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5.18 POLLUTION PREVENTION

Consistent with overall national policy (e.g., the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990), and specific DOE guidance (DOE Order 5400.1), Hanford Site programs are directed to incorporate pollution prevention into their planning and implementation activities. This includes reducing the quantity and toxicity of hazardous, radioactive, mixed, and sanitary waste generated at the Hanford Site; incorporating waste recycle and reuse into program planning and implementation; and conserving resources and energy. Guidelines are contained in the Hanford Site Waste Minimization and Pollution Prevention Awareness Program Plan (WHC 1995c). The major elements of the program are 1) establishing management support; 2) identifying and implementing pollution-prevention opportunities through a systematic assessment process; 3) setting and measuring the progress of waste reduction goals; 4) developing waste generation baseline and tracking systems; 5) creating employee awareness, training, and incentives programs; 6) championing Sitewide pollution prevention initiatives; and 7) supporting technology transfer, information exchange, and public outreach.

The TWRS alternatives are still in the early conceptual stages of the engineering and design process. To comply with the pollution prevention requirements outlined in the previous paragraphs, opportunities to reduce waste generation at the source, as well as for materials recycle and reuse, will be sought and incorporated into the engineering and design process for the selected alternative. Examples of pollution prevention and waste minimization concepts that have been incorporated into the EIS alternatives include the following

• For solvent extraction operations included in the Ex Situ Extensive Separations alternative, evaporation steps downstream of the process would recover solvents from aqueous streams that came in with contact organic solvents. When evaporator condensate contained solvent, the condensate would be sent to a decanter and the recovered solvent would be recycled to the solvent extraction system.
• The ex situ alternatives' melter off-gas treatment system would recycle excess condensate to the LAW feed evaporator for re-evaporation. Scrubbed melter off-gases then would be processed to recover sulfur dioxide, which would be converted to elemental sulfur and returned to the process.
• The Ex Situ Extensive Separations alternative would use a calcination process to allow the recovery and recycle of sodium hydroxide. Nitric acid would be recovered from the HLW denitrification processes and during various evaporation steps.
• Minimizing the use of water in retrieving waste from SSTs would prevent additional leakage of contaminants and reduce the volume of material sent to the TWRS evaporators. The retrieval system would be designed to use the absolute minimum liquid necessary to remove tank solids.
• All ex situ alternatives would use metal high-efficiency particulate air filters that would be recyclable rather than filters that were not reusable.

Energy conservation for each of the alternatives would be achieved primarily in three areas: process configuration, mechanical design, and electrical design. Energy conservation would be maximized by incorporating it into the process and facility design from the outset. Where possible, the process would be configured to conserve energy by using heat exchangers so the hot exit streams could heat cool incoming streams, which would conserve heating energy. Where cooling of process streams would be required, maximum use of cooling water would be employed, which would minimize the amount of refrigeration cooling to be used. Mechanical design would employ energy efficient compressors, pumps, and fans. Ducting would be designed for minimum pressure drop. Facilities would employ energy-efficient insulation and reflective panels where appropriate. Air conditioning systems would make efficient use of outside air. Electrical design would employ energy efficient electrical motors and actuators. The electrical power factor for the system would be maintained in balance, and capacitors would be used where required. Accurate electrical power metering of each system would indicate the major power consumers and give warning of unusually high energy consumption. This would allow corrective measures to be taken promptly.