New center is one-stop shop to meet DOE's, many others' environmental science needs

Looking for hydrologists to model groundwater flow? Desert Research Institute has them. Need archaeological talent and historic preservation? Check. How about new technology for water and soil sampling-and maybe some long-term stewardship, such as community environmental monitoring? No problem.

With the newly established Frank H. Rogers Center for Environmental Remediation and Monitoring, or CERM, DRI has combined its strengths in environmental remediation, monitoring and public health protection to provide the U.S. Department of Energy a one-stop shopping center of expertise from DRI's entire core divisions-Hydrologic Sciences, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences and Atmospheric Sciences. Projects for DOE may require an overlapping of skills, so the interdisciplinary research center is just the answer. Experts can look into the past, assess current conditions or look long-term to provide answers to tough environmental questions and provide tools to meet DOE's needs.

Philanthropist James E. Rogers, owner and CEO of Sunbelt Communications Co., donated $3 million to aid the construction of DRI's new Frank H. Rogers Science and Technology Building in Las Vegas and to endow CERM's operations in honor his late father, the first on-site chief operating officer at the Nevada Test Site.

This year, CERM projects come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Here's just a sampling of the breadth and depth of DRI's current CERM projects:

Modeling for DOE's underground testing area project

DRI hydrologists are developing a contaminant flow and transport model for the Climax Mine, an area of granite rock on the north end of Yucca Flat on the Nevada Test Site. Recent geological investigations showed that the area of granite rock, or Climax Stock, is larger than previously thought and may come in contact with lower Paleozoic carbonates. These carbonates are predominantly limestone rock, and they house the regional groundwater aquifer. The research by DRI will help determine if there is potential for contaminants from past underground nuclear tests conducted in the Climax Stock to migrate to the Lower Carbonate Aquifer.

Looking into the past

DRI archaeologists have a keen eye for cultural resources on the Nevada Test Site that range from the earliest people in Nevada, to the period of Euro-American settlement, to the history of the Cold War preserved on the test site. Now these archaeologists are using their expertise to examine the history of sites used for the Plowshare Program, an initiative begun almost 50 years ago to test peaceful uses of nuclear devices. Plowshare sites are as far apart as Hawaii and Pennsylvania in the United States.

"What started out as a fact-finding effort for 26 projects has turned into much more-we have identified more than 100 potential sites and more continue to crop up as we talk to people in different areas and new facts come to light," DRI archaeologist Colleen Beck says. "We are dedicated to uncovering valuable information about activities at the Plowshare sites to help DOE determine if there are any potential restoration needs. The local residents who share their historical knowledge of the areas are often the key to revealing helpful details or unknown information."

Some of the areas off the Nevada Test Site where DRI is conducting contaminant flow and transport modeling were Plowshare tests like Rio Blanco and Rulison in Colorado. At these sites, nuclear devices were used to fracture rock underground in experiments designed to enhance natural gas production. However, in many cases, Plowshare calibration tests with conventional explosives were conducted or boreholes were drilled, but no tests with nuclear devices were done. It is these latter sites that are the focus of DRI's current Plowshare research.

WANTED: New technology

DRI is teaming with AEA Technologies, Ltd. to test and develop further low-flow sampling devices for collecting water samples from deep wells. A prototype of the innovative, pneumatic technology was used last year to collect samples in New Mexico at a depth of 250 feet in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories. After further improvements, it will be deployed at the Nevada Test Site this year to sample water from a depth of about 750 feet and later will be used at a monitoring well for Nye County in Nevada. DRI's work with AEA Technologies is part of a DOE Environmental Management Office of Science and Technology program to help transfer promising technologies from the United Kingdom to address environmental cleanup needs in the United States.

Securing the past, planning for the future: Yucca Mountain research

DRI scientists are contributing to the evaluation of Yucca Mountain as a potential geological repository for high-level nuclear waste and spent fuel in numerous ways. Research includes work on past and future climates to estimate variations in water infiltration and recharge, as well as collaboration with several national laboratories to develop models predicting the effects of rock types and properties on groundwater flow and contaminant transport. In addition, for the last 25 years DRI has operated the cultural resources management program for the repository program that involves preserving historical items from the area.

This year DRI will begin the design of offsite environmental monitoring systems for groundwater, air and communities around Yucca Mountain. Although Yucca Mountain has not yet been licensed as a high-level waste repository, should it be, beginning the design of monitoring systems now would ensure that systems are in place to protect public health by 2010 if and when DOE begins disposing of high-level waste at Yucca Mountain as proposed.

All these projects are just a sampling of the CERM landscape, which also includes National Environmental Policy Act assessments, monitoring network design, automated environmental data collection and analysis, health physics, surface runoff models and more. CERM research does not stop with DOE. Already, the new center has projects with the U.S. Navy and the Air Force, making DRI unrivaled as a one-stop shopping center for environmental remediation and monitoring.

-Heather Emmons