Cost Savings through Innovation in Decontamination, Decommissioning, and Dismantlement

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) continually seeks safer and more cost effective technologies for the decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of nuclear facilities. The Deactivation and Decommissioning Focus Area (DDFA) of the DOE's Office of Science and Technology (OST) sponsored large-scale demonstration and deployment projects (LSDDPs) to help bring new technologies into the D&D programs. The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) LSDDP generated a list of needs defining specific problems where improved technologies could be incorporated into ongoing D&D tasks. The needs fell into 5 major categories--characterization, dismantlement, safety, material dispositioning, and decontamination. Technologies were carefully selected that provide a large benefit for a small investment. The technologies must provide significant improvements in cost, safety, radiation exposure, waste volume reduction, or schedule savings and widely applicable throughout the DOE complex. The LSDDP project provided training for the new technologies and worked with technology suppliers to resolve any questions that arose. Since 1998, 26 technologies have been demonstrated or deployed through the LSDDP for the D&D program at the INEEL. Of the 26 demonstrated and deployed technologies, 14 were in characterization, 3 were in decontamination, 4 were in dismantlement, 3 were in safety, and 2 were in material dispositioning. To promote the use of these technologies at other sites within the DOE complex, the LSDDP team published fact sheets, videos, technology summary reports, articles in INEEL star newspaper, posters, and maintained an internet home page on the project. As a result, additional deployments have taken place at the Hanford, Mound, Fernald, Oak Ridge, Ashtabula, and West Valley. Eight of the 26 technologies evaluated were developed in foreign countries. The technologies demonstrated have been shown to be faster, less expensive, and/or safer. The technologies evaluated through the LSDDP have provided improvements in the following D&D areas: robotic underwater characterization of fuel storage pools, characterization of scrap metal for recycle, PCB and RCRA metals analysis in soil, water, paint, or sludge, subsurface characterization, personnel safety, waste disposal, scaffolding use, and remote radiation characterization of buildings and soil. It is estimated that the technologies demonstrated and deployed through this program will save more than $50 million dollars over the next 10 years at the INEEL alone. Of the $50 million estimated dollars saved, about 75% of the savings will come from characterization technologies, 11% from technologies associated with material dispositioning, 10% are associated with dismantlement technologies and the balance split between safety and decontamination