Transforming environmental performance through inventory, assessment, and validation: a case study of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Waste Compliance and Tracking System

Oral S. Saulters (), Shanon D. Goldberg, Wendy A. Staples, Ellena I. Martinez, Lorie M. Sanchez, Diego E. Archuleta, Deborah L. Williams, Scot D. Johnson, Alex M. Baker and Bethann McVicker
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Oral S. Saulters: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Shanon D. Goldberg: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Wendy A. Staples: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Ellena I. Martinez: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lorie M. Sanchez: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Diego E. Archuleta: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Deborah L. Williams: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Scot D. Johnson: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Alex M. Baker: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Bethann McVicker: Los Alamos National Laboratory

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2023, vol. 13, issue 1, No 9, 105-114

Abstract: Abstract The optimal performance of environmental, safety, and health systems is essential to the mission success of the US Department of Energy laboratories. With the velocity and scale of information needs in supporting legacy and ongoing waste operations, how do decisionmakers, data users, and stakeholders know that the stated metrics and analytics reflect on the ground conditions? To address an important set of unverified field settings, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Waste Compliance and Tracking System (WCATS) Wall-to-Wall Team performed an unprecedented and innovative inventory. This reconciliation involved confirmation analysis for approximately 5850 hazardous, low-level, mixed low-level, and transuranic waste containers located in more than 200 staging and storage areas across 33 technical areas. The interdisciplinary team scoped, planned, and developed the multidimensional assessments. Through coordination with cross-functional site hosts, they were able to ground truth, verify, and validate data while resolving discrepancies identified in WCATS. The results were extraordinary with an authenticated and updated waste inventory, an improved outreach program, an advanced communications network, and timely closed-loop feedbacks toward more adaptive and resilient systems.

Keywords: Circular economy; Environmental performance data; Social-ecological-technological systems; Waste management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s13412-022-00803-8

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