Resolution of regulatory issues facing the DOE in situ vitrification program

In situ vitrification (ISV) is being developed by researchers at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL), Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as a technology for remediating soils that have been contaminated with hazardous, radioactive, and mixed wastes (i.e., wastes containing both radioactive and hazardous wastes) at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facilities. Future uses of ISV may include remediating buried materials and underground storage tanks contaminated with similar types of wastes. The goal of the DOE ISV technology development program (i.e., the ISV Integrated Program) is to ensure that ISV is a workable technology for environmental restoration applications for DOE and other agencies. A DOE complex-wide plan was prepared during Fiscal Year 1991 to coordinate all levels of activities associated with the deployment of ISV. As part of this plan, a programmatic regulatory strategy was developed which focused on the federal environmental, health, safety, and nuclear regulations, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and DOE regulations, believed to have the most significant near-term impact on the use of ISV as a remediation technology. The portion of the programmatic regulatory strategy addressing compliance with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, as amended, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended, is presented in this paper. (author)