News
News Releases Sanitary Effluent Reclamation Facility goes online
Sanitary Effluent Reclamation Facility (SERF).
August 22, 2011—The Lab’s recommissioned Sanitary Effluent Reclamation Facility (SERF) at Technical Area 3 is scheduled to go back online this week. The 4,350-square-foot facility is located east of the TA-3 Steam Plant.
Originally built in 2003 to test technology for treating sanitary effluent, the facility allows the Lab to process up to 100 gallons per minute of sanitary effluent—or 120,000 gallons of water a day—that will be used in towers for cooling the Lab’s supercomputing facilities and its power plant, explained Utilities and Institutional Facilities Division Leader Andy Erickson. Planned future expansion of the SERF will allow LANL to process up to 300 gallons of water per minute.
The Sanitary Effluent Reclamation Facility treats effluent from the sanitary wastewater treatment plant. It includes storage tanks for 1,500 gallons of hydrochloric acid solution, 4,500 gallons of sodium hydroxide solution, 500 gallons of ferric chloride, and 4,500 gallons of magnesium chloride solution.
The SERF cleans sanitary effluent to a standard better than drinking water. Using treated sanitary effluent in the cooling towers also reduces LANL’s use of potable water for such purposes, helping to meet a Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration requirement for recycling and reducing water use.
Fast Facts
People
11,127 total employees
Los Alamos National Security, LLC 8,683
SOC Los Alamos (Guard Force) 419
Contractors 606
Students 1,101
Place
Located 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 36 square miles of DOE-owned property.
More than 2,000 individual facilities, including 47 technical areas with 8 million square feet under roof.
Replacement value of $5.9 billion
Budget FY 2012: Approx. $2.2 billion
57% Weapons programs
9% Nonproliferation programs
7% Safeguards and Security
8% Environmental Management
4% DOE Office of Science
4% Energy and other programs
11% Work for Others
Workforce Demographics (LANS and students only)
34% of employees live in Los Alamos, the remainder commute from Santa Fe,
Española, Taos, and Albuquerque.
Average Age: 46
70% male, 30% female
43% minorities
63% university degrees
· 23% hold undergraduate degrees
· 16% hold graduate degrees
· 24% have earned a Ph.D.
Major Awards
121 R&D100 awards since 1978
31 E.O. Lawrence Awards
The Seaborg Medal
The Edward Teller Medal
The Nobel Prize in Physics, Frederick Reines