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Site Application

An important aspect of ASCEM development is to ensure that the capabilities will be appropriate to use for guiding DOE EM’s remediation and closure decisions and for performance assessments.

Thrust Site Application

To ensure that the capabilities being developed are relevant to DOE EM,  site personnel were engaged at an early stage to solicit input to requirements specifications for both platform and high performance computing. The task also forms working groups associated with key DOE EM sites that have significant legacy contamination and associated clean-up costs. The working groups  consist of key site technical personnel and disciplinary scientists from the five national laboratories involved in ASCEM, together developing prototype demonstrations. Other avenues of engagement use site integration teams where the DOE EM sites actively engage with ASCEM on specific problem sets, but with direct funding from the sites.  Other user outreach activities (user documentation, tutorials, workshops) are planned for the future. 

Tasks Within Site Application Thrust

  1. User Requirements Interface
     The first activity for this task consisted of engaging end users to inventory and document simulation needs across the DOE EM complex and to identify considerations related to efficient implementation of performance assessments. The results of the end user interactions provided input to requirements specifications for the platform and high performance computing development teams.  
  2. Establish Demonstration Site Attributes
     This task involved identifying and prioritizing criteria for selecting sites on which to demonstrate the Platform and the HPC core.  A range of key site conditions were examined and documented (e.g., humid vs. arid; porous granular vs. fractured rock materials; saturated vs. unsaturated, pH, background and contaminant geochemistry, as well as other site conditions; subsurface contamination vs. waste behavior in tanks). 
  3. Site Application Working Groups
     Based on the criteria established in Task 2 above, representative demonstration sites are selected and working groups formed for demonstrations.  Current working groups  include:   Attenuation-Based Remedies for the Subsurface at the Savannah River Site F Area, Deep Vadose Zone at the Hanford Site BC Cribs and Trenches, a representative Waste Tank Performance Assessment, and preliminary efforts on mercury contamination at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
    1. Attenuation-Based Remedies for the Subsurface Working Group is focused on the Savannah River Site F Area and evaluation of remediation and natural attenuation approaches for uranium-contaminated groundwater.  This working group was the focus of the Phase I Demonstration and efforts continue in Phase II.  The data-rich F Area provides an opportunity to test ASCEM capabilities on a complex remediation problem.  
    2. Deep Vadose Zone Working Group is focused on evaluation of innovative treatment technologies for recalcitrant contaminants in the deep vadose zone.  The current effort is focused on an end-to-end demonstration of ASCEM using the relatively sparse data set at BC Cribs.  The no-action case and conceptual model uncertainty are being evaluated for the Phase II Demonstration.
    3. The Waste Tank Performance Assessment Working Group is focused on demonstrating ASCEM capabilities needed for DOE EM performance assessments.  These assessments are associated with waste-tank closures and low-level waste disposal in engineered containment systems.  While a specific site is not being evaluated, representative problems are included as part of this working group effort.  
    4. Oak Ridge Mercury Working Group is focused on initial scoping efforts to determine the nature of the demonstration.  ASCEM capabilities need to be developed to support the demonstration at the Oak Ridge site. 
  4. Site Integration Teams
     Site Integration Teams are being formed to evaluate specific problems at DOE EM sites.  The difference from demonstration working groups is that these teams involve partnership and co-funding with DOE EM sites for applying specific ASCEM capabilities to target problems.  The emphasis over time will shift from the demonstration working groups to site integration teams as ASCEM development and quality assurance matures.

Site Application - Documents

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