Ecological Considerations for Evaluating Current Risk and Designing Long-Term Stewardship on Department of Energy Lands

Author(s):  
Joanna Burger ◽  
Nellie Tsipoura ◽  
Michael Gochfeld ◽  
Michael R. Greenberg
2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 44-61
Author(s):  
Lindsay M. Sheridan ◽  
Raghavendra Krishnamurthy ◽  
Alicia M. Gorton ◽  
Will J. Shaw ◽  
Rob K. Newsom

AbstractThe offshore wind industry in the United States is gaining strong momentum to achieve sustainable energy goals, and the need for observations to provide resource characterization and model validation is greater than ever. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) operates two lidar buoys for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in order to collect hub height wind data and associated meteorological and oceanographic information near the surface in areas of interest for offshore wind development. This work evaluates the performance of commonly used reanalysis products and spatial approximation techniques using lidar buoy observations off the coast of New Jersey and Virginia, USA. Reanalysis products are essential tools for setting performance expectations and quantifying the wind resource variability at a given site. Long-term accurate observations at typical wind turbine hub heights have been lacking at offshore locations. Using wind speed observations from both lidar buoy deployments, biases and degrees of correspondence for the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications-2 (MERRA-2), the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), ERA5, and the analysis system of the Rapid Refresh (RAP) are examined both at hub height and near the surface. Results provide insights on the performance and uncertainty of using reanalysis products for long-term wind resource characterization. A slow bias is seen across the reanalyses at both deployment sites. Bias magnitudes near the surface are on the order of 0.5 m s−1 greater than their hub height counterparts. RAP and ERA5 produce the highest correlations with the observations, around 0.9, followed by MERRA-2 and NARR.


Author(s):  
Kimberly Gray ◽  
John Vienna ◽  
Patricia Paviet

In order to maintain the U.S. domestic nuclear capability, its scientific technical leadership, and to keep our options open for closing the nuclear fuel cycle, the Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) invests in various R&D programs to identify and resolve technical challenges related to the sustainability of the nuclear fuel cycle. Sustainable fuel cycles are those that improve uranium resource utilization, maximize energy generation, minimize waste generation, improve safety and limit proliferation risk. DOE-NE chartered a Study on the evaluation and screening of nuclear fuel cycle options, to provide information about the potential benefits and challenges of nuclear fuel cycle options and to identify a relatively small number of promising fuel cycle options with the potential for achieving substantial improvements compared to the current nuclear fuel cycle in the United States. The identification of these promising fuel cycles helps in focusing and strengthening the U.S. R&D investment needed to support the set of promising fuel cycle system options and nuclear material management approaches. DOE-NE is developing and evaluating advanced technologies for the immobilization of waste issued from aqueous and electrochemical recycling activities including off-gas treatment and advanced fuel fabrication. The long-term scope of waste form development and performance activities includes not only the development, demonstration, and technical maturation of advanced waste management concepts but also the development and parameterization of defensible models to predict the long-term performance of waste forms in geologic disposal. Along with the finding of the Evaluation and Screening Study will be presented the major research efforts that are underway for the development and demonstration of waste forms and processes including glass ceramic for high-level waste raffinate, alloy waste forms and glass ceramics composites for HLW from the electrochemical processing of fast reactor fuels, and high durability waste forms for radioiodine.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J.G. Goncalves Pereira ◽  
B. Marmelo ◽  
H. Antunes ◽  
L. Abreu ◽  
M.L. Goncalves ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Michael J. Truex ◽  
Amoret L. Bunn ◽  
Mart Oostrom ◽  
K. C. Carroll ◽  
Dawn M. Wellman

The U.S. Department of Energy is responsible for risk reduction and cleanup of its nuclear weapons complex. Remediation strategies for some of the contamination may include techniques that mitigate risk, but leave contaminants in place. Monitoring to verify remedy performance and long-term mitigation of risk is key to implementing these strategies and can be a large portion of the total cost of remedy implementation. Especially in these situations, there is a need for innovative monitoring approaches that move away from the cost- and labor-intensive point-source monitoring. In this paper, alternative approaches for monitoring are presented for vadose zone, groundwater, groundwater/surface water interface, and surface water. To illustrate integrated, systems-based monitoring, this paper focuses on vadose zone contaminant remediation to mitigate impact to groundwater. In this context, vadose zone contamination is a source, or potential source, to groundwater plumes. The monitoring design uses a systems-based approach focused on developing a conceptual site model that highlights key features that control contaminant flux to groundwater. These features are derived considering the unsaturated flow and contaminant transport processes in the vadose zone and the nature of the waste discharge. Diagnostic properties and/or parameters related to both short- and long-term contaminant flux to groundwater can be identified and targeted for monitoring. The resolution of monitoring data needed to correspond to a functionally useful indicator of flux to groundwater can be estimated using quantitative analyses and the associated unsaturated flow properties relevant to the targeted site and vadose zone features. This monitoring design approach follows the process of developing a quantitative conceptual model suitable for supporting projections of future flux to groundwater. Support for such projections is important because it is likely that, in many cases, remediation decisions for the vadose zone will need to be made based all or in part on projected impacts to groundwater, and monitoring will then be applied to verify that remedy goals are being met.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 1271-1289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renping Lin ◽  
Tianjun Zhou ◽  
Yun Qian

Abstract With the motivation to identify whether a reasonably simulated atmospheric circulation would necessarily lead to a successful reproduction of monsoon precipitation, the performances of five sets of reanalysis data [NCEP–U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project II (AMIP-II) reanalysis (NCEP-2), 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40), Japanese 25-yr Reanalysis Project (JRA-25), Interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim), and Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA)] in reproducing the climatology, interannual variation, and long-term trend of global monsoon (GM) precipitation are comprehensively evaluated. To better understand the variability and long-term trend of GM precipitation, the authors also examined the major components of water budget, including evaporation, water vapor convergence, and the change in local column water vapor, based on the five reanalysis datasets. Results show that all five reanalysis datasets reasonably reproduce the climatology of GM precipitation. ERA-Interim (NCEP-2) shows the highest (lowest) skill among the five datasets. The observed GM precipitation shows an increasing tendency during 1979–2011 along with a strong interannual variability, which is reasonably reproduced by five reanalysis datasets. The observed increasing trend of GM precipitation is dominated by contributions from the Asian, North American, Southern African, and Australian monsoons. All five datasets fail in reproducing the increasing tendency of the North African monsoon precipitation. The wind convergence term in the water budget equation dominates the GM precipitation variation, indicating a consistency between the GM precipitation and the seasonal change of prevailing wind.


1985 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray D. Walton ◽  
Kenneth A. Chacey

AbstractThe United States has been engaged in defense nuclear activities for over 40 years. The primary goal of the Defense Waste and Byproducts Management Program is to develop technology which ensures the safe, permanent disposal of all defense nuclear waste. Programs are in place at each U.S. Department of Energy site which address long-term strategy for permanent disposal of waste generated as a result of defense operations. Technology is developed for assessing the hazards, environmental impact, and cost of each long-term disposition alternative for selection and implementation. This paper addresses the key research areas and major facilities associated with the long-term management of defense nuclear waste.


AIDS Care ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Sanchez ◽  
J. B. Page ◽  
D. D. Chitwood ◽  
D. C. McBride ◽  
K. R. Kitner ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 171 ◽  
pp. 189-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Kennamer ◽  
Ricki E. Oldenkamp ◽  
James C. Leaphart ◽  
Joshua D. King ◽  
A. Lawrence Bryan ◽  
...  

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