budget projections, another $60 billion will be spent. The DOE
cleanup of the Cold War legacy is the largest cleanup program in
the Federal Government, even larger than that of the Department
of Defense legacy. The Office of Environmental Management (EM) is
responsible for waste management and cleanup of DOE sites. The EM
operations have been historically compliance-based and driven to
meet established goals in the shortest time possible using either
existing technologies or those that could be developed and
demonstrated within a few years. Environmental Management is also
responsible for conducting the program for waste minimization and
pollution prevention for the Department.
The variety and volume of the Department's current activities
make this effort a challenge itself. In some cases, fundamental
science questions will have to be addressed before a technology
or process can be engineered. There is a need to involve more
basic science researchers in the challenges of the Department's
remediation effort. The Office of Energy Research (ER) addresses
fundamental, frequently long-term, research issues related to the
many missions of the Department. The Environmental Management
Science Program will use ER's experience in managing fundamental
research to address the needs of technology breakthroughs in EM's
programs.
This research agenda has been developed for Fiscal Year 1997,
along with a development process for a long term program within
EM, with the objective of providing continuity in scientific
knowledge that will revolutionize technologies and clean-up
approaches for solving DOE's most complex environmental problems.
The following are descriptions of the technical challenges in
addressing many of these issues, in areas which are of particular
interest for this notice.
High-level Radioactive Waste Tanks. The Department is the
guardian of over 300 large storage tanks containing over 100
million gallons of highly radioactive wastes, which include
organic and inorganic chemical compounds, in solid, colloidal,
slurry, and liquid phases. The environment within the tanks is
highly radioactive and chemically harsh. A few of the tanks have
leaked to the environment while others are corroding.
Specific areas of emphasis in technology needs and research
challenges related to high-level waste tank problems include, but
are not limited to:
The separation of complex chemical and radioactive waste to
minimize the final volume of high level waste remaining
after processing. The removal of liquid from sludges is a
difficult challenge. There is not yet sufficient
understanding of the factors that control the selectivity
and efficacy of chemical and physical interactions,
including structure-function relationships, and the effect
of particle shapes and kinetics. In pretreatment unit
operations there is a need to understand waste behavior and
effects at waste processing interfaces, as well as how
pretreatment processes affect the ability to transport waste
between unit operations. Difficulties also exist in
separating radioactive species from high ionic strength,
multi-component aqueous solutions of salts dominated by
species such as sodium nitrate, nitrite, carbonate, and
phosphate. Separation of radionuclides and hazardous
substances from solid (e.g. calcined) waste streams is also
of interest.
The physical state of the wastes in storage tanks. Some
tanks contain distinct layers of sludge, salt cake and
supernatant, and these layers may also not be homogeneous.
There is evidence that much of the solid waste exists as
colloidal particles that may remain suspended, settle out of
solution, or gel and solidify with changes in conditions.
Fine solids or colloidal particulates can carry a large
fraction of contaminant and can interfere with subsequent
processing. Important unknown factors which inhibit the
remediation of tank wastes include the effects of
temperature, pH, particle chemistry and morphology on
agglomeration, sedimentation, viscosity, partitioning,
dissolution, and speciation.
The optimization of waste conversion processes. The presence
of radionuclides results in radiation-induced, high-energy
chemical reactions and in waste heating, which can
accelerate chemical reactions. Some of these reactions may
be catalyzed by extreme pH conditions and an array of active
surface sites on the solids suspended in the waste. These
processes lead to considerable variability in the chemical
composition of the waste and therefore to difficulties in
treatment process design. Some wastes or processes include
byproducts which are unacceptable for long-term storage
(e.g. organics, nitrates, nitrites, ferrocyanides, nitrogen
oxides, chlorinated hydrocarbons) and which therefore must
be destroyed or eliminated from the system. Treatment of
both acidic and alkaline (up to several molar hydroxide)
aqueous solutions is required.
Specific areas of emphasis in technology needs and research
challenges related to spent nuclear fuel problems include, but
are not limited to:
A technical basis is required for other steps in the spent
fuel program, including: mechanisms of pyrophoricity and
combustion parameters for various fuel types; gas generation
during processing; determination of moisture content of fuel
and maximum acceptable amount of moisture; degradation
mechanisms and kinetics of spent fuel in a dry storage
environment over a period of several decades; fissile and
radioisotopic content of some spent fuel types; segregation
behavior of elements; control of criticality in the very
long term; and synergistic effects. Methods to remove
moisture without damage to the structure of fuel elements
are required.
Some spent fuel types require additional characterization,
such as fission and/or gamma ray nondestructive assay or
evaluation, before disposal activities can be commenced.
Current characterization methods are either extremely
expensive or may not yield the necessary information for
performance criteria for safe interim storage,
transportation, and repository deposition. Thermodynamic and
kinetic properties of miscellaneous spent fuel types, such
as mixed oxide fuels, are not known to the level of detail
needed to include them in a general purpose treatment
process. Online measurement of fissile content and nuclear
poisons during stabilization must be developed.
Specific areas of emphasis in technology needs and research
challenges related to fissile material problems include, but are
not limited to:
Specific areas of emphasis in technology needs and research
challenges related to mixed waste problems include, but are not
limited to:
Sorting of the large volume of wastes is impractical without
improved nondestructive, noninvasive measurement techniques.
Long-term performance of advanced waste forms still must be
ascertained. To support equipment design and permitting of
high-temperature treatment processes, more information is
needed on the thermodynamics, transport and generation of
regulated hazardous materials and radionuclides in these
processes. Real time monitors for heavy metals, dioxins, and
volatile organic compounds are also not available.
Alternatively, nonthermal treatment processes could be used,
but major technical issues remain unresolved. Methods for
direct removal of radioactive material are also of interest.
Monitoring for the presence of mercury and other toxic
metals in wastes, and removal of mercury from wastes, are
high priorities but large-scale techniques are not yet
available. Relative to mercury containing wastes, methods
are required for the stabilization of mercury and for the
amalgamation of bulk, non-recyclable mercury to meet
Universal Treatment Standards and leachability testing
standards. Improvements are required in techniques for
identifying alpha-emitting radionuclides.
Removal of radioactive components from waste in solid forms.
These wastes include sludges from defense reprocessing
activities, metals and concrete from decontamination and
decommissioning activities, and calcined wastes. Highly
radioactive sludges are typically metal oxides with large
amounts of potentially soluble materials such as sodium or
aluminum. A method for direct removal of the small
radioactive fraction of these materials would greatly reduce
disposal costs, but such methods are lacking.
Specific examples of technology needs and research challenges
relating to waste forms include, but are not limited to:
A better understanding of waste form leaching performance is
required, including the hydrodynamics of fluids in cracked
media, transport phenomena and phase separation at surfaces,
and radiation-enhanced dissolution at interfaces. Validated
chemical and thermodynamic models are required to predict
leaching and gas bubble formation. The structure and bonding
of waste components in waste forms, as well as the effect of
the waste and the radiation field on stability, solubility,
durability, and processing of the host, must be elucidated.
Waste forms for mixed waste which have higher waste loading,
improved stability and chemical durability than current
forms are required to reduce disposal costs and facilitate
waste acceptance. Evaluation of the long-term performance is
required to ensure that disposal satisfies stakeholder
concerns and regulatory requirements.
Vitrification of certain plutonium-contaminated waste
materials may be preferred to cementation due to the lower
volume of the final waste form. Vitrification has not been
as highly developed for actinide residues or wastes as for
fission product wastes. For other actinide wastes, mineral
waste forms may be preferred; however, an enhanced technical
basis for alternate waste forms for stabilizing plutonium is
needed before mineral compositions can be used as
intermediate- and long-term storage materials.
References for Background Information
Note: World Wide Web locations of these documents are provided
where possible. For those without access to the World Wide Web,
hard copies of these references may be obtained by writing Dr.
Carol J. Henry at the address listed in the contacts section.
DOE. 1996. Estimating the Cold War Mortgage: The 1996 Baseline
Environmental Management Report. March 1996. U.S. Department of
Energy Office of Environmental Management, Washington, D.C.
http://www.em.doe.gov/bemr96/index.html
DOE. 1996. Office of Environmental Restoration EM-40.
http://www.em.doe.gov/er/index.html
DOE. 1996. Office of Nuclear Material and Facility Stabilization
EM-60.
http://www.em.doe.gov/menu/?nucmat.html
DOE. 1996. Office of Science and Risk Policy EM-52 and
Environmental Management Science Program.
http://www.em.doe.gov/science/
DOE. 1996. Office of Science and Technology EM-50.
http://www.em.doe.gov/menu/?techdev.html
DOE. 1996. Office of Waste Management EM-30.
http://www.em.doe.gov/menu/?wstmgmt.html
DOE. 1996. Spent Nuclear Fuel. DOE-Owned SNF Technology
Integration Plan. U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
DOE/SNF-PP-002, May 1996.
DOE. 1996. Taking Stock: A Look at the Opportunities and
Challenges Posed by Inventories from the Cold War Era. The U.S.
Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management,
Washington, DC.
http://www.em.doe.gov/takstock/index.html
DOE. 1996. Tank Waste Information Network System.
http://twins.pnl.gov:8001/refmain.html
DOE. 1995. Closing the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom: The
Environmental Legacy of Nuclear Weapons Production in the United
States and What the Department of Energy is Doing About It. The
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management,
Office of Strategic Planning and Analysis, Washington, D.C.
http://www.em.doe.gov/circle/index.html
DOE. 1995. Environmental Management 1995: Progress and Plans of
the Environmental Management Program. The U.S. Department of
Energy, Office of Environmental Management, Washington, D.C.
http://www.em.doe.gov/em95/
DOE. 1995. Risks and the Risk Debate: Searching for Common Ground
The First Step . The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of
Environmental Management, Washington, D.C.
http://raleigh.dis.anl.gov:81/cgi-bin/dispdoc_return.pl?rrd+1
DOE. 1995. Technology Summary Reports, June 1995 (Rainbow Books)
http://www.em.doe.gov/rain/
Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. 1996. Mixed Waste Focus
Area Integrated Technical Baseline Report. Volumes 1 and 2. U.S.
Department of Energy, Idaho Operations Office, Idaho Falls,
Idaho. DOE/ID-10524.
http://wastenot.inel.gov/mwfa/doe_id-10524.html
National Commission on Superfund Members. Final Consensus Report
of the National Commission on Superfund. March 1994. Keystone
Center and the Environmental Law Center of Vermont Law School.
N/A
National Environmental Technology Strategy. Bridge to a
Sustainable Future. April 1995. National Science and Technology
Council, Washington, D.C.
http://www.gnet.org/gnet/gov/usgov/whitehouse/bridge/bridge.html
National Research Council. 1996. Building an Environmental
Management Science Program: Initial Assessment. National Academy
Press, Washington, DC.
http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/envmanage/
National Research Council. 1995. Improving the Environment: An
Evaluation of DOE s Environmental Management Program. National
Academy Press, Washington, D.C.
http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/doeemp/
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Hanford Tank Cleanup: A
Guide to Understanding the Technical Issues. R.E. Gephart, R.E.
Lundgren. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland,
Washington. NTIS Order number: DE96004127. Report Number:
PNL-10773. To order, call the NTIS sales desk at (703) 487-4650.
N/A
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Tanks Focus Area FY 1996
Site Needs Assessment. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory,
Richland, Washington. PNL-11091.
N/A
Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. Alternative Futures for the
Department of Energy National Laboratories. February 1995. Task
Force on alternative Futures for the Department of Energy
National Laboratories, Washington, D.C.
http://www.doe.gov/html/doe/whatsnew/galvin/tf-rpt.html
U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. Complex Cleanup:
The Environmental Legacy of Nuclear Weapons Production, February
1991. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. NTIS
Order number: PB91143743. To order, call the NTIS sales desk at
(703) 487-4650.
N/A
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1996. Availability of 1997
Grants for Research.
http://es.inel.gov/ncerqa/rfa97/eparfa97.html
The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number for this
program is 81.049, and the solicitation control number is ERFAP
10 CFR Part 605.
John Rodney Clark
Published in the Federal Register December 6, 1996, Vol. 61,
No. 236,
Office of Energy Research and
Office of Environmental Management
Environmental Management Science Program
Subsequent to the formal scientific merit review, applications
that are judged to be scientifically meritorious will be
evaluated by DOE for relevance to the objectives of the
Environmental Management Science Program. Additional information
can be obtained at http://www.em.doe.gov/science.
There is a particular need for long term, basic research in
disciplines related to environmental cleanup . Adopting a
science-based approach that includes supporting development
of technologies and expertise could lead to both reduced
cleanup costs and smaller environmental impacts at existing
sites and to the development of a scientific foundation for
advances in environmental technologies.
The objectives of the Environmental Management Science Program
are to:
Provide scientific knowledge that will revolutionize
technologies and clean-up approaches to significantly reduce
future costs, schedules, and risks; and
Bridge the gap between broad fundamental research that has
wide-ranging applicability such as that performed in DOE's
Office of Energy Research and needs-driven applied
technology development that is conducted in EM's Office of
Science and Technology; and
Focus the Nation's science infrastructure on critical DOE
environmental management problems.
Representative Research Areas
Scientific Merit. The program will support the most
scientifically meritorious and relevant work,
regardless of the institution. Formal applications will
be subjected to scientific merit review (peer review)
and will be evaluated against the following evaluation
criteria listed in descending order of importance as
codified at 10 CFR 605.10(d).
DOE shall also consider, as part of the evaluation, program
policy factors such as an appropriate balance among the program
areas, including research already in progress. Research funded in
the Environmental Management Science Program in Fiscal Year 1996
can be reviewed at http://www.doe.gov/em52/science-grants.html.
1. Scientific and/or Technical Merit of the Project
2. Appropriateness of the Proposed Method or Approach
3. Competency of Applicant's Personnel and Adequacy
of Proposed Resources
4. Reasonableness and Appropriateness of the Proposed
Budget.
Relevance to Mission. Subsequent to the formal
scientific merit review, applications which are judged
to be scientifically meritorious will be evaluated by
DOE for relevance to the objectives of the
Environmental Management Science Program. These
objectives were established in the Conference Report
for the Fiscal Year 1996 Energy and Water Development
Appropriations Act, and are published in the
Congressional Record--House, October 26, 1995, page
H10956.
ER standard face page (DOE F 4650.2 (10-91))
Application classification sheet (see below for list of
categories)
Table of Contents
Project Abstract (no more than one page)
Budgets for each year and a summary budget page for the
entire project period (using DOE F 4620.1)
Budget Explanation
Budgets and Budget explanation for each collaborative
subproject, if any
Project Narrative (recommended length is no more than 20
pages; multi-investigator collaborative projects may use
more pages if necessary up to a total of 40 pages)
- Goals
- Significance of Project to the EMSP
- Background
- Research Plan
--- Preliminary Studies (if applicable)
--- Research Design and Methodologies
Literature Cited
Collaborative Arrangements (if applicable)
Biographical Sketches (limit 2 pages per senior
investigator)
Description of Facilities and Resources
Current and Pending Support for each senior investigator
Chemical Sciences (2-6):
2. Analytical Chemistry and Instrumentation
3. Catalysis
4. Heavy Element Chemistry
5. Separations Chemistry
6. Other Topics in Chemistry
7. Computer and Mathematical Sciences
8. Engineering Sciences
Geosciences (9-11):
9. Geophysics
10. Geochemistry
11. Hydrogeology: Flow Modeling and Subsurface Science
12. Health Sciences
13. Materials Science
14. Physics
15. Plant Science
16. Other
B. Health / Ecology / Risk
C. High-level Radioactive Waste
D. Waste Disposal Forms
E. Fissile materials
F. Spent Nuclear Fuel
G. Subsurface Characterization
H. Subsurface Contaminant Treatment
I. Waste Characterization & Separations
J. Waste Treatment & Destruction
K. Other
The characterization and safe removal of the contents of
these tanks, with the contents converted into forms suitable
for long-term storage. Particular challenges include the
need for improved characterization and separation methods of
these wastes, including pretreatment, and methods to reduce
the total volume of waste requiring long-term storage, which
will reduce the large disposal costs associated with these
wastes. Problems exist in the plugging of transport lines,
mobilizing waste sludge, leak detection, process control,
and conversion to final waste forms.
Spent Nuclear Fuel. The Department is the custodian of several
thousand metric tons of spent nuclear reactor fuels which
resulted primarily from weapons fabrication activities during the
Cold War, but also include fuel from research and naval reactors.
The long-term containment performance of the fuel under storage
and disposal conditions is uncertain. Such uncertainties affect
the ability to license disposal methods.
Mechanisms which may adversely affect the performance of the
fuel package during storage must be identified. Deleterious
effects which are incompletely characterized include:
radiolytic effects of the radiation field on surrounding
materials; corrosion, degradation, and radionuclide release
mechanisms and rates for the representative fuel matrices;
mechanisms which may lead to accelerated degradation of
containers; dissolution characteristics of the matrices; and
the effects of microbes on fuel packages. Some fuel storage
pools have water clarity problems during fuel movement which
affect safe operations.
Fissile Materials. The Office of Environmental Management is the
custodian of large quantities of fissile materials which were
left in the manufacturing and processing facilities after the
United States halted its nuclear weapons production activities.
These materials include plutonium solutions, plutonium metals and
oxides, plutonium residues and compounds, highly enriched
uranium, and nuclides of other actinides.
Gaps exist in the information base needed for choosing among
the alternate processes to be used in safe conversion of
various types of fissile materials to optimal forms for safe
interim storage, long term storage, and ultimate
disposition. Necessary information includes accurate
determination of thermodynamic redox potentials and
heterogeneous electron transfer kinetics of selected
actinides and actinide complexes; characterization of
plutonium compound solubility in aqueous phosphate and
sulfate media; actinide chemical thermodynamics and
kinetics; behavior of mixed oxidation states of plutonium-
containing materials; plutonium diffusion and corrosion
behavior; the application of acid solution separation
processes to neutralized and alkaline residues and wastes;
the nature and effect of actinide interactions with
organometallics, surfaces, and organic residues; and the
performance of various analytical methods, including x-ray
tomography, digital radiography, acoustic resonance
spectroscopy, and actinide self-fluorescence.
Mixed hazardous and radioactive low-level waste. The term mixed
waste refers to waste containing both radioactive and hazardous
materials. There is currently estimated to be about 167,000 cubic
meters of mixed waste in storage awaiting treatment and disposal.
There are over 1,400 different mixed waste streams in inventory,
located at 38 separate sites in 19 states. This inventory will be
increased with newly generated mixed waste resulting from DOE s
ongoing activities in environmental restoration, facility
decontamination, and transition processes. Existing treatment and
disposal capacities are presently too limited to allow the
treatment and disposal of this inventory of mixed wastes.
Research at a fundamental scientific level could lead to
innovative processes or technologies, or could provide data to
permit the advancement of technologies currently under
development.
Characterization technologies for non-destructive evaluation
of drum and box contents for the presence of materials
defined by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act as
hazardous in the waste, and for segregating and routing
incoming waste streams to appropriate treatment processes,
are lacking. Effluent monitoring must be improved to
optimize treatment operations, and to ensure compliance with
applicable environmental requirements.
Waste Disposal Forms. Safe disposal of radioactive wastes
requires that a wide range of potential waste streams be
converted into insoluble materials for long term storage. Some
radioactive material-containing forms have been successfully
developed and are being produced; however, the forms must be
developed and optimized for each material to be stored, including
high-level wastes, low-level wastes, mixed wastes, and fissile
materials.
Borosilicate glass is a waste form which is currently used
for the storage of some high level waste and is considered a
candidate for disposal of other high and low level wastes.
It is unclear whether all waste types can be dissolved in
borosilicate glass. Many common waste components, such as
phosphates, sulfates, and chromates, are thought to have low
solubilities. Some extractant materials, such as crystalline
silicotitanate, may have limited solubilities as well.
Risk, Quantitative Methodologies, Human and Environmental Health
Analyses. There is much scientific uncertainty about the levels
of risk to human health at the end stages of the DOE clean-up
effort. Research challenges in the area of risk, quantitative,
and health analyses include, but are not limited to:
Accurate risk analyses require thorough knowledge of
contaminant characteristics, basic ecological processes and
principles, rates at which contaminants move through
ecosystems, and health and ecological effects. In
particular, better knowledge of radionuclide and toxic
chemical transport dynamics and the potential effects of
long-term exposure to low levels of radionuclides, in
combination with other contaminants, is essential.
There is a need for health and environmental research to
support adoption of performance standards that present
quantifiable criteria for the levels to which high level waste
tanks must be cleaned prior to closure.
Research is required to improve understanding of threatened
and damaged ecosystems and processes to restore the
viability and quality of these ecosystems.
Details of the programs of the Office of Environmental Management
and the technologies currently under development or in use by
Environmental Management Program can be found on the World Wide
Web at http://www.em.doe.gov and at the extensive links contained
therein. These programs and technologies should be used to obtain
a better understanding of the missions and challenges in
environmental management in DOE when considering areas of
research to be proposed.
Associate Director
for Resource Management
Office of Energy Research
pages 64731-64737.