Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
11/21/2014
Battelle Energy Alliance, operator of the Idaho National Laboratory, issued a sources sought notice this week seeking interested parties who are capable of commercializing its prototype Integrated Waste Screening System (IWSS) design that helps in the segregation of radioactive waste. The system has applications with Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) waste produced as a by-product of oil and gas operations, especially hydraulic fracking. BEA is looking for a company to enter into a license agreement to commercialize the design. “Patent filing for IWSS has been completed and BEA is seeking one, or more, potential licensees to take the IWSS from the prototype stage to field deployable systems,” the notice said. “It is estimated that several million dollars might be needed to take each subsystem prototype and conceptual design from a technology readiness level 3-4 to level 9. BEA seeks to license this intellectual property to the best qualified candidate to ensure its successful commercialization.” Responses are due by Jan. 5.
The screening system segregates the radioactive portion of waste, allowing the larger volume of non-radioactive waste to then be disposed of in a sanitary landfill, instead of needing a low-level disposal site, which would save money for producers on disposal and transportation costs. In the past decade, increased activity in oil and gas exploration, especially in the Marcellus Shale and Bakkan Shale formations, has increased volumes of NORM waste in states where that type of waste did not regularly occur. This increase has resulted in companies shipping the waste out-of-state for disposal in landfills with higher thresholds for volumes and concentrations, resulting in high transportation and disposal costs.
