OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT EM VISION 2020-2030: A Time of Transition and Transformation 2 2 The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) mechanisms to reduce taxpayer risks and Office of Environmental Management encourage innovation, utilizing a science- (EM) has been entrusted with one of the driven and risk-informed approach to largest environmental efforts in the world – cleanup and ensuring a strong pipeline addressing the substantial environmental of talent throughout the program for the liability resulting primarily from decades future. of nuclear weapons production and government-sponsored nuclear energy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette, Under research that contributed so much to Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar and national security and prosperity. For 30 senior DOE leadership are personally years, EM has tackled this legacy, and as committed to, and invested in, the success a result of a track record of success, EM of the EM mission. I am honored to lead has shrunk the overall program footprint by the program at this point in its history. I 90 percent, completing work at 91 of the have had the opportunity to visit many EM original 107 sites, some of which date back sites, and meet with the men and women to the Manhattan Project and the birth of – both federal and contractor employees – the Atomic Age. who are EM’s greatest asset. They are the reason for our successes to date, and the As EM proceeds toward completion of the accomplishments we plan to achieve. remaining 10 percent, 2020 will come to be seen as an inflection point for sites across I am excited for the future of EM – over the the complex. We will see skyline changes course of this year, the decade to come at a variety of sites where successful and the long-term – and look forward to demolition efforts will result in risk seeing this Strategic Vision realized. We reduction after years of preparatory work. will continue engaging with Congress, We will continue to shrink the remaining EM state and local governments, Tribal nations footprint, and we will compete and award and the communities near our sites on new contracts that will enable continued, this vision for the future so that we can and accelerated, progress across the EM demonstrate the government’s ability to program. After years of effort, we will bring keep its commitments to all of those who online new capabilities to tackle our largest have played such an important role in this remaining environmental risk – radioactive country’s history. waste stored in underground tanks. This Strategic Vision not only lays out William “Ike” White EM’s planned slate of accomplishments Senior Advisor for Environmental Management for this year, but also outlines a decade of to the Under Secretary for Science anticipated progress across the breadth of the program. This progress will be based on a foundation of strategic initiatives EM is pursuing to ensure we are best positioned for the years to come, including strengthening project management, continued use of new contracting 3 EM Sites Hanford Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) Idaho National West Valley Laboratory Demonstration Project Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Moab UMTRA Project Portsmouth Site Nevada National Brookhaven Security Site National Laboratory Paducah Site Los Alamos Energy Technology National Laboratory Engineering Center (ETEC) Sandia National Laboratories Oak Ridge Savannah River Site Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) 4 EM VISION 2020-2030: A Time of Transition and Transformation 5 EM VISION 2020-2030: A Time of Transition and Transformation The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 30 Years of Progress Office of Environmental Management Over the past 30 years, the EM program (EM) has its roots in the Manhattan has achieved significant and lasting Project and the development of the first progress in tackling this environmental atomic weapon. EM’s mission is to safely legacy. The overall footprint has been and efficiently address the substantial reduced by 90 percent, from approximately environmental liability resulting primarily 3,300 square miles to less than 300 from decades of nuclear weapons square miles. Work remains at 16 of the production and government-sponsored original 107 sites, including: nuclear energy research that played such a pivotal role in domestic security and prosperity. • Brookhaven National Laboratory • Energy Technology Engineering At its inception in 1989, the EM program Center (ETEC) faced a daunting task. The production • Hanford of more than 1,000 metric tons of weapons-grade uranium and more than • Idaho National Laboratory 100 metric tons of plutonium resulted • Lawrence Livermore National in environmental contamination at a Laboratory total of 107 sites throughout the United • Los Alamos National Laboratory States – covering an area equal to the combined size of Delaware and Rhode • Moab Island. This contamination included more • Nevada National Security Site than 90 million gallons of liquid radioactive • Oak Ridge waste resulting from the separation of • Paducah plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, now stored in underground tanks; and more • Portsmouth than 700,000 metric tons of depleted • Sandia National Laboratory uranium produced as a byproduct of • Savannah River Site uranium enrichment activities. More than 5,000 contaminated facilities needed to • Separations Process Research be addressed. Millions of cubic meters of Unit contaminated soil, and billions of gallons of • Waste Isolation Pilot Plant contaminated groundwater, needed to be • West Valley Demonstration Project remediated. 6 Highlights of EM’s significant accomplishments to date have included: • Completing cleanup activities at major • Completing the Advanced Mixed Waste former weapons production sites such as Treatment Project at the Idaho National Rocky Flats in Colorado and the Fernald Laboratory (INL) site where 65,000 and Mound sites in Ohio. cubic meters of legacy TRU waste were • Opening the world’s first underground processed for off-site disposal. deep geological repository for transuranic • Completing construction and initiating (TRU) waste resulting from atomic energy operation of two depleted uranium defense activities at the Waste Isolation hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plants Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. at the Paducah Site in Kentucky and • Completing the bulk of cleanup activities Portsmouth Site in Ohio. along the 220-square mile Columbia River • Completing the disposal of approximately Corridor at Hanford in Washington State. two-thirds of the 16-million-ton uranium • Completing almost 25 years of successful mill tailings pile at the Moab site in Utah. operations at the Defense Waste • Completing waste vitrification activities Processing Facility at the Savannah River and subsequent demolition of the Site (SRS) in South Carolina, vitrifying more Vitrification Facility at the West Valley than 4 million gallons of radioactive waste. Demonstration Project (WVDP) in New • Completing the decommissioning and York State. This marked the first time demolition of five former gaseous diffusion EM has built, operated and successfully uranium enrichment plants at Oak Ridge in decommissioned one of its major waste Tennessee, including Building K-25, at one treatment facilities. time the largest building in the world under one roof. EM’s Prioritization Approach 2020– An Inflection Point for EM EM pursues its cleanup objectives safely within a framework of regulatory compliance commitments At the start of this decade, EM is at an inflection and best business practices. Taking many variables point at sites across the complex that will position into account, EM’s priorities are as follows: the program for even greater success in the years to come. After years of effort, EM plans to begin • Activities to maintain a safe, secure, and operation of two major radioactive waste treatment compliant posture. facilities – the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) • Radioactive tank waste stabilization, at SRS and the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit treatment, and disposal. (IWTU) at the INL site. In addition, progress will continue toward beginning tank waste treatment at • Spent (used) nuclear fuel storage, receipt, Hanford through the Direct Feed Low Activity Waste and disposition. (DFLAW) approach. • Nuclear material consolidation, stabilization, and disposition. Individually, these capabilities will significantly enhance • TRU and mixed low-level waste (MLLW) EM’s ability to tackle the largest environmental disposition. risks at SRS, the INL site and Hanford. Together, • Soil and groundwater remediation. they represent an evolution of the EM mission as it transitions from years of design and construction • Excess facilities deactivation and of these massive, first-of-a-kind nuclear facilities, to decommissioning (D&D). focusing on tank waste treatment operations. 7 EM is also taking major steps to further reduce • Completing disposal of legacy TRU waste its footprint and remove legacy facilities. At the from SRS (Page 52). Oak Ridge site, this year will mark the successful • Completing construction of the Mercury completion of a multi-year effort to demolish Treatment Facility at Oak Ridge (Page 38). facilities at the East Tennessee Technology Park • Completing disposal of remaining legacy (ETTP), one of the original Manhattan Project sites. TRU waste and uranium-233 at Oak Ridge The successful completion of ETTP will provide (Page 38). significant risk reduction and environmental benefits. • Completing the treatment of