METAL ION ANALYSIS USING NEAR-INFRARED DYES AND THE ''LABORATORY-ON-A-CHIP''
The DOE currently has the daunting task of deactivating 7,000 contaminated buildings and decommissioning 900 contaminated buildings that remain from the United States' involvement in nuclear weapons development over the last 50 years.1 In addition to decontaminating the metal and concrete building materials that comprise these building structures, this program will require the decontamination and disposal of more than 180,000 metric tons of scrap metal.1 The DOE is also currently entrenched in a massive cleanup program of their nuclear weapons facilities in an effort to prevent serious environmental problems arising from the already widespread contamination of soils, sediments and groundwaters. Incredibly, more than 600 billion gallons of water and 50 million cubic meters of soil have been contaminated by more than 5700 known DOE groundwater plumes.2 The primary concern is migration of these plumes and their potential threat to local and regional water sources. Sites of particular concern include the Snake River Aquifer in Idaho, contaminated groundwaters at the 100, 200 and 300 areas at Hanford, Washington, Oak Ridge/Savannah River groundwaters and contaminated sediments at the Nevada Test Site.2 Numerous landfills also exist at DOE facilities which are estimated to contain over three million cubic meters of radioactive and hazardous buried water.2 The challenges associated with these tasks are numerous, and have been outlined in various research needs statements associated with facility Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D). The Environmental Management team has highlighted the need for revolutionizing technologies capable of improving characterization, monitoring and certification of contaminated equipment and facilities with emphasis on real time characterization in the field. One of the specific science research challenges critical to the advancement of decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) is the application of new principles and innovations to support the development of sensors, detectors, or monitors for rapid, automated characterization and certification of levels of radionuclides, mercury, beryllium, and other toxic metals evident on the surface of scrap metal, equipment and facilities. The research discussed in this final report was directed specifically to address the basic research elements necessary to develop a portable, compact microchip capillary electrophoresis unit for rapid characterization and certification of ppb levels of toxic metal contaminants found or originating from scrap metal and building materials in real time within the field. The intent here is to reduce the cost and health risks imposed on workers by minimizing the time and labor associated with D&D measures, a goal which is achievable through the development of novel, portable, analytical instrumentation capable of real-time, sensitive and selective monitoring of metal-contaminated surfaces.
- Research Organization:
- Naval Research Laboratory (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- A107-98ER62711
- OSTI ID:
- 832998
- Report Number(s):
- EMSP-64982; R&D Project: EMSP 64982; TRN: US200430%%1082
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 15 Sep 2001
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
AQUIFERS
BERYLLIUM
BUILDING MATERIALS
CONTAMINATION
DECOMMISSIONING
DECONTAMINATION
DYES
ELECTROPHORESIS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
PLUMES
RADIOISOTOPES
SANITARY LANDFILLS
SCRAP METALS