Development of a Treatability Study Work Plan for Testing Nanoparticles at a US DOE Superfund Site

This paper introduces the basic requirements for developing a treatability study work plan for implementation of a remediation technology at a Superfund site. Specifically, the application of nanoparticle technology for remediation of a TCE plume at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in western Kentucky is discussed. Site Description The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) is the only active uranium enrichment facility in the United States. Located in the western part of McCracken County, KY, the facility is approximately 10 miles west of Paducah and 3.5 miles south of the Ohio River (Figure 1). The plant is located on a US DOE reservation that encompasses approximately 3,500 acres, including property leased to the state of the Kentucky to augment the West Kentucky Wildlife Management Area (WKWMA). The WKWMA provides an effective buffer around the 748 acres that comprise the plant’s main industrial operations (DOE, 2006). US DOE property is bordered to the north by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Shawnee Steam Plant which, along with another facility in Missouri, provides electricity to the PGDP. US DOE property is bordered to the south and west by the WKWMA. Several private properties directly border US DOE property to east. Residential and agricultural properties to both the plant’s east and west have been affected by a TCE groundwater plume (Figure 2). An additional Technetium-99 (Tc-99) plume also exists, but all concentrations above MCLs currently are contained within US DOE property boundaries. Surface water from the PGDP is discharged into a series of drainage channels east and west of the plant; these channels flow into Little Bayou and (Big) Bayou creeks as shown in Figure 2 (KRCEE, 2007).