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NPEP Success Story: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Brookhaven National Laboratory Reduces Mercury and PCBs
Established in 1947, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a multi-program national laboratory operated by Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). BSA, a nonprofit, limited-liability company formed as a 50-50 partnership between Battelle Memorial Institute and The Research Foundation of State University of New York (SUNY) on behalf of SUNY-Stony Brook, is the legal entity responsible for leading BNL successfully through the 21st century. Stony Brook University and Battelle have been managing and operating the Laboratory under a performance-based contract with DOE since 1998. From 1947 to 1998, BNL was operated by Associated Universities Incorporated. Prior to 1947, the site operated as Camp Upton, a U.S. Army training camp, which was active from 1917 to 1920 during World War I and from 1940 to 1946 during World War II.
BNL is one of 10 national laboratories under DOE's Office of Science, which provides most of the Laboratory's research dollars and direction. BNL has a history of outstanding scientific achievements. For over 50 years, Laboratory researchers have successfully worked to visualize, construct, and operate large and unique scientific facilities and use the data generated to make advances in many fields. Under BSA's management, new programs in place at BNL emphasize improved environmental, safety, and health performance.
BNL is located on Long Island, 60 miles east of New York City. The Laboratory's 5,265-acre site is near Long Island's geographic center and is part of the Town of Brookhaven, the largest township in Suffolk County. The Laboratory employs approximately 2,700 full-time employees and annually hosts an estimated 4,000 visiting scientists.
BNL's NPEP Goals
BNL set two NPEP goals in 2004, one to reduce mercury by 38 pounds and one to reduce polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) by 2,315 pounds. BNL committed to achieving these goals by December, 2006.Mercury Goal. BNL has been an NPEP partner and a National Performance Track member since 2004. Recognizing the synergies between these two programs, BNL chose mercury reductions in both waste generation and on-site inventory as commitments under NPEP and Performance Track. Under NPEP, BNL committed to reducing its waste mercury generation rate by 25% (from 150 to 112.5 pounds), and under Performance Track, BNL committed to reducing its on-site mercury inventory by 80%.
Over the years, BNL has implemented several projects to remove mercury
from waste discharges by cleaning sanitary mains and sink traps and by
offering mercury amnesty programs for facilities willing to remove mercury
from the workspace. BNL also switched all fluorescent light fixtures to
low-mercury bulbs when low-mercury bulbs became available. In 2005, BNL
completed a CERCLA remedial project to clean contaminated sediments from
the Peconic River. In this case, elevated levels of mercury were attributed
to past sanitary discharges. To prevent future discharges, in 2004 and
2005, BNL conducted extensive inventories of elemental mercury and mercury-containing
devices and encouraged the owners/users to replace the mercury devices
with solid state or mechanical devices or other mercury-free instruments.
In many cases, funding for the exchanges was made possible through laboratory
sponsored Pollution Prevention projects. As the projects progressed, increased
waste generation was anticipated and encountered, but waste generation
dropped as the mercury-containing materials were removed. Ultimately,
the sitewide mercury inventory dropped by 38% and waste generation dropped
83% (from 600 pounds in 2003 to 100 pounds in 2005).
PCB Goal. BNL has long recognized the environmental and safety vulnerabilities associated with the storage and use of PCBs. A fire involving PCB articles could very well shut facility operations down for months, if not permanently, and would lead to very costly clean-ups. Something as simple as a release from a light ballast could cause local interruptions to work lasting several days while the cleanup and confirmatory sampling were completed.
In the late 1980's, BNL converted most of its PCB filled transformers
to non-PCB dielectric using the Sun-Ohio process. Several pieces of programmatic
equipment, including a large volume rectifier and voltage regulator located
at the 60" Cyclotron and numerous large capacitors were not included
in that program, due to the uniqueness of the equipment and researchers'
concern for potential damage. In order to minimize potential impacts from
these remaining articles, BNL embarked on several projects to further
eliminate PCBs from the work environment and established a goal to reduce
the onsite PCB inventory by approximately 50% by the end of 2006. At the
Alternate Gradient Synchrotron a project was implemented to replace all
large PCB capacitors with non-PCB equivalent equipment. One-hundred-nineteen
capacitors containing 1.5 gallons each of PCB dielectric were removed
and replaced under this program. At the Cyclotron facility, upon notification
that the 60" cyclotron was no-longer needed, the Environmental and
Waste Management Services initiated a pollution prevention project to
remove and dispose the voltage regulator and rectifier, along with 30
large capacitors. Approximately 3000 pounds of PCB and PCB contaminated
dielectric oil was drained from the units. They were then removed from
the facility for off-site disposal. By the end of 2005, BNL reduced its
onsite inventory of PCBs by more than 90%, from 4760 pounds in 2003 to
445 pounds in 2006.
NPEP Project Implementation
Mercury Goal. The majority of the mercury targeted for reduction in these programs was handled through source reduction. Mercury containing devices, such as bench-top thermometers, and temperature control devices, such as thermostats, were replaced with non-mercury devices such as pentane or alcohol thermometers and solid state electronic controls. Mercury-wetted relays were also replaced with electronic devices. Most thermometers, thermostats, and relays contain very small quantities of mercury, but one Toepler pump was replaced by a mechanical/ion pump, resulting in the removal of 87 pounds of elemental mercury from just one piece of equipment. Mercury was also added to the list of restricted purchasing items, ensuring that staff cannot purchase mercury-containing devices without special approval. By removing mercury from the workplace and preventing reintroduction through new purchases the amount of waste produced would logically decrease.PCB Goal. The majority of the PCB articles targeted for reduction
in these programs were handled through source reduction and elimination
programs. PCB-containing articles were replaced with non-PCB items or
immediately removed from the site when deemed unecessary.
Hurdles Faced
Mercury Goal. Convincing scientists and mechanics that mercury-free devices were just as good as the tried-and-true mercury system was the biggest challenge in this project. Replacement costs were also a concern since the majority of the devices do not generate a waste unless broken and do not cost anything to operate whereas replacements, if electronic, would require periodic maintenance. In order to encourage replacement, BNL allocated purchasing funds to the device owner.PCB Goal. Identifying financial resources to implement the changes was the biggest hurdle in this project. Locating suitable replacements for antiquated (i.e., 1940's era) equipment is costly since these items are typically not "off-the-shelf." Several attempts to replace the rectifier and regulator at the Cyclotron facility met many obstacles since the original specifications were no longer available and costly electrical testing was required to determine the operating characteristics of the devices. And, since the PCB capacitors were functional and met the needs of the program and competition for funds was great, replacement was consistently postponed.
Waste Minimization Results
Mercury Goal. To date, BNL has successfully reduced its mercury waste generation from 600 pounds in 2003 to 100 pounds in 2005. Mercury waste generation and the possibility of releases to the environment have been minimized. In addition, the total onsite mercury inventory has been reduced by 38%. To mitigate mercury releases to the environment, sanitary line cleaning projects have been implemented over the past 10 years. These projects involve removing mercury from sink traps and low-points in sanitary piping systems and from sediment/sludge accumulated within sanitary manholes. The concentration of mercury in the releases from the sewage treatment plant has shown dramatic improvement. Mercury releases have decreased as BNL continues to address and remove sources of mercury from its waste systems and the workplace.PCB Goal. To date, BNL has successfully reduced its onsite inventory of PCB-containing equipment by over 90%. The possibility of PCB releases to the environment have been minimized. Releases of small volume PCBs can cost thousands of dollars to remediate and large volume releases or fires could permanently shut down facilities and/or potentially expose staff to high levels of known carcinogens. In addition to eliminating the PCBs at the Alternate Gradient Synchrotron, replacing the large capacitors increased the reliability of the equipment since the original capacitors were more than 40 years old. And, the new capacitors have been designed with increased capability to match the present beam parameters.
Lessons Learned
Mercury Goal. An accurate inventory and accounting of the actual mercury content of instruments is necessary to report mercury reductions. In most cases, the weight of the instrument far outweighs the actual mercury content which leads to a gross overestimate of mercury in inventory and in the waste stream.PCB Goal. Effective partnering of several organizations to share
costs and manage the removal and disposal of components containing PCBs
was key to completing this project.