Rad Waste, Delisting & Incineration At LBNL waste handling facility Video coming soon!

Rich Vaille, Associate Director February 5, 2003
Waste Management Division (WST-1), U S EPA, Region IX
75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105

Re: Hazardous Waste Management System; Proposed Exclusion for Identifying and Listing Hazardous Waste and a Determination of Equivalent Treatment published in the Federal Register/Vol. 67,No. 147/ July 31, 2002.
[SW-FRL-7252-7]

Dear Mr. Vaille:
We are writing to ask that the above Delisting Petition be denied. The main points of our concerns are outlined below.

An elaboration of the points are summarized below and supported by the enclosed attachments and recorded statements from the Public meeting held in Berkeley on January 23, 2003.

1. Radioactivity is Released Into the Local Environment
US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) is charged with a mandate to protect human health and the environment. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL) Delisting Petition deals with a radioactive/multi-hazardous waste. That is, it is EPA’s responsibility to assure that the environment is fully protected not only from the hazardous chemical components, but also from the radioactive portion of the waste.

In this Petition, radioactive releases occur from a variety of sources such as during sample preparation, extraction from silica gel, during the Catalytic Chemical Oxidation (CCO), trapping process and with handling and packaging of the waste following treatment.

Throughout the Delisting process, EPA has focused almost exclusively on the hazardous chemical components of the waste and has largely ignored public concerns regarding the radioactive constituent Tritium in the waste. Tritium has a hazardous life of 125 years and thus should not be disposed in a landfill. The general public concern over radioactive releases into the environment has been confirmed in the past by numerous studies and reports, and includes waste studies in the proposed Delisting Petition.

For example, in July of 1998, silica gel containing high activity tritium mixed waste was placed into a kiln at the NTLF and resulted in a fifty (50) Curie release into the environment. This is not an isolated example, since monitoring after 1998, while the study was ongoing, showed that radioactivity continued to be released, and sample handling and other operations of the process could easily have contributed to a large portion of these releases.

LBNL has a long history of radioactive releases that have contaminated the site. In 1998, US EPA completed a CERCLA reassessment of the LBNL site and determined that the Lab is eligible for listing on the National Priorities List (NPL) for Superfund cleanup due to Tritium contamination of air, surface water, and soil. Tritium concentrations in ambient air exceeded US EPA’s Cancer Risk Screening Concentrations levels. A large Tritium groundwater plume extends across the LBNL site, from north to south and had already exited the site boundary in 1997. (See attachment 1.)

It should be noted that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Site 300 with its high explosives test site, eight landfills, several waste lagoons, etc received a Hazard Ranking Score (HRS) of 31.58. In comparison, LBNL’s HRS score is 50.35. (All sites with a score of 28.5 or above qualify as a Superfund site). (See attachment 2A & 2B.)

Although EPA has stated that approval of the Petition is a “one-time, generator-specific delisting for the treatment residues”(C&EN, September 30, 2002, page 21) it was made clear at the public meeting that LBNL and others could utilize the Petition if approved and that “this process will help others get their legal status established” (Li-Yang Chang in reference to NSSI, January 23, 2003 Public Meeting).

We believe that approval of the Petition will open the use of this process for further application at LBNL. We ask that the Delisting Petition be denied. Furthermore, we ask that all the issues regarding radioactive releases are addressed and resolved, and that the safety of the process for removing chemical and radioactive components from silica gel be fully demonstrated.

2. Inaccurate Information and Assumptions:US EPA ‘s Credibility in Question
In the Proposed Rules as well as at the January 23, 2003 Public Hearing, US EPA has continued to make inaccurate statements such as "there are no available mixed waste disposal facilities for high activity Tritium containing mixed waste." (See attachment 3.) and that “NSSI cannot accept DOE waste” ( Cheryl Nelson of US EPA, January 23, 2003 Public Hearing). In fact, NSSI can accept DOE waste and has previously offered to process NTLF ‘s waste. (Private correspondence with Robert Gallagher, NSSI President.)

Additionally, in November 2002, US EPA was informed in a letter (See attachment 4.) addressed to Mr. Rich Vaille, Associate Director, Waste Management Division U.S. EPA Region 9, that the state of the science for destroying mixed waste containing tritium is considerably more advanced than U S EPA was aware of. In fact, even before the LBNL Delisting Petition was filed, commercial treatment options were available at various facilities throughout the country. (See attachment 5.)

In fact, Nuclear Sources & Services Inc. (NSSI) in Texas will be able to process all of the NTLF treated and other mixed waste and is in the process of commissioning a Commercial Tritium Recovery Plant. (See attachment 6.) This means that the NTLF waste need not go to a landfill to continue radioactive contamination of the soil in Hanford, Washington, but would be recycled to the pharmaceutical research and biomedical community for reuse. This is an environmentally preferable and stunningly superior solution to the NTLF waste problem, thus making the Delisting Petition totally unnecessary.

The exclusion under which LBNL’s mixed waste treatment occurred was designed" to allow small volume studies of new technologies for treatment of hazardous wastes". The Catalytic Chemical Oxidation (CCO) technology used by LBNL was not new. The bench-top catalytic oxidation process was originated and developed several years before NTLF began their study by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in Springhouse, PA and not at the National Tritium Labeling Facility (NTLF) at LBNL. (See attachment 4.)

The NTLF used information directly supplied by J&J to design their system with the objective of getting rid of its highly tritiated mixed waste cheaply, without adequate protection of human health or the environment from radioactive releases.

Our Berkeley community is concerned that US EPA continues to act as a cheerleader for the NTLF’s inferior technology. Why? Is it to simply to bail out the facility after NTLF has been allowed to generate this highly controversial tritiated mixed waste for decades?

3. Technical and Safety Aspects for Removing and Treating Mixed Waste Stored on Silica gel Have Not Been Demonstrated
LBNL has not demonstrated the process for removal of mixed waste from silica gel and has released high levels of radioactivity during the study. There are no technical details regarding recovery, residuals and disposal. Radioactive releases have not been discussed and other aspects such as the safety of the process still remain in doubt.

For example, in July of 1998 a canister of silica gel containing tritium mixed waste was placed into a kiln at the NTLF, resulting in a fifty (50) Curie release into the environment. DOE’s accident occurrence report (ORPS) states: "The sample was assumed to contain only low levels of Tritium (maximum 5 to 10 mCi)." (See attachment 7.) This discrepancy of nearly 10,000 fold should alarm US EPA, DOE, and LBNL’s upper management!

According to a survey conducted in 1996 by the International Isotope Society, of those who responded, 62.5% of the tritiated mixed waste stored (nationally) at that time was adsorbed on silica gel and other adsorbents. This represented 4,691 curies, much of which continues to still require remediation. (See attachment 8.) Because of the widely used practice of storing mixed waste on adsorbents and the large amounts of activity involved, it would be highly irresponsible for US EPA to proceed with the granting of LBNL’s Delisting Petition since a complete solution (both technical and managerial) has not yet been developed for the efficient and safe extraction of the tritiated mixed waste from silica gel.

Additionally, these types of experiments should never again take place in a residential neighborhood, next to a children’s school, the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, because of the potential for accidents. Be aware, that the Berkeley City Council voted unanimously on September 15, 1998 to request LBNL “to cease all oxidation/incineration/treatment of mixed waste and all radioactive releases”. Resolution #59,695A-N.S. (See attachment 9.)

4. Inadequate Regulatory Oversight and Lack of Peer Review
Other than analysis data supplied by LBNL and the outside contract analysis group, no peer review of the process, solvent extraction system, sample handling or packaging of the collected wastewater stream has been completed. No independent review or confirming data to attest to the validity of the study results or to the samples submitted for confirmation of the surrogate samples sent to the contract laboratory was ever done. EPA claims to have audited the facility in a multi-day audit but failed to generate a report.

The Delisting Petition should not be approved unless this issue is resolved and a full report issued to the public so that they can review the data. Among others, questions such as: Were appropriate procedures always followed? Were results documented in bound and signed notebooks and was there timely review of the experiments performed? How were samples prepared? Were good laboratory practices followed and adhered to during the study? US EPA allowed LBNL to choose and submit only 7 sets of analytical data from a total of 71 batches of treated mixed waste. How can US EPA assert that these 7 sets are representative of the total data set? All the remaining analytical data from the treatability study were made available to US EPA and must be now subjected to a rigorous, independent, non-DOE scientific peer review process.

5. LBNL’s Credibility in Question
Without proper regulatory or managerial oversight, the credibility of the reported study results must remain in doubt. LBNL’s past record in this area is more than suspect. The mischaracterization of the mixed waste which led to the accident in 1998 (described above) was not an isolated incident but reflects a historic pattern of LBNL/NTLF mischaracterization of waste.

During a seven year period from 1989 to 1995 LBNL had falsely characterized NTLF mixed waste sent to the Westinghouse Hanford disposal site in Washington. Hanford sent the waste shipments back to Berkeley and issued a suspension of all LBNL/NTLF waste shipments to Hanford until the "Lab had adequately updated its waste management policies (practices) to properly characterize its waste." The Hanford moratorium on LBNL/NTLF waste was in effect until 1997. (See attachment 10.)

Additionally, they have failed to keep proper inventory records. In October 1998, according to LBNL’s shipping document, some 6,850 curies of tritium were supposedly shipped from the NTLF to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for recycling. A phone call to LLNL confirmed that the shipment only contained 3200-3300 curies of Tritium. Two years later, the City of Berkeley’s independent contractor, Bernd Franke, investigated this specific discrepancy which forced LBNL to admit that the amount of Tritium in the original shipment was grossly inaccurate and the Lab had to correct the Tritium inventory (in the NMMSS data base) by 2500 curies. (See attachment 11.) These three examples cast sufficient doubt into NTLF staff’s ability to accurately characterize and manage their Tritium waste.

This should be as troubling to the US EPA’s regulatory oversight as it has been to our community. It is time for an independent peer review and evaluation of the data generated during the study. We now ask that US EPA suspend the granting of the LBNL Delisting Petition until a truly scientific non-DOE, peer review has been completed and the data verified.

6. The Delisting Petition has not made a Full Accounting of All Products Treated and Produced During the Study
The primary destruction stage of the LBNL process involves preheating of the mixed waste followed by combustion in an oxidation cell that employs spark plugs. Applications for operation of commercial combustion facilities are always required to provide data regarding residual residues, such as ash and products of incomplete combustion (PICs). This is because all hydrocarbon and aromatic fuels can, depending upon the operating conditions, form small amounts of carbonaceous deposits or soots.

Formation of these deposits in the process described in the LBNL Delisting Petition could modify significantly the performance of the system by coating the spark plugs, by blocking tubing that affects vaporized mixed waste flows and changing oxygen gas flows, or reducing heat transfer from the oxidation cell walls or decreasing the life of the oxidation chamber by causing corrosion.

Furthermore, a diagram describing the NTLF's CCO system (See attachment 12.) clearly marks the location of a Solid Trap, which indicates that PICs are formed during the process and the Delisting Petition reports the blockage of tubing during the processing of mixed waste.

In addition to PICs, Li-Yang Chang stated at the January 23, 2003 Public Hearing that some “biomedical products” were present in the mixed waste samples that were processed and that they were responsible for the blocking of the system. EPA should require a full accounting of all materials processed during the study including a complete analysis of the waste streams specific to all “biomedical products” used in NTLF’s tritiation experiments.

Based on the above, the following questions are submitted for comment:

7. Lack of Safety Evaluations
In addition to the residues and solids formed during the oxidation process, acidic by-products such as hydrochloric acid (methylene chloride, chloroform), sulfur trioxide (dimethyl sulfoxide) and others, are generated during the oxidation of mixed waste containing halogens, nitrogen and sulfur. All of these were present in the mixed waste samples processed in the study. These can degrade performance and integrity of the system. Neither EPA nor the Delisting Petition discuss if safety studies were completed to assure that hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials are not released into the environment.

The Delisting Petition states that the pH of the collected waste streams was in the 5-9 pH range.
a . How was the acidic wastewater stream neutralized?
b. Was monitoring performed for radioactive releases and how much radioactivity was released?
c. Were untreated hazardous materials lost prior to analysis during pH adjustment?

8. Lack of Radioactive Containment During Trapping
LBNL has stated that the process is an innovation in the field because the generated radioactive waste stream is captured during operation. However, you should be aware that a full 2 curies of Tritium were released during the treatment of a single (1) batch of mixed waste, representing 2.5% of the amount of Tritium in that single mixed waste sample. (See attachment 13.) It is clear that the dry-ice traps were inadequate to capture all of the Tritium. US EPA’s documents don’t even mention that Tritium is emitted into the atmosphere during the oxidation of the mixed waste.

1. Why was Tritium released into the environment during waste treatment? Why was the Tritium not contained, recaptured and reprocessed?

2. Were containment studies performed on the CCO system? If so, is a report available? Please provide a copy of this report as part of the Response to Comments document.

Conclusion
Based on all of the above comments and concerns, we are asking you to deny the Delisting Petition, upholding your charge to protect human health and the environment. LBNL has not demonstrated that it has developed a fully functional hazardous waste management system. The technology at NSSI of recovering Tritium from wastewater should be encouraged by regulatory agencies as the superior practice for mixed waste disposal. For US EPA to support the continuation of the hazardous and unnecessary dumping of radioactive waste into the Hanford Reservation, adding to the already present environmental burden is not consistent with the Agency’s mission. Just like the practices that led to Love Canal, these practices are out of date and will not be tolerated by the public.

Sincerely,
Pamela Sihvola Co-chair Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste
L A Wood Berkeley Community Environmental Advisory Commission*
*For identification only

cc: Christie Todd Whitman, Secretary, US EPA
Spencer Abraham, Secretary, US DOE
Richard Atkinson, President, UC
Charles Shank, Director, LBNL
Gray Davis, Governor, CA
Barbara Lee, Congressional Representative , District 9 CA
Barbara Boxer, US Senator, CA
Diane Feinstein, US Senator, CA
Keith Carson, Supervisor, Alameda Co., CA
Mayor and Berkeley City Council
Michael Rochette, RWQCB
Sal Ciriello, DTSC/Permitting
Robert Aragon, DTSC/Investigations
Jeff Wong, CAL DHS
Ed Bailey, Chief CAL DHS Radiological Services
Nabil Al-Hadithy, City of Berkeley

To the Mayor and City Council Members of Berkeley, February 28, 2003

Enclosed please find our comments addressed to the U S Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), Region 9, regarding the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL) Delisting Petition. We are requesting that US EPA deny the Delisting Petition for the many reasons stated in our letter.

We are respectfully asking for your support to assure that the Delisting Petition is denied. The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously on September 15, 1998 to request LBNL “to cease all oxidation/incineration/treatment of mixed waste and all radioactive releases”. (Resolution #59,695A-N.S.) This action was taken after an accident at the National Tritium Labeling Facility (NTLF), in July of 1998, when silica gel containing high activity tritium mixed waste was placed into a kiln at the NTLF which resulted in a fifty (50) Curie release into the environment.

This is not an isolated example, since monitoring after 1998, while the study was ongoing, showed that radioactivity continued to be released, and sample handling and other operations of the process could easily have contributed to a large portion of these releases.

During the past two decades radioactive Tritium has been released into the environment from the NTLF due to accidents and routine operations. Because of this long-term environmental pollution, the US EPA determined in July 1998 that LBNL qualified as a Superfund site, stating “ambient air samples collected on and off the LBL site have contained Tritium in concentrations that exceed the EPA’s Cancer Risk Screening Concentrations. Tritium has also migrated to groundwater, surface water, soil, and soil water, both within LBL boundaries and offsite.”

A large Tritium groundwater plume extends across the LBNL site, from north to south and had already exited the site boundary in 1997 (with concentrations of Tritium measuring as high 23,300 pCi/L, exceeding EPA’s drinking water standard). It should be noted that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Site 300 with its high explosives test site, eight landfills, several waste lagoons, etc received a Hazard Ranking Score (HRS) of 31.58. In comparison, LBNL’s HRS score is 50.35. (All sites with a score of 28.5 or above qualify as a Superfund site).

Furthermore, Tritium is continually measured in Chicken Creek, a tributary to Strawberry Creek, which flows “daylighted” through the UC Berkeley campus, city parks, back yards of private residences, and to the San Francisco Bay. It is our understanding that if US EPA approves LBNL’s Delisting Petition, the Lab will be able to continue the Catalytic Chemical Oxidation of Tritiated Mixed-waste at the site and thus continue this unnecessary degradation of the Berkeley environment.

Due to all of the above, we are asking you to support our city’s resolution requesting LBNL “to cease all oxidation/incineration/treatment of mixed waste and all radioactive releases and ask US EPA to deny LBNL’s Delisting Petition.

Sincerely,
Pamela Sihvola Co-chair Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste
L A Wood Berkeley Community Environmental Commission*
*For identification only