Environmental Assessment for Selection and Operation of the Proposed Field Research Centers for the Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research (NABIR) Program

Technical Report · Tue Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/768668· OSTI ID:768668

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER), within the Office of Science (SC), proposes to add a Field Research Center (FRC) component to the existing Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research (NABIR) Program. The NABIR Program is a ten-year fundamental research program designed to increase the understanding of fundamental biogeochemical processes that would allow the use of bioremediation approaches for cleaning up DOE's contaminated legacy waste sites. An FRC would be integrated with the existing and future laboratory and field research and would provide a means of examining the fundamental biogeochemical processes that influence bioremediation under controlled small-scale field conditions. The NABIR Program would continue to perform fundamental research that might lead to promising bioremediation technologies that could be demonstrated by other means in the future. For over 50 years, DOE and its predecessor agencies have been responsible for the research, design, and production of nuclear weapons, as well as other energy-related research and development efforts. DOE's weapons production and research activities generated hazardous, mixed, and radioactive waste products. Past disposal practices have led to the contamination of soils, sediments, and groundwater with complex and exotic mixtures of compounds. This contamination and its associated costs and risks represents a major concern to DOE and the public. The high costs, long duration, and technical challenges associated with remediating the subsurface contamination at DOE sites present a significant need for fundamental research in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences that will contribute to new and cost-effective solutions. One possible low-cost approach for remediating the subsurface contamination of DOE sites is through the use of a technology known as bioremediation. Bioremediation has been defined as the use of microorganisms to biodegrade or biotransform hazardous organic contaminants to environmentally safe levels in soils, subsurface materials, water, sludges, and residues.. While bioremediation technology is promising, DOE managers and non-DOE scientists have recognized that the fundamental scientific information needed to develop effective bioremediation technologies for cleanup of the legacy waste sites is lacking in many cases. DOE believes that field-based research is needed to realize the full potential of bioremediation. The Department of Energy faces a unique set of challenges associated with cleaning up waste at its former weapons production and research sites. These sites contain complex mixtures of contaminants in the subsurface, including radioactive compounds. In many cases, the fundamental field-based scientific information needed to develop safe and effective remediation and cleanup technologies is lacking. DOE needs fundamental research on the use of microorganisms and their products to assist DOE in the decontamination and cleanup of its legacy waste sites. The existing NABIR program to-date has focused on fundamental scientific research in the laboratory. Because subsurface hydrologic and geologic conditions at contaminated DOE sites cannot easily be duplicated in a laboratory, however, the DOE needs a field component to permit existing and future laboratory research results to be field-tested on a small scale in a controlled outdoor setting. Such field-testing needs to be conducted under actual legacy waste field conditions representative of those that DOE is most in need of remediating. Ideally, these field conditions should be as representative as practicable of the types of subsurface contamination conditions that resulted from legacy wastes from the nuclear weapons program activities. They should also be representative of the types of hydrologic and geologic conditions that exist across the DOE complex.

• Research Organization: U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of NEPA Policy and Assistance (EH-42) (US)
• OSTI ID: 768668
• Report Number(s): DOE/EA-1196; TRN: US0401986
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: 18 Apr 2000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
BIOREMEDIATION
CLEANING
CONTAMINATION
DECONTAMINATION
MICROORGANISMS
MIXTURES
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
RESIDUES
SEDIMENTS
SLUDGES
SOILS
WASTES
WATER
WEAPONS
EA
FONSI
RESEARCH
FIELD RESEARCH CENTERS
NABIR