Pollution Prevention Opportunity Assessment benchmarking: Recommendations for Hanford`s environmental restoration mission

Conference · Sun May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994

OSTI ID:10158138

Engel, J A

Most people agree that Pollution Prevention Opportunity Assessments (P2OAs) are a critical first step in any pollution prevention activity. P2OAs are used to identify waste streams, examine the processes which generate waste, and discover ways to reduce this waste. Formerly called Process Waste Assessments (PWAs), P2OAs were originally developed by the Environmental Protection Agency for use by companies to examine their individual manufacturing processes, seeking process improvements which would reduce hazardous and material waste while saving money. The current status of the Hanford site makes traditional P2OAs/PWAs difficult. Hanford covers 1,450 square kilometers (560 square miles) of land with almost 200 hundred on and off-site waste generators and thousands of waste streams. Additionally, Hanford`s current mission of environmental restoration (ER) causes operations to be discontinuous and project oriented, unlike a production facility. Clearly, Hanford`s P2OA process must be able to handle and prioritize the number and uniqueness of D&D/ER waste streams in a manageable fashion. In order to determine an appropriate P2OA process, the Pollution Prevention group at Westinghouse Hanford Company benchmarked P2OA programs at other Department of Energy sites, reviewed guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as examined a few facilities at Hanford already performing P2OAs. This process revealed that, although there has been significant discussion of the problem, very few organizations are actually conducting P2OAs on D&D/ER work. This paper presents the comparisons of the different programs that were found, details on the situation at Hanford, and makes recommendations for an efficient P2OA process for Hanford`s ER mission. These recommendations include: complete a P2OA process on the planned activity itself, keep the assessments simple, seek to overcome recycling barriers, and find a consistent way to show progress.

• Research Organization: Westinghouse Hanford Co., Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-87RL10930
• OSTI ID: 10158138
• Report Number(s): WHC-SA--2311; CONF-940578--7; ON: DE94013225; BR: 35AF11201/35AF11202
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052000
054000
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
BIOLOGICAL RECOVERY
COST
ENVIRONMENT
HANFORD RESERVATION
HEALTH AND SAFETY
POLLUTION
RECOMMENDATIONS
RECYCLING
REGULATIONS
REMEDIAL ACTION
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING