Large-scale decontamination and decommissioning technology demonstration project at a former uranium metal production facility

The Department of Energy`s (DOE) Office of Science and Technology Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) Focus Area, led by the Federal Energy Technology Center, has been charged with improving upon baseline D&D technologies with the goal of demonstrating and validating more cost-effective and safer technologies to characterize, deactivate, survey, decontaminate, dismantle, and dispose of surplus structures, buildings, and their contents at DOE sites. The D&D Focus Area`s approach to verifying the benefits of the improved D&D technologies is to use them in large-scale technology demonstration (LSTD) projects at several DOE sites. The Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP) was selected to host one of the first three LSTD`s awarded by the D&D Focus Area. The FEMP is a DOE facility near Cincinnati, Ohio, that was formerly engaged in the production of high quality uranium metal. The FEMP is a Superfund site which has completed its RUFS process and is currently undergoing environmental restoration. With the FEMP`s selection to host an LSTD, the FEMP was immediately faced with some challenges. The primary challenge was that this LSTD was to be integrated into the FEMP`s Plant 1 D&D Project which was an ongoing D&D Project for which a firm fixed price contract had been issued to the D&D Contractor. Thus, interferences with the baseline D&D project could have significant financial implications. Other challenges include defining and selecting meaningful technology demonstrations, finding/selecting technology providers, and integrating the technology into the baseline D&D project. To date, twelve technologies have been selected, and six have been demonstrated. The technology demonstrations have yielded a high proportion of {open_quotes}winners.{close_quotes} All demonstrated, technologies will be evaluated for incorporation into the FEMP`s baseline D&D strategy