# Innovative Approaches to Resolving Orphan Materials

## Problems in the DOE Complex

Gary F. Polansky

Sandia National Laboratories\*

Albuquerque, New Mexico

gfpolan@sandia.gov

David L. Parks

Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

Idaho Falls, Idaho

dlp@inel.gov

### Abstract

The Nonactinide Isotope and Sealed Sources Management Group (NISSMG) is
sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental
Management and managed by Albuquerque Operations Office to serve as a
complex-wide resource for the management of DOE-owned Nonactinide
Isotope and Sealed Source (NISS) materials. NISS materials are defined
as including (1) any isotope in sealed sources or standards and (2)
isotopes with atomic number less than 90, regardless of form. The NISSMG
assists the DOE sites with the storage, reuse, disposition,
transportation, and processing of these materials. The mission of the
NISSMG is to enhance the effective management of NISS materials in the
DOE complex by:

-   Facilitating the *Paths to Closure***^1^** strategy by providing
    assistance to closure sites and closure facilities to ensure timely
    shipment of their NISS materials from these sites and facilities.

-   Implementing DOE's pollution prevention strategies by providing an
    effective mechanism for the reuse and recycle of NISS materials.

-   Enhancing worker and public safety by reducing inventories of excess
    NISS materials in the DOE complex and thereby the potential for loss
    of control of these materials.

-   Reducing costs and risks associated with the management of NISS
    materials by sharing knowledge and developing procedures for common
    NISS materials management activities.

-   Reducing costs associated with acquiring and disposing NISS
    materials by providing effective systems that ensure that these
    materials are reused or recycled whenever possible.

The NISSMG has focused its efforts to date at DOE closure sites due to
the immediacy of their problems. In the future, these efforts will be
broadened to include closure facilities at non-closure sites and then
all DOE sites. This paper documents the lessons learned in managing NISS
materials at DOE closure sites.

### Nuclear Material Integration

On January 20, 1998, the Department of Energy's Office of the Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Material and Facility Stabilization
(DOE/EM-60) initiated the Nuclear Material Integration (NMI) Project.
The goals of the NMI were to inventory and analyze the nuclear materials
in the DOE Complex. The scope of this project included not only
materials owned by EM but also those owned by other programs and stored
in EM facilities. In addition, materials expected to be transferred to
EM ownership by 2015 were to be considered. The purpose of the analysis
was to support both risk and mortgage reduction efforts in the complex
and to make recommendations for material management and disposition. The
ultimate goal of this effort was to develop a comprehensive nuclear
material management plan for the complex that would support EM's
accelerated cleanup vision.

Four teams were formed to implement the NMI Project. Three material
management teams were responsible for the different groups of materials
in the DOE Complex:

-   Transuranic (TRU) Team, responsible for most transuranic elements

-   Uranium/Thorium Team, responsible for most uranium and thorium
    materials

-   Nonactinide Isotope and Sealed Sources (NISS) Team, responsible for
    all radioactive isotopes with an atomic number less than 90 and all
    sealed sources, irrespective of atomic number.

The fourth team formed was the Integration Team, which has
responsibility for overall project direction and coordination among the
material teams.

While the Transuranic and Uranium/Thorium Teams could focus on a
relatively small number of sites, the NISS Team had a much broader range
of sites and facilities to survey. In the first phase, the NISS team
focused on acquiring site inventory data for NISS materials and
understanding the site baseline for these materials. During this project
phase, the NISS Team met with representatives of more than 30 sites in
the DOE Complex. The team developed a complex-wide database of NISS
materials, which included more than 33,000 records and 72 million curies
of material, mostly representing small quantities items (\<10 of curies)
in diverse chemical and physical forms. This database provides the most
comprehensive overview to date of the magnitude of the complex-wide
problems associated with NISS materials. From the database, the NISS
Team developed baseline disposition maps to capture site plans for these
materials and elicited site perspectives on their capabilities to
execute these baseline plans.

In the second phase of the NISS Team efforts, the team evaluated site
baseline plans and disposition path maturity and explored opportunities
for improvement. In this project phase, the NISS Team worked in
conjunction with site material managers and the other NMI material teams
to develop a complex-wide view of NISS materials. Several common
problems were identified across the sites, and the team developed 15
alternate disposition paths to address issues. Most of the alternates
used cross-site resources to attempt to resolve problems not well suited
to single-site resolution. The 15 alternative disposition paths were
then applied to the site baselines that had been undefined in the
initial evaluation. The applied alternatives were seen to provide a
technically defensible disposal path for the undefined material streams.
After this alternatives analysis was completed, a much smaller group of
orphan materials, with no clear disposition path, remained. The NISS
team documented these efforts in a material management plan**^2^**.

### NISSMG Closure Site Activities

After completing its report, the NISS team continued to assist the sites
in transferring or dispositioning orphan materials. The continued need
for cross-site support and communication regarding orphaned NISS
materials has been recognized as a critically needed activity and
continues to be supported by DOE/AL. As a result DOE/AL sponsored NISSMG
in mid FY2000. The initial efforts of NISSMG have focused on closure
sites, where NISS materials were either already impacting the critical
path to closure, or threatening to do so. The primary sites assisted to
date are the Miamisburg Environmental Management Project (Mound Plant),
the Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP), and the Rocky Flats
Environmental Technology Site (RFETS). As the work at the Mound Plant is
nearing completion, it has been selected as the basis of this
discussion.

The NISS materials disposition activities at the Mound site are
summarized in the sites\' Nuclear Material Disposition Maps presented in
Figure 1. The sites\' inventory of NISS materials is grouped by material
category and shown in the boxes down the left side of the figure. The
boxes going to the right then summarize the activities required to
remove the materials from the site and the material's end state. All
materials indicated in gray were part of the initial assessment that was
performed when the NISS team visited the site in 1998. Materials
indicated in red were identified at later dates. Examples of NISSMG
assistance include substantiating that the materials meet DOT
requirements for shipping in Type B containers and analyzing potential
gas generation rates. Material streams where the NISSMG provided
substantial assistance are indicated in Figures 1 thorough 3. Actual or
projected shipping dates are shown for all materials. As can be seen,
the Mound site is making good progress towards its goal of removing all
major nuclear materials from the site by the end of fiscal year 2000.

### Lessons Learned

The NISSMG work on orphan materials at closure sites has produced a
number of lessons learned. These include:

-   ***NISS materials will impact the critical path to closure for sites
    and facilities*** - Closure sites naturally focus on the larger
    quantities of problematic materials that must be removed from the
    site and tend to delay work on NISS materials until they are close
    to their closure date. It is easy to underestimate the difficulty
    associated with identifying appropriate disposition options for a
    diverse group of NISS materials. The lead times to find receiver
    sites and make transportation arrangements can also be significant.
    In addition, NISS materials are often neglected until after critical
    site facilities have been closed, increasing the challenges
    associated with characterizing and packaging the materials for
    off-site shipment. Delays in addressing NISS materials issues can
    also result in lost opportunities as key elements of infrastructure,
    such as processing facilities or transportation containers, may no
    longer be available by the time they are needed. This combination of
    factors can make NISS materials a significant driver as closure
    deadlines approach.

-   ***Expect growth in NISS materials inventories from initial
    assessments*** - As most NISS materials are not accountable from a
    safeguards and security standpoint, many sites do not maintain
    centralized inventories of these materials. Therefore, it should be
    expected that additional materials will be identified as facilities
    are closed and all materials removed. Therefore it is important to
    maintain some flexibility in site capabilities to deal with these
    materials until the site is confident that all materials have been
    identified. At the Mound Plant, seventeen material steams were
    identified in the initial assessment and six additional material
    streams were identified in subsequent activities, representing more
    than a 35% increase.

-   ***Always investigate reuse as the first option when dealing with
    orphan materials*** - Closure sites are interested in removing their
    materials as quickly as possible and at minimum cost. Many times it
    is assumed that disposing material as waste will satisfy these
    objectives. The NISSMG has shown that reuse options do exist for
    many NISS materials, which can be cost effective, satisfy closure
    schedules, and implement DOE pollution prevention objectives. One
    major success was at the Mound Plant, where thorium capsules,
    originally irradiated for isotope production in 1960, had remained
    an orphan material for nearly 40 years. Disposition of this material
    as low-level waste was going to be a difficult and expensive
    process. An alternative was developed to process this material to
    recover valuable isotopes which, alone, will ultimately save
    taxpayers more than \$250,000 over disposal as low level waste. At
    the Mound Plant, reuse options were identified for nine of the
    seventeen total material streams.

-   ***Recognize the limitations that many sites now have in nuclear
    material operations*** -- Most closure sites suffer from a lack of
    facilities, experienced personnel, and process knowledge. The issue
    of experienced personnel can be addressed by bringing in outside
    expertise to address closure site issues. The NISSMG has developed
    an informal network of technical experts to assist the closure sites
    with their nuclear material issues and will be formalizing this
    structure in fiscal year 2001. The lack of process knowledge for
    previous site activities is requiring sites around the complex to
    contact former employees to gain knowledge of previous site
    activities. As many of the activities of interest occurred nearly
    fifty years ago, this tactic only remains viable for a limited time.
    The issue of a lack of facilities at a site is a more immediate
    concern. Often facilities are required onsite to perform certain
    characterization functions before materials can be transported. This
    is currently the situation at the Mound Plant, where even a simple
    glovebox is unavailable to support such activities. In these cases,
    it is necessary to develop alternatives that function within these
    facility constraints. The broader issue of identifying critical
    facilities across the complex to support NISS materials activities
    will be part of a future NISSMG study.

-   ***Seek solutions that leverage resources from across the complex
    and private industry*** -- In the post-cold-war era there is a
    decreased level of interaction between the DOE sites. This is
    particularly true at the closure sites, which no longer have an
    enduring mission for the DOE complex. These sites tend to be less
    aware of expertise and facilities that exist in the DOE complex and
    private industry. One of the primary functions of the NISSMG has
    been to stimulate the interaction of the closure sites with other
    DOE sites and private industry to develop solutions for their NISS
    materials problems. This function is achieved through site visits,
    workshops, and trade studies. This interaction has been essential to
    solving many NISS materials problems, as the closure sites retain
    limited capabilities to address these issues.

-   ***Challenge all assumptions regarding orphan materials*** -- Many
    orphan materials issues have existed at the sites for many years or
    sometimes, even decades. Initial discussions of these materials are
    often punctuated with phrases such as "we tried that" and "that will
    never work." For problem materials, it is important to go back and
    re-examine all options carefully and not dismiss any option
    prematurely. It was the application of this principle that led to
    the development of the alternative for the irradiated thorium
    capsules discussed above. The option of processing these materials
    for isotope recovery had been previously determined to be "not cost
    effective." It was only when this option was re-examined in terms of
    life-cycle cost that it became the preferred option.

-   ***Seek optimal solutions, not just "paths forward"*** -- The
    pressures of trying to achieve closure milestones can push sites to
    seek the most expedient way possible to get the orphan material off
    the site, irrespective of the future liabilities that are created.
    As responsible stewards of these materials, the NISSMG must employ
    life-cycle approaches to cost, risk, waste generation, and other
    performance metrics, consistent with site constraints. In many
    respects, this is one of the most important functions of the NISSMG,
    as no other organization in DOE has a complex-wide, long-term stake
    for NISS materials.

This discussion has been developed primarily on the basis of
interactions with the Mound Plant, but these lessons learned seem to
apply equally well at FEMP and RFETS. In the near future the NISSMG will
begin to address NISS materials at closure facilities located at
non-closure sites. It is expected that the experience working at these
sites will be somewhat different than at the closure sites. As a part of
the NISSMG vision, the group will be able to address problems and issues
associated with excess NISS materials at all DOE sites and facilities.

### Conclusions

The highly diverse nature of NISS materials pose unique challenges to
their management in the DOE complex. As a central management group for
EM materials, the NISSMG is proving an effective resource in assisting
the closure sites in dealing with NISS materials issues. Based on the
experience of a nearly completed de-inventory of the Mound Plant, a set
of lessons learned have been developed that is serving as a basis for
interactions with other closure sites. The NISSMG plans to expand its
activities in to begin to address NISS materials issues at other sites.
The NISSMG is also initiating studies of key issues as NISS materials
management occurs across the complex. NISSMG is evolving toward a more
proactive role of identifying future DOE complex requirements for NISS
materials management.

### References

***^1^**Accelerating Cleanup: Paths to Closure*, U.S. Department of
Energy, Office of Environmental Management, DOE/EM-0362, June 1998.

**^2^***Materials Management Plan for Nonactinide Isotopes and Sealed
Sources*, Nuclear Materials Stewardship Program, Department of Energy
Albuquerque Operations Office, December 4, 1998.

**Figure 1 - Mound Nuclear Materials Disposition Map - Page 1**

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height="5.902083333333334in"}

Figure 2 - Mound Nuclear Materials Disposition Map - Page 2

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**Figure 3 - Mound Nuclear Materials Disposition Map - Page 3**

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height="5.847916666666666in"}