DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Special Report on "Management Challenges at the Department of Energy - Fiscal Year 2021"
Office of Inspector General | 11/25/2020
The
goal of this report is to identify the most pressing challenges for the
Department of Energy (DOE) in a variety of departmental offices and to
resolve management issues to accomplish near term progress.
Regarding
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and pit production, DOE
plans to use two sites to accomplish pit production, producing 30 pits
per year during 2026 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and 50
pits per year during 2030 at the Savannah River Site (SRS). With the
gap in pit production following the closure of Rocky Flats, there is
also now a gap in creating and maintaining
an expert workforce that has the numbers and skills required to perform
the project.
DOE
is also facing the twofold challenges of modernizing the Plutonium
Facility at LANL and repurposing the former Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication
Facility at SRS. To further the pit production mission, several
subprojects are taking place at both LANL and SRS to ensure enduring
capability and capacity to produce the pits. DOE must act to determine
the necessary investments in human capital and equipment to
meet the 80-pit requirement.
Regarding
the Office of Environmental Management (EM) and tank waste, EM is
tasked with treatment and disposition of approximately 91 million
gallons of tank waste, some of which is stored in aging containers. This
represents a high financial risk and a high environmental risk to
communities. The report highlights accomplishments at Savannah River
Site, West Valley Demonstration Project, Idaho National
Lab, and Hanford.
While
addressing tank waste at a variety of sites across the complex, DOE has
instituted new policies and approaches to create new waste disposition
pathways. This updating of policies greatly impacted the interpretation
of high-level waste. By defining waste based on radiological
constituents rather than origin, waste will be more appropriately
managed. Moving forward DOE will need to address management
of operations and facility modifications at several sites along with
development of final disposition pathways for treated tank waste.
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APPROPRIATIONS
Appropriators strike deal on funding totals to avoid December shutdown
Politico | 11/24/2020
Top
House and Senate appropriators on Tuesday clinched a deal on a
bipartisan set of funding levels, paving the way for a $1.4 trillion
spending package to avert a government shutdown next month.
The
agreement on the funding allocations, confirmed by a House Democratic
aide, establishes overall totals for 12 appropriations measures that
will be rolled into one massive omnibus bill that would boost federal
budgets for the rest of the fiscal year. Negotiators plan to keep the
numbers — known as 302(b)s — under wraps until a bipartisan, bicameral
omnibus is finalized, the aide
said.
The
deal comes at a time with little margin for error. After the
Thanksgiving break, both chambers will have just two weeks to flesh out
the finer points of the 12-bill spending package and pass the
legislation in order to avoid a government shutdown by the Dec. 11
deadline.
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
Paducah Marks 25 Years of Successful Pump-and-Treat Operations
DOE-EM | 11/17/2020
For
the last quarter century, a cornerstone of the cleanup program at EM’s
Paducah Site has been the safe operation of the system to treat and
reduce groundwater contamination.
After
the discovery in the late 1980s of contamination in nearby groundwater
wells, EM’s immediate response was to supply clean drinking water to
those affected. EM then initiated the design and construction of a
pump-and-treat system, which reduces groundwater contaminant
concentration as well as mitigates the spread of contamination.
For
a quarter century, the pump-and-treat system has been successfully
removing groundwater contaminants. The primary contaminant is
trichloroethene (TCE), a common industrial degreaser that was used at
the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) to clean equipment.
Since
operation of the pump-and-treat system in the northwest area of the
site began in August 1995, followed by an additional system in the
northeast area of the site, EM has made great progress in remediating
groundwater contamination. To date, a total of approximately 4.4 billion
gallons of water have been treated — enough to fill 6,500 Olympic-sized
swimming pools.
Dec. 16, 2020 New Nuclear Webinar; Virtual
Sept. 8-10 National Cleanup Workshop 2021
Read about DOE's High Level Waste Interpretation
Have questions about DOE’s recent high-level waste (HLW) interpretation?
Download ECA’s Key Points and FAQs on the issue to better understand
what ECA believes are the potential benefits of implementation.
Interested in learning more? Read the ECA report “Making Informed Decisions on DOE's Proposed High Level Waste Definition” at www.energyca.org/publications
Stay Current on Activities in the DOE World
Read the latest edition of the ECA Bulletin,
a regular newsletter providing a detailed brief of ECA activities,
legislative news, and major events from across the DOE complex. Have suggestions for future editions? Email bulletin@energyca.org.
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Learn More about Cleanup Sites with ECA's DOE Site Profiles
ECA's
new site profiles detail DOE's 13 active Environmental Management
cleanup sites and national laboratories, highlighting their history,
missions, and priorities. The profiles are a key source for
media, stakeholders, and the public to learn more about DOE site
activities, contractors, advisory boards, and their surrounding local
governments.
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