1st Edition

Remediation of Legacy Hazardous and Nuclear Industrial Sites Perspectives from Hanford

Edited By Stuart T. Arm, Hilary P. Emerson Copyright 2025
    352 Pages 17 Color & 91 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Remediation of Legacy Hazardous and Nuclear Industrial Sites provides an overview of the key elements involved in remediating complex waste sites using the Hanford nuclear site as a case study. Hanford is one of the most complex waste sites in the world and has examples of most, if not all, characteristics of the complex waste sites that exist globally. The book is aimed at a non-technical audience and describes the stages of remediation based on general RCRA/CERCLA processes, from establishing a strategy that includes all stakeholders to site assessment, waste treatment and disposal, and long-term monitoring.

    • Informs a non-technical audience of the important elements involved in complex waste site remediation.

    • Employs the Hanford site as a case study throughout to explain real-world applications of remediation steps

    • Connects the ‘human’ element to the technical aspects through interviews with key current and retired individuals at the Hanford site

    • Includes discussion of stakeholders and the engagement process in remediation

    • Demonstrates how all elements of complex waste site remediation from demolition of buildings to groundwater management are interrelated

    • Focuses on broader technical and sociopolitical challenges for remediation of a contaminated site

    Aimed at a broad audience, this book offers approachable guidance to technical and non-technical readers through a series of real-world examples that cover each important step in the complex waste cleanup process.

    Introduction

    Part I. Site Assessment and Characterization. 
    Stuart T. Arm and Hilary P. Emerson
    1. Developing a Remediation Framework. 
    Katherine A. Muller, Courtney L. H. Bottenus, and Christian D. Johnson
    2. Stakeholder Perspectives and Environmental Remediation. 
    Ellen Prendergast-Kennedy
    Part II. Site Assessment and Characterization. 
    Christian D. Johnson and Hilary P. Emerson
    3. Characterization of a Uranium Groundwater Plume along the Columbia River. 
    Amanda Lawter and Michelle Snyder
    4. Plutonium Finishing Plant Building and Subsurface Waste Release Characterization. 
    Calvin H. Delegard, Carolyn I. Pearce, Hilary P. Emerson, Andrea M. Hopkins, and Theodore J. Venetz
    5. Tank Waste Characterization: History, Challenges, and Successes. 
    Emily Campbell and Carolyne Burns
    6. Waste Tank Structural Assessment. 
    Chris Grant and Naveen Karri
    Part III. Remedy Screening, Evaluation, and Testing. 
    Christian D. Johnson, Katherine A. Muller, and Hilary P. Emerson
    7. Soil Desiccation Treatability Testing at BC Waste Disposal Cribs. 
    Adam R. Mangel and Christopher E. Strickland
    8. Wasteform Development and Qualification for Tank Waste Vitrification and Disposal. 
    José Marcial and Derek Dixon
    9. Plutonium Finishing Plant Demolition and Interim Subsurface Disposal Structure Stabilization. 
    Calvin H. Delegard, Carolyn I. Pearce, Hilary P. Emerson, Andrea M. Hopkins, and Theodore J. Venetz
    Part IV. Remedial Action. 
    Christian D. Johnson, Katherine A. Muller, and Hilary P. Emerson
    10. Groundwater Remediation with Pump-and-Treat Technology. 
    Sarah Saslow
    11. Enhanced Attenuation of Uranium in the Subsurface. 
    Amanda Lawter and Michelle Snyder
    12. Retrieval of Tank Waste from Storage. 
    Matt Fountain and Beric Wells
    13. Integrated Waste Treatment Flowsheet and Interface Management Strategy. 
    Jennifer A. Kadinger and Courtney L. H. Bottenus
    14. Tank Waste Disposal. 
    R. M. Asmussen
    Part V. Long term Stewardship and Future Land Use. 
    Vicky L. Freedman and Nicolas J. Huerta
    15. End State: Vision for Future Land Use at Hanford. 
    Vicky L. Freedman and Nicolas J. Huerta
    16. Afterword. 
    Nik Qafoku

    Biography

    Dr. Stuart Arm is a senior technical advisor who returned to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in 2019 after 12 years working in industry. Dr. Arm holds a PhD and MEng in chemical engineering from Imperial College, London, and has 30 years’ experience in national laboratories and the nuclear industry in the United Kingdom and United States. He establishes PNNL and DOE strategic plans and objectives for radiochemical process flowsheets and technologies for treating and managing radioactive waste and commercial used nuclear fuel while acknowledging emerging national and international trends. Dr. Arm employs a collaborative and leading approach to technology and flowsheet maturation and integration to establish implementation strategies with multi-technical and organizational elements.

    Dr. Hilary Emerson’s research focuses on fate and remediation of radionuclides with experimental testing from the laboratory to the field scale. She holds a BS in Environmental Engineering (2009) from the University of Central Florida, USA and a PhD in Environmental Engineering and Earth Science (2014) from Clemson University, USA. Since joining Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 2019, her work has focused primarily on development of new remediation technologies for radionuclides and techniques for monitoring remediation technologies.