Local Government Officials Request Response to Health and Safety

In This Issue Continuing to Move Forward— Executive Director’s Message Page 2 ECA Hosts Manhattan Project Historical Park Implementation Peer Exchange in Oak Ridge, TN Page 5 Congress faces funding deadline weeks to complete their bills for after August recess; short-term Legislative Update passage, and we expect the Senate Page 9 extension likely appropriators to try to move quickly Congress returns from August recess on the bills. ECA Hosts Webinar on HLW Interpretation for on September 9, and legislators will Appropriations – CR likely through Intergovernmental Groups have just three weeks to pass funding November 22 Page 12 bills before the end of the fiscal year. The House has been working on With a limited number of legislative appropriations since May, having Executive Committee days in session and a quickly passed 9 of the 12 bills so far. The approaching September 30 deadline, Chair House Energy and Water County Executive Ron Woody it appears the likely outcome this Development spending bill would Roane County, Tennessee month will be a short-term spending provide $37 billion for DOE, a $1.4 extension—a continuing resolution Acting Vice-Chair billion increase above last year’s (CR). Both the House and Senate are Mayor Brent Gerry level. City of West Richland, Washington motivated to the pass the bills after the passage of the recent two-year The Senate, however, has not even Treasurer budget agreement but they do not begun examining its versions of the Councilor David Izraelevitz Los Alamos County, New Mexico have time to complete all of the bills. spending bills in the Senate The Senate appropriations staff have (Continued on page 7) Secretary been working over the last couple of Mayor Rebecca Casper City of Idaho Falls, Idaho Local Government Officials Request Response to Health Member-At-Large and Safety Questions from DOE on EM Proposed Oak Councilmember Jennifer Chandler Village of Piketon, Ohio Ridge Landfill Past-Chair Councilmember Chuck Smith Local government officials in Oak City of Oak Ridge finds the delay in Aiken County, South Carolina Ridge and surrounding communities addressing our questions and are seeking responses from the U.S. comments dating back several years— Department of Energy (DOE) to disrespectful to the strong relationship questions they have raised about the we have had through the years with agency’s proposal to build a new DOE-EM.” The City has not received onsite landfill over several years prior a response to this letter. to DOE making a final cleanup ECA has stated repeatedly that decision. The main concern is risk to community questions about health and 1625 Eye Street, NW human health and the environment. Suite 800 safety should not be pushed until Washington, DC 20006 In a July 12 letter from the City of “formal comment.” The successes of P: 202-828-2317 F: 202-828-2488 Oak Ridge to DOE, the City states, www.energyca.org (Continued on page 13) “Frankly, as the host community, the @EnergyCAorg September 2019 ECA Bulletin Continuing to Move Forward – Executive Director’s Message Welcome to National the program actually works and the priorities are Cleanup Workshop 2019. clear. We expect FY20 to continue to be one which ECA has been working supports high budgets and programs for EM, NNSA, with EFCOG and DOE NE and LM. on this meeting for the New DOE Leadership past 9 months and we are excited that the line-up is Rumors abound as to whether the current top DOE one of our best. I am leadership is sticking around for the next election most excited for the “EM (only 15 months from Election Day 2020). While at 30 Years” celebration we will not address those rumors, we will instead at the Cleanup Workshop focus on the leadership changes that occurred over Seth Kirshenberg as it has been interesting the summer. Most notably, DOE finally has Executive Director to see the evolution from managers in all of its offices. a weapons production to a First in EM, Ike White and Todd Shrader took over cleanup-focused program which strives for openness the helm from Anne White. Ike and Todd, as they and communication. The mission sounds simple but are known in the building and to most of the site remains complex – cleanup the county’s legacy managers, have been around the program for a Manhattan Project and Cold War sites that supported longtime and are very well respected. They “get it.” –and continue to support–the national security of our They have both been visiting the sites and learning country. about the some of the bigger issues that they will Although a lot of people will focus on the leadership have to deal with in the coming months. Most over the past 30 years (those that shaped the people do not expect the President to nominate an direction of the program), but we know it is and EM Assistant Secretary prior to the election. continues to be the people (both feds and Next, at NNSA after a long delay, Dr. William contractors) on the front lines that make decisions Bookless was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in May and do the complex work day in and day out at the as the Principal Deputy Administrator of the EM and LM sites across the weapons complex. As National Nuclear Security Administration. Further, one ECA member puts it they go from dealing with Dave Huizenga took over as NNSA's Associate complicated engineering and risk issues to school Principal Deputy Administrator (the job that Ike boards, rotary clubs and coaching Little League. previously held at NNSA). NNSA manages several They are the long-term leaders in our ECA large sites including LANL, Pantex, Kansas City, communities - people that worked both to defend our Nevada, Y-12 and others. country and to cleanup the sites. They should be recognized, thanked and appreciated, too. At NE, Dr. Rita Baranwal was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in June as the Assistant Secretary for However, we still have a lot to do and this year is a Nuclear Energy. She is the first woman to lead the busy one, from the basics of the budget (FY19 was Office of Nuclear Energy which manages the Idaho one of the highest EM budgets in a long time) to the National Laboratory site office. policies and decision-making of the current leadership (just settling in after another At the Office of Science, Dr. Chris Fall was reorganization). Below are some ideas on issues that confirmed as Director of the Office of Science in ECA members are focused on as we look to 2020. May, the lead federal agency supporting fundamental scientific research for energy and the Budget nation's largest supporter of basic research in the The summary of the budget process and numbers are physical sciences. The Office of Science manages listed on pages 7-8. What people should take away the operations of the Oak Ridge site office. from the numbers is that although we may have a Issues of Focus short term continuing resolution, the EM, NNSA, NE and LM budgets are supported in a bipartisan Some of the issues that ECA is watching closely for manner by the House and Senate. The committee the second half of 2019 include: staff are some of the most knowledgeable about how (Continued on page 3) 2 September 2019 ECA Bulletin (Continued from page 2) 4. High-level Waste Definition. The Department won’t say it but SRS is the test case to see if this Continuing to Move Forward – Executive new definition of HLW works – and it would be Director’s Message surprising if it did not work. Remember – this does not change the risk of the item that is being 1. Portsmouth School Issues. In May, we learned defined as HLW or another type of waste – that local community representatives in Piketon, instead DOE would define the waste on content Ohio (near DOE’s Portsmouth site), were versus how the waste was created. It seems to concerned about the potential presence of make sense to ECA members. However, there manmade radioactive materials inside a local remains significant concern on how this would middle school. Over the Memorial Day weekend, be implemented by several states and where the DOE deployed a team of certified health waste would be disposed. ECA continues to be physicists to collect samples for analysis from engaged and would like to see the conversation – the school. DOE’s analysis found no manmade despite political concerns – continue at the state, isotopes and no enriched uranium. These results federal and local level. are consistent with those from the Ohio Department of Health. The local community is 5. Infrastructure. Although infrastructure is often moving forward with a third-party sampling ignored, DOE EM and NNSA need new effort that DOE has committed to fund. infrastructure since most of it at the sites is between 50-75 years old. It is crumbling. DOE/ 2. Oak Ridge – Should a New Landfill be Sited at NNSA/Science/NE need to start to recognize the the Proposed Location? The City and issue beyond the sites they manage. surrounding community have raised health and safety concerns over the landfill siting and have Last year when the Hanford Tunnel roof collapsed requested a DOE response to these concerns… on top of stored radioactive waste, a quote which and asked…and asked. ECA followed up to ask should make us all focus on infrastructure was “The for a reply as well. DOE uncharacteristically risk of failure, based on Department of Energy remains silent as officials wait for their own nuclear safety standards, has increased from conflict with EPA and the State over the landfill ‘unlikely’ to ‘anticipated,’…” We have sites around siting to be resolved–any day now.

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