A -- DISPOSITION OF RADIOACTIVELY CONTAMINATED COMPRESSED GAS CYLINDERS FOR THE DOE COMPLEX

Notice Date

March 14, 2001

Contracting Office

UT-Battelle,LLC, P.O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6192

ZIP Code

37831-6192

Solicitation Number

34-2001

Point of Contact

Karen Bradley, (865) 576-1431

E-Mail Address

bradleykc@ornl.gov (bradleykc@ornl.gov)

Description

At most DOE sites there are radioactively contaminated compressed gas cylinders. Many of these cylinders have been sitting around the sites for years and are in various states of deterioration. These cylinders pose a potential danger due to the inherent nature of compressed gas cylinders and in many cases the gasses they contain. Most of the population came from commercial suppliers of compressed gasses. While on site these cylinders became externally radioactively contaminated. These gas cylinders include the entire range or types of gasses such as inerts and atmospherics (air, O2, N2, Ar, etc.), flammables (propane, butane, acetylene, etc.), reactives ( ClF3, HF, Cl2, etc.) and Freons. Additionally some sites have manufactured their own cylinders for specialty applications that must also be dispositioned. Because of the radioactivity the commercial cylinders cannot be returned to the supplier for recycle or reuse and the homemade cylinders cannot be sent to a cylinder treatment and disposal facility. Lastly, the contents of many cylinders cannot be identified and are labeled unknown. These cylinders pose a major problem just in their storage requirements. They also cannot be shipped or processed until the contents have been sampled and analyzed to determine the contained gas. The TRU and Mixed Waste Focus Area (TMFA) under their Unique Wastes work package as tasked Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to develop solutions for dispositioning these radioactively contaminated compressed gas cylinders. To date this project has identified more than 1,000 cylinders throughout the DOE complex that need to be evaluated and then dispositioned in a safe and compliant manner. A vendor will be awarded a national contract through ORNL to provide all services to inspect, transport and then disposition the cylinders at the vendor's off-site facility. At a minimum the vendor will provide: 1. On-site inspection, categorization, condition assessment, and registration of each cylinder, 2. On-site analysis for the category of gasses identified as unknown, 3. Over-pack any cylinders that do not meet DOT requirements in the vendor's DOT approved overpacks, 4. Transport all cylinders to the vendor's facility, disposition these cylinders at the vendor facility, and then dispose of all waste residuals in a safe and compliant manner. The Request for Proposal (RFP) is scheduled to be issued in May 2001 with award after evaluation of responses is completed. All vendors interested in receiving an RFP should submit their request by e-mail to Karen Bradley at bradleykc@ornl.gov. Please include your name, company name, address, telephone and fax number, and your e-mail address.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010316/ASOL013.HTM (W-073 SN50G1O7)