Oak Ridge Reservation Department of Energy Facilities: Waste Management Challenges and Success Stories Focusing on Waste Minimization

Waste generation and disposition is a challenge all face in the environmental restoration business. Over the past three years Safety and Ecology Corporation (SEC) working with Bechtel Jacobs Company, LLC (BJC) the Management and Integration subcontractor for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have been able to minimize the volume of waste (mixed, hazardous, and radiological) that is disposed of and increased the volume for release, reuse, and recycle. This paper will focus on the success and challenges of several projects at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and one project at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). SEC is one of four Remedial Action/Decontamination & Decommissioning (RADD) subcontractors selected by BJC to support site clean up goals. Several of these RADD projects awarded to SEC will be used to illustrate the waste management process and the challenges/successes to completion. All these projects were “fixed price” with defined milestones keyed into award fee for BJC and regulatory milestones for DOE. From the first project completed under the RADD subcontract to the most recent the waste disposition approach has been refined and a decision process developed. This decision process will be discussed in the paper and illustrated graphically to indicate the critical elements to selecting the most appropriate waste disposition option. This paper will focus on the following items associated with waste minimization efforts at the Oak Ridge Reservation DOE facilities. • Waste disposition decision process. • Waste disposition options — recycle, reuse, salvage, and disposal. • Elements of integration required for successful pre-planning — design and implementation. • Waste disposition challenges and solutions. • Decontamination to reduce mixed waste volumes. Release surveys required to disposition waste for reuse/recycle. • Lessons learned that will be integrated in future projects.