Waste Management Symposia Picks PNNL “Superior Papers”

September 8, 2020

Staff Accomplishment

Waste Management Symposia Picks PNNL “Superior Papers”

International event for radioactive waste management honors research

Vicky Freedman, a computational subsurface hydrologist, stands at a podium next to a big screen showing the title slide of her presentation

Vicky Freedman’s paper and oral presentation, “Technology Assessment for Radioiodine at the Hanford Site,” were ranked Superior at the Waste Management Symposium in March 2020. Freedman is a project manager and computational subsurface hydrologist at PNNL.

Photo by David Peeler | PNNL

Five papers co-written by 23 researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) were named Superior Paper Award Winners by the Waste Management Symposia. And one of those presentations was in the Top 10 for Best of Conference.

Only 52 papers out of more than 400 submitted were honored by the annual conference. The Waste Management Symposia is widely regarded as the premier international event for the management of radioactive waste and related topics, with a focus on reducing long-term environmental liability through efficient and effective cleanup. One of PNNL’s research missions is to provide scientifically defensible solutions to the complex cleanup challenges at the Hanford Site in Washington State.

The Superior Paper Awards went to:

“Technology Assessment for Radioiodine at the Hanford Site.” Authors: Vicky Freedman, Michael Truex, James Szecsody, Carolyn Pearce, Nikolla Qafoku, Guohui Wang, and Hilary Emerson. The oral presentation by Freedman was also deemed Superior, which made this one of only 10 abstracts evaluated for the Oral/Paper “Best of Conference” award.
“Advances in PFAS Monitoring and Remediation Using a Functionalized Material Approach.” Authors: Radha Kishan Motkuri, Michael Truex, Dushyant Barpaga, Vaithiyalingam Shutthandadan, Kee Sung Han, Carl Enderlin, Sayandev Chatterjee, and Beric Wells, with Sagnik Basuray (New Jersey Institute of Technology), and industry partners Michael Reed and Robert Allen Wilson of AVANTech Incorporated.
“Field Test Bed for Vadose-Zone Monitoring Approaches.” Authors: Christopher Strickland, Hunter Knox, Timothy Johnson, Benjamin Roberts, Vincent Vermeul, Michael Truex, and Vicky Freedman.
“Planning for Nuclear Power Plant Site Visits.” Authors: Lauren Rodman, Steven Maheras, Ellen Kennedy, PNNL; Robert Howard, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and Erica Bickford, U.S. Department of Energy.
“Refining the Approach to Process Flowsheet Development and Maturation at Hanford.” Authors: PNNL’s Stuart Arm contributed to this paper written by Laura Cree and Todd Wagnon with Washington River Protection Solutions.

Held in March 2020, the Waste Management Symposia was one of the last big in-person conferences before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and events were canceled or moved online.