Innovative technologies for recycling and reusing radioactively contaminated materials from DOE facilities

One of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) major goals is to clean up its contaminated facilities by the year 2019. The primary contaminants at DOE sites are radioactive materials, organic compounds, and heavy metals. The most common radioactive materials are isotopes of uranium and plutonium, although lesser quantities of thorium, technetium, neptunium and americium are also found. Organic contamination includes lubricating oils, cutting fluids, kerosene, solvents, and polychlorinated biphenyls. Heavy metal contaminants include mercury, arsenic, chromium, lead, and cadmium. The Office of Technology Development (OTD) within DOE's Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management is charged with developing innovative technologies to clean up DOE facilities. The DOE's Morgantown Energy Technology Center is assisting the OTD by procuring and managing research projects to develop the innovative technologies. These innovative technologies promise to be faster, better, cheaper and safer than the current suite of environmental remediation technologies. With sufficient decontamination, much of the materials from the DOE facilities could be released as scrap to the commercial sector or reused within the DOE complex. The potential for recycling or reusing materials, including strategic metals such as nickel, is enormous if the materials are properly decontaminated. This paper will discuss innovative technologies to decontaminate and recycle or reuse scrap metal, concrete, and process equipment