Secondary waste

Tliis report on the management of the anticipated secondary yvastes from the Pueblo and Blue Grass facilities yvaste yvas initiated by the National Research Council (NRC) at the request of the PMACWA to inform the latter s consideration of potential yvaste management options. The statement of task for the Committee to Review Secondary Waste Disposal and Regulatory Requirements for the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives Program is as follows  

The comparison with industry practices includes, but is not Umited to, the following areas  

As the chair of the committee, I wish to express my appreciation to my fellow committee members for their contributions to the preparation of this report, which included interviewing officials and stakeholders, visiting sites, and collecting and analyzing significant information and issues in a short time. Every member of the small committee made significant contributions to the writing of the report. 

The Board on Army Science and Technology (BAST) members listed on page vi were not asked to endorse the committee s conclusions or recommendations, nor did they review the final draft of this report before its release, although board members with appropriate expertise may be nominated 

Peter B. Lederman, Chair Committee to Review Secondary Waste Disposal and Regulatory Requirements for the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives Program 

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Secondary waste from the processing of waste residue materials is minimal. 

Micro reactors may be used for the removal of chlorinated organic compoimds such as foimd in stockpiles of mixed waste [20]. On-site use of micro reactors may benefit from eliminating the need for waste transport, reduces the risk of exposure, could have lower investment and processing costs and may reduce the generation of secondary waste. These advantages seem to be clear, but so far there is no documentation in the Kteiatare giving experimental evidence. 

According to the U.S. Department of Energy s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a new nanotechnology has been developed by PNNL for mercury removal without producing harmful by-products or secondary waste. The technology is an advanced adsorption technology... 

In a centrally located recovery plant for the treatment of oxidic and hydroxidic metal containing waste (dust and sludge) from steel and metal works, including the plating industry, the main problem is the dominating amounts of iron. To avoid a secondary waste problem, special precautions have to be considered to create an iron product. One possibility is a pyro-metallurgical treatment to produce pig iron or a master alloy. 

Secondary wastes are generated from the collection, treatment, incineration, or disposal of hazardous wastes, such as sludges, sediments, effluents, leachates, and air emissions. These secondary wastes may also contain hazardous substances and must be treated or disposed of properly to prevent secondary pollution of underground water, surface water, soil, or air. 

Finding 5. Stockpile disposal facilities that do not use components of the baseline incineration system, or modified versions of it, lack a means to achieve thermal decontamination of secondary wastes during closure operations. 

Recommendation 5. The Army should proceed as soon as possible to develop means to address secondary waste processing/disposal issues at sites employing disposal technologies other than incineration, and should seek early regulatory and stakeholder approval for such means. 

Six permit modifications required to support closure were submitted to EPA by the Army. The permitting plan. Appendix 1 of the JACADS Closure Campaign Facility Closure Plan, shows that three were submitted in April 2000 (C-2-022, C3-034, and C2-035) (U.S. Army, 2000a). These modifications address the processing of materials, mostly secondary waste (see Table 3-2). 

WDC believes that its closure schedule is achievable unless EPA s review and approval of any new submitted permit modifications are delayed or denied. For example, if the modification requesting an increased feed rate for secondary waste to the metal parts furnace had been denied, the time required for incinerator processing of primary and secondary wastes would have increased. 

To the maximum extent practical at CSDP disposal sites, secondary wastes should be identified in the initial RCRA permit so disposal can be done continuously and concurrently with operations. 

Secondary waste generated Secondary waste generation rate Treated water nitrate concentration Resin volume... 

Secondary waste generated Treated water concentration... 

According to the vendor, this project could provide a compact, low-cost reactor to treat aqueous mixed waste streams containing nitrates or nitrites, eliminate the need for chemical reagents, and minimize or eliminate secondary wastes such as nitrous oxide and secondary products such as ammonia, H2, and O2 that are prevalent with other nitrate destruction processes. By removing nitrates and nitrites from waste streams before they are sent to high-temperature thermal destruction and vitrification, production of NO can be decreased with the attendant decrease in off-gas system requirements. Biocatalytic nitrate destruction is applicable to a wide range of aqueous wastes with a highly variable composition. All information is from the vendor and has not been independently verified. 

ANL claims the technology is promising because radionuclides are separated from waste streams by a simple, compact, cost-effective process that does not produce large secondary waste streams. The MACS process is intended to reduce the complexity of equipment when compared to solvent extraction and ion exchange techniques, and to facilitate scale-up due to the systems inherent simplicity. 

Based on data obtained during testing for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 1992, cost estimates were prepared. These estimates used a 2-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pilot plant as a baseline case, and projected the costs of a full-scale 300-gpm facility. It was estimated that the installed costs would be (US)275,000 for the 2-gpm system, and 4 million for the 300-gpm system. Annual operating costs were estimated to be 368,000 and 4 million for the 2-gpm, and 300-gpm systems, respectively. Annual secondary waste disposal costs were estimated to be 50,000 (2-gpm plant) and 8 million (300-gpm plant) (D152136, p. x). 

The process converts mercury-contaminated hazardous waste to mercury-free recyclable products (no mercury-containing secondary waste is generated). 

No secondary wastes or off-gases are produced, and oxidation by-products are nontoxic. 

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