The Deactivation and Decommissioning Focus Area is starting three new large-scale demonstration and deployment projects. The new projects include second LSDDPs at both Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory and a first LSDDP at New York’s West Valley Demonstration Project.


The new LSDDP at INEEL aims to demonstrate and/or deploy at least 14 technologies in three categories:
   • underutilized technologies for D&D of reactor fuel pools and associated facilities,
   • technologies for disassembly and contaminated material dispositioning, and
   • technologies that can be rapidly deployed at multiple sites at minimal cost and with a high       return on investment.

The target facilities for this LSDDP are spread across the DOE complex. One is reactor pool and supporting facilities in various stages of D&D at INEEL, the Savannah River Site, and other applicable sites at Hanford and Oak Ridge. The project will enable D&D of the INEEL and SRS pools and facilities to be completed faster but with less cost, less secondary waste, and lower health and safety risks to decommissioning workers. It will also aid in subsequent deployments of the best technologies at other sites in the complex.

Another targeted area will be the demonstration facilities being decommissioned at Fernald’s Ore Refinery and Recovery Plants and associated facilities and at INEEL’s reactors and associated facilities. The variety of demonstration facilities will enable use of technologies for several phases of contaminated material disposition, from characterization to demolition and material sorting.

The project’s final objective is to significantly reduce overall life-cycle schedules and costs by deploying successfully demonstrated technologies at a wide range of facilities, including reactor fuel pool facilities and hot cell facilities in various stages of D&D at INEEL, SRS, Hanford, Oak Ridge, and the Mound and Fernald Environmental Management Projects.


The objective of the Los Alamos Tritium Technology Deployment LSDDP is to deploy proven, cost-effective innovative technologies to reduce the cost, risk, and schedule of deactivating, decontaminating, and decommissioning DOE’s surplus tritium facilities. The project’s primary deployment site will be LANL’s Tritium Systems Test Assembly (TSTA) facility, which is being stabilized by the current operator, the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Science, before transfer to the Office of Environmental Management for deactivation and decommissioning. The project will also target other active tritium-contaminated sites for technology deployments, including the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and buildings at SRS and Mound.

TSTA’s main experimental building—a 3,700 square foot high-bay structure containing process equipment and gloveboxes for fusion tritium research and development—has an estimated tritium inventory of 125–140 grams, most of it in one of four forms: gas in 50-liter tanks, solid absorbed on metal hydride beds, water on molecular-sieve moisture collectors, and “holdup” in high–surface area components. The tritium must be removed prior to transfer to EM for D&D, currently planned for FY03. Downgrade from a Category 2 to a Category 3 radiological facility is expected to significantly reduce the costs associated with surveillance and maintenance of the TSTA.


The LSDDP at West Valley Demonstration Project will demonstrate innovative technologies for remote waste characterization, retrieval, processing, and packaging. Located in western New York, WVDP is a former commercial reprocessing facility that recovered uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel. Two primary facilities have been selected for demonstration sites at WVDP because of their ongoing D&D activities and because they are representative of remote hot cell facilities throughout the DOE complex.

The Head End Cells, hot cell facilities that mechanically processed irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies, contain significant amounts of highly radioactive debris and laboratory equipment. The Extraction Cells, including two shielded hot cells where dissolved nuclear fuel was separated from fission products, contain solvent-contaminated process vessels, tanks, and piping that will require remote removal prior to surface decontamination activities. Demonstrations and deployments at the Battelle Columbus West Jefferson Site and at Hanford’s 324/327 Hot Cell facility have also have been incorporated into the initial planning for this project. Both sites have hot cell D&D needs similar to WVDP’s.

The technologies to be demonstrated through this LSDDP will reduce costs, shorten D&D schedules, and enhance safety. The project is also anticipated to include collaboration with Russian scientists and technology developers. Through the Joint Coordinating Committee for Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (JCCEM, see Initiatives, December 1997 and Spring 2000), characterization and decontamination technologies used in Russian hot cell D&D will be demonstrated.

For more information on DDFA’s LSDDPs, visit http://www.netl.doe.gov/dd/ or contact Steve Bossart, National Energy Technology Laboratory, (304) 285-4643, steven.bossart@netl.doe.gov.