[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 232 (Tuesday, December 3, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71952-71956]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-30561]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Office of Science Financial Assistance Program Notice 03-12; 
Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP): Research Related to 
Transuranic and Mixed Wastes

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice inviting grant applications.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER) of 
the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby 
announce its interest in receiving grant applications to support the 
performance of innovative, fundamental research on the characterization 
of transuranic (TRU) and mixed wastes (MW) that are currently stored at 
DOE sites, or will be produced as part of DOE's environmental cleanup 
efforts.

DATES: The deadline for receipt of formal applications is 4:30 p.m., 
e.s.t., Tuesday, March 4, 2003, in order to be accepted for merit 
review and to permit timely consideration for award in Fiscal Year 
2003.

ADDRESSES: Formal applications in response to this solicitation are to 
be electronically submitted by an authorized institutional business 
official through DOE's Industry Interactive Procurement System (IIPS) 
at: http://e-center.doe.gov/. IIPS provides for the posting of 
solicitations and receipt of applications in a paperless environment 
via the Internet. In order to submit applications through IIPS your 
business official will need to register at the IIPS website. The Office 
of Science will include attachments as part of this

[[Page 71953]]

notice that provide the appropriate forms in PDF fillable format that 
are to be submitted through IIPS. Color images should be submitted in 
IIPS as a separate file in PDF format and identified as such. These 
images should be kept to a minimum due to the limitations of 
reproducing them. They should be numbered and referred to in the body 
of the technical scientific application as Color image 1, Color image 
2, etc. Questions regarding the operation of IIPS may be E-mailed to 
the IIPS Help Desk at: center.doe.gov">HelpDesk@e-center.doe.gov or you may call the 
help desk at: (800) 683-0751. Further information on the use of IIPS by 
the Office of Science is available at: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html.
    If you are unable to submit an application through IIPS please 
contact the Grants and Contracts Division, Office of Science at: (301) 
903-5212 in order to gain assistance for submission through IIPS or to 
receive special approval and instructions on how to submit printed 
applications.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Dr. Roland F. Hirsch, Mail Stop F-237, Medical Sciences Division, 
Office of Biological and Environmental Research, SC-73/Germantown 
Building, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., 
Washington, DC 20585, telephone: (301) 903-9009, facsimile: (301) 903-
0567, E-mail: [email protected], or
Mr. Mark Gilbertson, Office of Science and Technology, Office of 
Environmental Management, EM-50, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., 
Washington, DC 20585, telephone: (202) 586-7150, facsimile: (202) 596-
1492, E-mail: [email protected].

    The full text of Program Notice 03-12 is available on the World 
Wide Web at: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Environmental Management Science 
Program: Over the past 60 years, the United States created an 
industrial complex to develop, test, manufacture, and maintain nuclear 
weapons for national security purposes. The production and testing of 
nuclear weapons created a legacy of significant environmental 
contamination, ranging from uranium mining and milling, waste disposal, 
and radionuclide migration in ground water and soil. In 1995, the 104th 
Congress authorized creation of the Environmental Management Science 
Program (EMSP) to develop a long term, basic science infrastructure 
that would focus on scientific and technical challenges facing DOE's 
environmental cleanup effort. Since its inception in 1996, the Program 
has held seven competitions and has awarded over $320 million in 
funding to nearly 400 research projects. To address the largest 
environmental cleanup program in the world, from a cost perspective, 
EMSP has the following objectives:
    [sbull] To provide scientific knowledge that will revolutionize 
technologies and cleanup approaches to significantly reduce future 
costs, schedules, and risks;
    [sbull] To ``bridge the gap'' between broad fundamental research 
that has wide-ranging applicability and needs-driven applied technology 
development;
    [sbull] To focus the Nation's science infrastructure on critical 
DOE environmental management problems.
    Basic research proposed under this Notice should contribute to 
DOE's environmental management activities by decreasing risk for the 
public and workers, providing opportunities for major cost reductions, 
reducing the time required to achieve DOE's mission goals, and, in 
general, should address problems that are considered intractable 
without new knowledge.
    TRU and Mixed Waste Challenge: DOE's inventory of transuranic and 
mixed wastes (TM wastes) includes about 155,000 cubic meters of waste 
stored on some 30 DOE sites and another 450,000 cubic meters of buried 
waste at least some of which is likely to require retrieval in the 
course of DOE's site cleanup program. Most of the stored inventory is 
in 55-gallon drums or other containers. Although some of the buried 
waste is similarly packaged, knowledge of the condition of the 
containers and their contents is limited.
    Information on DOE's waste inventory has been summarized in a 
recent report (USDOE, 2001), and is also available via the World Wide 
Web at DOE's Central Internet Database (http://cid.em.doe.gov). A short 
summary of the nature of DOE's TM wastes, including definitions of TRU 
and MW, is given in the ``Background Information'' section of this 
Notice.
    While DOE is making a concerted effort to accelerate the removal of 
TM wastes from its sites, the size of the inventory translates to a 
multi-decade effort that will require handling, characterizing, 
shipping, and disposing of hundreds of thousands of waste drums and 
other containers at a total cost of billions of dollars.
    Overall, it is the intent of this Notice to solicit and encourage 
research that will provide the scientific basis for the new 
technologies and approaches that will be necessary to characterize 
DOE's MW and TRU wastes over the next decades, and to enhance the 
quantity and quality of scientific information available for decision-
making.
    Research Needs: This research Notice has been developed for Fiscal 
Year 2003, with the primary objective of developing scientific 
knowledge that will enable major advances in technologies available for 
characterizing TRU and MW waste. This section provides a summary of 
research needs in this area, and is based on a National Academy of 
Sciences, National Research Council (NRC) report published in 2002 
entitled ``Research Opportunities for Managing the Department of 
Energy's Transuranic and Mixed Wastes (National Research Council, 
2002''). That report identified significant knowledge gaps and research 
opportunities in a number of areas; however, due to the limited funds 
expected to be available to support new EMSP projects in Fiscal Year 
2003, this Notice focuses on research needs for waste characterization, 
including characterization and detection of buried wastes.
    Research is needed to improve the efficiency of characterizing 
DOE's TRU and mixed waste inventory. This includes research toward 
developing faster and more sensitive characterization and analysis 
tools to reduce costs and accelerate throughput, particularly for waste 
that produces sufficient penetrating radiation that it requires remote 
handling. It also includes research to develop a fuller understanding 
of how waste characteristics may change with time (chemical, 
biological, radiological, and physical processes) to aid in decision 
making about disposition paths and to simplify the demonstration of 
regulatory compliance.
    Determining the physical, chemical, and radiological properties of 
TM wastes pertinent to handling, processing, transportation, and 
storage is costly and time-consuming. The problem is amplified by the 
wide variety of the wastes and their heterogeneity. Improving and 
simplifying waste characterization can reduce costs and increase the 
rate of shipping wastes to disposal facilities.
    There is a need for faster and more sensitive characterization 
technologies, for making automated sampling more reliable, and for 
improving statistical sampling methods. There is a lack in basic 
knowledge of how waste characteristics may change with time, including 
both short-term changes that affect storage and shipment and long-

[[Page 71954]]

term changes that may occur in a disposal facility. This lack of 
knowledge drives conservatism in characterization, transportation, and 
disposal requirements. Possible microbial effects in waste have 
generally been ignored.
    The greatest challenges for the next generation of characterization 
technologies will be to provide the following:
    [sbull] More rapid, automated nondestructive assay and evaluation 
methods;
    [sbull] More sensitive nondestructive assay and evaluation 
technologies for larger containers and hard-to-detect contaminants; and
    [sbull] Improved methods, based on fundamental modeling, to derive 
present and future waste characteristics from a limited number of 
sampling parameters.
    Research toward new, noninvasive, remote imaging and image 
recognition methods and in-drum sensors to provide faster and more 
sensitive technologies for characterization could lead to significant 
savings in time, cost, and risk of worker exposure. Although 
noninvasive diagnostics are highly preferred, the use of minimally 
invasive sensors also has promise.
    Research is needed to evaluate the microbiology of MW and TRU 
wastes. This research should focus on identifying the microorganisms 
that exist in the waste, and evaluating their relationship to waste 
materials (i.e., whether these microbes affect the hazardous or 
radioactive components of the waste in ways that make it more or less 
toxic, or more or less suitable for disposal in hazardous waste, low-
level waste, or other landfills or repositories. Additional research is 
needed to develop tools for rapidly diagnosing microbial activity or 
identifying specific microbes.
    One of the most beneficial cost-saving tools would be the 
formulation of more reliable predictive models, validated by 
experimental data, of how waste characteristics may change with time 
due to chemical, biological, radiological, and physical processes. This 
would be most useful in predicting deleterious processes that might 
occur in the waste, such as gas generation or matrix degradation.
    Program Funding: It is anticipated that up to a total of $2,000,000 
of Fiscal Year 2003 funds will be available for new EMSP awards 
resulting from this Notice. Multiple-year funding of grant awards is 
anticipated, contingent upon the availability of appropriated funds. 
Award sizes are expected to be on the order of $100,000-$300,000 per 
year for total project costs for a typical three-year grant. 
Collaborative projects involving several research groups or more than 
one institution may receive larger awards if merited. The program will 
be competitive and offered to investigators in universities or other 
institutions of higher education, other non-profit or for-profit 
organizations, non-Federal agencies or entities, or unaffiliated 
individuals. DOE reserves the right to fund in whole or part any or 
none of the applications received in response to this Notice. A 
parallel Notice with a similar potential total amount of funds will be 
issued to DOE Federally Funded Research and Development Centers 
(FFRDCs). All projects will be evaluated using the same criteria, 
regardless of the submitting institution.
    Collaboration and Training: Applicants to the EMSP are encouraged 
to collaborate with researchers in other institutions, such as 
universities, industry, non-profit organizations, federal laboratories 
and FFRDCs, including the DOE National Laboratories, where appropriate. 
Applicants are also encouraged to provide training opportunities, 
including student involvement, in applications submitted to EMSP.
    Application Format: Applicants are expected to use the following 
format in addition to following instructions in the Office of Science 
Application Guide (see: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/guide.html). Applications must be written in English, with all budgets 
in U.S. dollars. In the case of applications involving multiple 
institutions, only one application that encompasses the entire scope of 
the proposed research should be submitted; however, the application 
should include separate budgets and budget explanations for each 
participating institution.

    [sbull] Office of Science Face Page (DOE F 4650.2 (10-91))
    [sbull] Application classification sheet (a plain sheet of paper 
with one selection from the list of scientific fields listed in the 
Application Categories Section)
    [sbull] Table of Contents
    [sbull] Project Abstract (no more than one page)
    [sbull] Budgets for each year and a summary budget page for the 
entire project period (using DOE F-4620.1)
    [sbull] Budget Explanation. (Note: applicants are requested to 
include in the travel budget funds to attend: (1) An initial research 
kick-off meeting; (2) an annual EMSP workshop; and (3) one or more 
extended visits (1 to 2 weeks in duration) to a cleanup site by the 
Principal Investigator, a senior staff member, or a collaborator
    [sbull] Budgets and Budget explanations for each collaborating 
institution, if any
    [sbull] Project Narrative (recommended length is no more than 20 
pages; multi-investigator collaborative projects may use more pages if 
necessary, up to a total of 35 pages)

--Project Goals
--Significance of Project to the EM Mission
--Background
--Preliminary Studies (if applicable) and/or Summary of Results from 
Previous Research (if application is a renewal)
--Research Plan
--Research Design and Methodologies

    [sbull] Literature Cited
    [sbull] Collaborative Arrangements (if applicable)
    [sbull] Biographical Sketches of Senior Investigators (limit 2 
pages per investigator)
    [sbull] Description of Facilities and Resources
    [sbull] Current and Pending Support for each senior investigator
    Application Categories: In order to properly classify each 
application for evaluation and review, the documents must indicate the 
applicant's preferred scientific research field, selected from the 
following list.

Field of Scientific Research

    1. Actinide Chemistry.
    2. Analytical Chemistry and Instrumentation.
    3. Engineering Sciences.
    4. Geochemistry.
    5. Geophysics.
    6. Inorganic Chemistry.
    7. Materials Science.
    8. Biology (including Microbiology).
    9. Other.

Application Evaluation and Selection

    Scientific Merit: Applications will be subjected to scientific 
merit review (peer review) and will be evaluated against the following 
criteria listed in descending order of importance as codified at 10 CFR 
part 605.10(d):
    1. Scientific and/or technical merit of the project;
    2. Appropriateness of the proposed method or approach;
    3. Competency of applicant's personnel and adequacy of proposed 
resources;
    4. Reasonableness and appropriateness of the proposed budget.
    External peer reviewers are selected with regard to both their 
scientific expertise and the absence of conflict-of-interest issues. 
Non-federal reviewers may be used, and submission of an application 
constitutes agreement that

[[Page 71955]]

this is acceptable to the investigator(s) and the submitting 
institution(s).
    Relevance to Mission: In addition to the formal scientific merit 
review, applications that are judged to be scientifically meritorious 
will be evaluated by DOE for relevance to the objectives of EMSP. DOE 
will also consider, as part of the evaluation, program policy factors 
such as an appropriate balance among the program areas, including 
research already in progress. Additional information about the general 
program can be found at: http://emsp.em.doe.gov. Past research 
solicitations, abstracts, and research reports of projects funded under 
EMSP can be found at: http://emsp.em.doe.gov/researcher.htm.
    Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate a linkage between their 
research projects and significant problems related to MW and TRU waste 
at DOE sites. This linkage can be established in a variety of ways; for 
example, by elucidating the scientific problems to be addressed by the 
proposed research and explaining how the solution of these problems 
could lead to improved capabilities that would reduce costs, accelerate 
throughput, or reduce the risk of worker exposure. It is understood 
that given the nature of basic research, there will not always be a 
clear pathway between research results and application to site 
remediation.
    A listing of points of contact and site web pages is provided for 
applicants who may have site-specific questions related to TRU and MW 
problems:

Hanford (http://www.hanford.gov): Rudy Garcia, (509) 376-5494, 
[email protected].
Idaho (http://www.id.doe.gov): William Owca, (208) 526-1983, 
[email protected].
Oak Ridge (http://www.oro.doe.gov): for TRU--Gary Riner, (805) 241-
3498, [email protected]; for MW--Brian Westich, (805) 241-2198, 
[email protected].
Savannah River (http://sro.srs.gov): for TRU--Bert Crapse, (803) 725-
9866, [email protected] or Ann Gibbs, (803) 952-2265, 
[email protected]; for MW--Mike Simmons, (803) 725-1627, 
[email protected] or Bernie Mayancsik, (803) 952-2271, 
[email protected].
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (http://www.wipp.carlsbad.nm.us): George 
Basabilvazo, (505) 234-7488, [email protected]

    Application Guide and Forms: Information about the development, 
submission of applications, eligibility, limitations, evaluation, the 
selection process, and other policies and procedures may be found in 10 
CFR part 605, and in the Application Guide for the Office of Science 
Financial Assistance Program. Electronic access to the Guide and 
required forms is available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html. DOE is under no 
obligation to pay for any costs associated with the preparation or 
submission of applications if an award is made.
    Background Information: Information on DOE's waste inventory has 
been summarized in a recent report (USDOE, 2001), and is also available 
via the World Wide Web at DOE's Central Internet Database (http://cid.em.doe.gov). The two categories of waste listed in these sources 
that are pertinent to this Notice are transuranic (TRU) and mixed low-
level waste (MLLW). Transuranic waste is defined by DOE Order 435.1 as 
waste that contains more than 100 nanocuries per gram arising from 
alpha-emitting radionuclides having atomic numbers greater than that of 
uranium (92) and half-lives greater than 20 years. Low-level waste 
(LLW) is defined in the Low-Level Radioactive Policy Amendments Act of 
1985 by what it is not, and consequently is a very broad category of 
waste. LLW is defined as waste that is not spent nuclear fuel, not 
high-level waste resulting from reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, and 
not byproduct material as defined in section 11e.2 of the Atomic Energy 
Act of 1954. LLW encompasses materials that are slightly above natural 
radiation background levels to highly radioactive materials that 
require extreme caution when handling. Hazardous waste is defined by 
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Title 40 of the Code 
of Federal Regulations, parts 260 and 261, as a subset of solid wastes 
that pose substantial or potential threats to public health or the 
environment and that meet any of the following three criteria: (1) 
Waste that is specifically listed as a hazardous waste by EPA; (2) 
waste that exhibits one or more of the characteristics of hazardous 
waste (ignitability, corrosiveness, reactivity, and/or toxicity); or 
(3) waste that is generated by the treatment of hazardous waste, or is 
contained in a hazardous waste. Mixed low-level waste (MLLW) is waste 
that meets the above definitions of both LLW and hazardous waste. It 
contains low levels of radioactive contamination as well as materials 
that are chemically hazardous. Mixed transuranic waste (MTRU) is waste 
that meets the definitions of both TRU and hazardous wastes. The EPA 
estimates that over half of DOE's TRU inventory is MTRU (EPA 2002); 
however, because all of DOE's retrievably stored, defense TRU wastes 
are slated for disposal in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), DOE 
no longer distinguishes MTRU as a special category in its inventory 
(USDOE, 2001).
    Since 1970, DOE sites have stored most TRU waste and MW in 
retrievable 55-gallon drums or larger containers for future treatment 
(if needed) and disposal. Prior to 1970, DOE sites buried materials 
that meet the current definition of TRU waste and MW in shallow land 
facilities, within about 30 meters of the surface. A much smaller 
fraction of these wastes were buried at depths between 30 and 300 
meters. Most of this waste was buried in 55-gallon drums; however, some 
was buried in other types of containers, and some had no form of 
durable containment. At the time, DOE considered buried wastes to be 
permanently disposed, but some of the buried wastes may require 
retrieval and treatment.
    The previous practice of discharging low-level liquid wastes to 
retention basins has resulted in the generation of contaminated soils 
and sediments. DOE recognizes that some of these materials are 
sufficiently contaminated to warrant retrieval. Such materials are 
termed ``ex-situ contaminated media'' in the inventory summary (USDOE 
2001). If they are retrieved, both the pre-1970 buried wastes and the 
ex-situ media will be considered newly generated waste. In addition to 
these historical wastes, activities at DOE sites, including 
environmental cleanup activities, will continue to generate new MLLW 
and TRU wastes over the next several decades.
    The materials making up DOE's inventory of MW and TRU wastes are 
extremely diverse. This diversity was described in a report (USDOE, 
1995) based on data compiled by the various DOE sites in order to 
develop site remediation plans. The inventory was divided into five 
groups, each with various subcategories:
1. Debris
    [sbull] Metallic debris (including materials containing lead and 
cadmium)
    [sbull] Inorganic, nonmetallic debris (e.g., concrete, glass, 
graphite, and rock)
    [sbull] Organic debris (e.g., such as rubber, leaded gloves, 
halogenated and nonhalogenated plastics, wood, paper, and biological 
materials
    [sbull] Heterogeneous debris (e.g., composite fillers, asphalt, 
electronic

[[Page 71956]]

equipment, and other types of organic and inorganic materials)
2. Inorganic Homogenous Solids and Soils
    [sbull] Homogeneous solids (e.g., ash, sandblasting media, 
inorganic particulate absorbents, absorbed organic liquids, inorganic 
ion-exchange media, metal chips and turnings, glass, ceramics, and 
activated carbon)
    [sbull] Sludges (e.g., sludges arising from wastewater treatment 
ponds, off-gas treatment, plating activities, and low-level 
reprocessing)
    [sbull] Other wastes (e.g., paint chips, solids, and sludges, salt 
waste containing chlorides, sulphates, nitrates, metal oxides/
hydroxides, and other inorganic chemicals)
    [sbull] Solidified homogeneous solids (e.g., soil and gravel)
3. Organics
    [sbull] Liquids (aqueous streams containing both halogenated and 
nonhalogenated organic compounds)
    [sbull] Homogeneous solids (e.g., particulate matter such as resins 
and absorbents, biological sludges, halogenated and nonhalogenated 
organic sludges, and organic chemicals)
4. Unique wastes
    [sbull] Lab packs (e.g., organic, aqueous, and solid laboratory 
chemicals and scintillation cocktails)
    [sbull] Special wastes (e.g., elemental mercury, lead, and cadmium, 
beryllium dust, batteries, reactive metals in bulk and as contamination 
in/on other components, pyrophoric particulates, explosives or 
propellants, and compressed gasses and aerosols)
    [sbull] All others (materials placed in a final waste form are 
included in this category)
5. Wastewaters
    [sbull] Aqueous liquids and slurries ranging from acidic to basic 
pH, including cyanide-containing materials.
    The 1995 inventory also characterized DOE's level of confidence as 
to how well the wastes were characterized. In general terms, DOE has 
high or medium confidence that the physical nature (i.e., soil or 
sludge) of most wastes is correctly identified, but it lacks confidence 
in the existing quantitative data on the wastes' chemical and 
radioactive constituents.
    The volume and diversity of DOE's MW and TRU wastes pose 
significant challenges for disposing of this waste. Currently, DOE's 
TRU waste disposal efforts are focused on maximizing the utility of the 
WIPP. Several hundred thousand drums of TRU waste will need to be 
shipped to WIPP, and the characterization required for shipping and 
acceptance at the WIPP currently requires many hours and costs 
thousands of dollars for each drum of waste generated prior to 1999. 
Methods to improve characterization are therefore likely to result in 
significant savings of time and money.
    Some components in TRU waste are problematic for shipping to or 
disposal in the WIPP. About two percent (approximately 14,200 drum 
equivalents) of DOE's TRU waste contains organic materials that 
continue to pose shipping problems due to potential gas generation, 
especially of hydrogen. Drums containing reactive and corrosive 
chemicals, as well as drums containing liquids, sealed containers, and 
gas cylinders (including paint cans) may not be accepted by the WIPP, 
and they are currently removed by manually sorting through the waste. 
Waste that is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) 
constitutes about one percent of the inventory, and currently cannot be 
accepted by the WIPP. Approximately two to four percent of the TRU 
waste inventory produces sufficient penetrating radiation from fission 
products that it requires remote handling, rather than hands-on 
operator contact. The requirement for remote handling greatly increases 
the cost and difficulty of characterizing, treating, and packaging or 
repackaging of this waste. Meeting the per-drum limits on heat 
generation and fissile material content can necessitate repackaging of 
the waste. In addition to increasing the waste volume, repackaging to 
meet these limits is expensive, time-consuming, and creates the 
potential for worker exposure.
    DOE currently relies primarily on private contractors and 
commercial facilities for treating and disposing of its MLLW. (MLLW 
cannot be disposed in the WIPP because under current law, only TRU 
waste can be disposed there). The characterization and treatment of 
MLLW that will be necessary to meet the disposal requirements of the 
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) have received relatively 
little attention compared to TRU waste. Despite the general lack of 
quantitative chemical characterization, it is known that much of DOE's 
MLLW inventory contains hazardous chemicals that can be difficult to 
treat (e.g., heavy metals, solvents and other organics, and mercury). 
Furthermore, there is considerable commingling of these materials, 
which complicates the selection of disposition options. MLLW that 
contains certain specified materials is prohibited from near-surface 
disposal under current EPA and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 
regulations. These include the following:
    [sbull] Liquids,
    [sbull] Reactive or explosive materials,
    [sbull] Flammable materials,
    [sbull] Untreated biological material,
    [sbull] Materials that may emit toxic gases or fumes,
    [sbull] Other materials subject to the EPA's land disposal 
restrictions, as listed in 40 CFR 268,
    [sbull] Radioactive isotopes that exceed the NRC limits for Class C 
wastes (700 Ci/m3 of 63Ni, or 7,000 Ci/m3 of 
90Sr, or 4,600Ci/m3 of 137Cs).
    In order to be disposed, these wastes will require treatment that 
may be difficult and expensive. Characterization of the wastes is a 
necessary first step in the selection of disposition options.

References

National Research Council, 2002, Research Opportunities for Managing 
the Department of Energy's Transuranic and Mixed Wastes. National 
Academy Press, Washington, DC, 118pp. http://www.nap.edu/books/0309084717/html/.
USEPA, 2002, Mixed Waste Glossary. EPA Radiation Protection Program 
Waste Management Team. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/radiation/mixed-waste/mw_pg5.htm.
USDOE, 1995, The DOE National 1995 Mixed Waste Inventory Report. U.S. 
Department of Energy, Washington DC.
USDOE, 2001, Summary Data on the Radioactive Waste, Spent Nuclear Fuel, 
and Contaminated Media Managed by the U.S. Department of Energy. April 
2001, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington DC http://cid.em.doe.gov/.

(The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number for this program 
is 81.049, and the solicitation control number is ERFAP 10 CFR part 
605.)

    Issued in Washington DC on November 25, 2002.
John Rodney Clark,
Associate Director of Science for Resource Management.
[FR Doc. 02-30561 Filed 12-2-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P