Status of Environmental Management Initiatives to Accelerate the Reduction of Environmental Risks and Challenges Posed by the Legacy of the Cold War
Fifty years of nuclear weapons production and energy research in the United States during the Cold War generated large amounts of radioactive wastes, spent nuclear fuel (SNF), excess plutonium and uranium, thousands of contaminated facilities, and contaminated soil and groundwater. During most of that half century, the Nation did not have the environmental regulatory structure or nuclear waste cleanup technologies that exist today. The result was a legacy of nuclear waste that was stored and disposed of in ways now considered unacceptable. Cleaning up and ultimately disposing of these wastes is the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In 1989, DOE established the Office of Environmental Management (EM) to solve the large scale and technically challenging risks posed by the world's largest nuclear cleanup. This required EM to build a new nuclear cleanup infrastructure, assemble and train a technically specialized workforce, and develop the technologies and tools required to safely decontaminate, disassemble, stabilize, disposition, and remediate unique radiation hazards. The sites where nuclear activities produced legacy waste and contamination include the original Manhattan Project sites--Los Alamos, New Mexico; Hanford, Washington; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee--as well as major Cold War sites, such as Savannah River Site, South Carolina; the Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho; Rocky Flats Plant, Colorado; and Fernald, Ohio. Today EM has responsibility for nuclear cleanup activities at 21 sites covering more than two million acres in 13 states, and employs more than 30,000 Federal and contractor employees, including scientists, engineers and hazardous waste technicians. This cleanup poses unique, technically complex problems, which must be solved under the most hazardous of conditions, and which will require billions of dollars a year for several more decades. The EM program focus during its first 10 years was on managing the most urgent risks and maintaining safety at each site while negotiating state and Federal environmental compliance agreements. The program also concentrated on characterizing waste and nuclear materials and assessing the magnitude and extent of environmental contamination. By the late 1990s, EM had made significant progress in identifying and characterizing the extent of contamination and cleanup required and began transitioning from primarily a characterization and stabilization program to an active cleanup and closure program. During that time, EM formulated multi-year cleanup and closure plans, which contributed to cleanup progress; however, reducing the overall environmental risk associated with the cleanup program remained a challenge. In response, the Secretary of Energy directed a review of the EM program be undertaken. The resulting 'Top-to Bottom Review' re-directed the program focus from managing risks to accelerating the reduction of these risks.
- Research Organization:
- DOEEM (USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM))
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 947177
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/EM-0001(FY2008); TRN: US0901451
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
CLEANING
CLOSURES
COMPLIANCE
CONTAMINATION
ENGINEERS
GROUND WATER
MANAGEMENT
MANHATTAN PROJECT
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
PLUTONIUM
RADIATION HAZARDS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
ROCKY FLATS PLANT
SAFETY
SOILS
STABILIZATION
URANIUM
WASTES