REPORT 1996

n the energy and environment mix, problems arise at all stages. The underground containment of hazardous wastes can be especially troublesome, because just a few gallons of hazardous fluids can contaminate a huge area. Furthermore, once fluid contaminants get into the ground, they are very difficult to strip from the soil. This past year Berkeley Lab scientists began field-testing a new technique that makes it possible to contain and prevent the spread of underground hazardous fluids. The technique entails drilling a string of wells around and beneath the perimeter of the area that is to be contained. A fluid is then injected into the wells that is able to permeate the ground before it turns to gel and forms an impermeable barrier around the contaminated site. If the development of this technique, which has been likened to the creation of an underground isolation chamber, continues to be successful, it could substantially reduce both the financial and environmental costs associated with the country's thousands of hazardous waste sites. A demonstration of this technique was carried out at a site with hydrogeologic conditions similar to those at Hanford, Washington, home of a large nuclear power reactor.

Computer simulations of air quality in the L.A. basin show that selectivelly reducing emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and reactive organic gases (ROG) would reduce ozone concentrations 30- to 50-percent along the heavily traveled I-5 corridor.

In some ways, the energy and environment relationship is like a zero sum game-what adds to the former, subtracts from the latter. To prevail in such a contest, humanity must take steps to maximize the efficiency of its energy production and use. Berkeley Lab scientists have contributed to this goal with on-going research and development of new energy-efficient technologies. This past year, the Laboratory made public the results of detailed case studies of four of these projects. The studies substantiated that during the past two decades, a $71 million federal investment in research at Berkeley Lab saved American taxpayers an estimated $5 billion in energy costs, and gave rise to new revenue and job-generating commercial industries that are already worth an annual $2.5 billion.

The four projects reviewed under the case studies were the development of an electronic ballast for fluorescent lights that improves lighting efficiency as much as 30-percent; the invention of a clear film coating for windows that offers a 35-percent advantage in energy-efficiency over ordinary double-glazed windows; the creation of a powerful computer program called DOE-2 that helps engineers and architects reduce energy consumption in buildings; and the development of analytical methods used to set national standards for energy efficiency in household appliances and residential heating and cooling equipment.

Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a simple yet life-saving device that uses UV light to disinfect water. It is currently being field-tested in India, where recent cholera epidemics stemming from contaminated well water have killed thousands of children.

Although the energy and environment research at Berkeley Lab tends to focus on national problems, the benefits of the scientific knowledge gained are not constrained by international boundaries. One off-shoot of the Laboratory's research into fluorescent lighting could prove a life-saving gift to the children of developing countries. More than 400 children die every hour in developing countries as a result of water supplies being contaminated with such diseases as cholera, typhoid, and dysentery. Berkeley Lab scientists have developed a simple device that uses the same ultraviolet radiation (UV light) produced in fluorescent lamps to disinfect water. This device, which is a stainless steel chamber about the size of a microwave oven, can be fitted directly into the plumbing of a water source such as a community hand pump. As water passes through the chamber it is bathed in UV light, which kills viruses, molds, and other pathogens by inactivating their DNA. The system can disinfect water at a rate of four gallons per minute (similar to the flow from a typical bathtub spout in the United States) at a cost of pennies per ton. It is currently being field-tested in India, where recent cholera epidemics stemming from contaminated well water have killed thousands of children. As an added benefit, the use of these UV devices could replace the common practice in developing countries of boiling water over wood-burning stoves. Boiling one gallon of water on these inefficient stoves to disinfect it consumes 20,000 times more energy than Berkeley Lab's UV light device, and also contributes to the problem of deforestation.

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