Recapping National Cleanup Workshop

ECA Staff | 09/21/2023

Last week ECA, in cooperation with EFCOG and DOE-EM, has the honor of welcoming over 800 participants at the 8th annual National Cleanup Workshop. 

Over the course of the conference, participants heard remarks from DOE, state and local government leaders, industry, and Congressional leadership. They learned from informative panel sessions, and had productive discussions and meetings.

ECA Chair, Mayor Gerry, West Richland, WA kicked off the meeting by highlighting the importance of DOE, industry, workforce, states, tribes and communities coming together to discuss key issues facing the EM program and the opportunities that exist at the sites. He highlighted cleanup, waste disposal solutions, and workforce issues along with the new Global Partnership of Communities that Host Nuclear Facilities. 

Cleanup to Clean Energy: Community leaders and DOE officials highlighted the exciting DOE program rolled out this summer by Secretary Granholm. This initiative will use 70,000 acres of land at five of DOE's sites for potential large-scale clean energy projects, or storage projects. The five sites include: 

• Hanford Site, Richland, Washington 
• Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, Idaho 
• Nevada National Security Site, Nye County, Nevada 
• Savannah River Site, Aiken, South Carolina 
• Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Carlsbad, New Mexico 

In the upcoming months, each one of these communities will be hosting their own industry day. With the Hanford Site being the first one, on September 22nd. Each community, surrounding these sites, are looking to the future of this opportunity. For further information use this link for registration and agenda. 

Attendees had the opportunity to hear more about this initiative from Deputy Secretary David Turk, the Keynote Speaker on Day two of the conference. 

"What we're going to do with this program is take some of the lands that you've remediated that we've been working on for so many years, and for the first time ever, begin leasing them out so that developers, other partners can build some of the largest clean energy projects in the world," Turk said.

This program allows for thousands of acres of lands that can be used for solar, nuclear, geothermal, among other forms of clean energy. These projects will not only power entire cities, but also while reducing carbon emissions and creating jobs. 

Local communities are key partners. In his remarks, EM Senior Advisor William "Ike" White (EM-1) highlighted the integral roles that the local communities play in the success of the EM mission. He also thanked the communities for their many years of partnership with DOE on working to clean up sites nationwide. "We are focused not only on getting the job done, but conducting cleanup in a sustainable manner that benefits local communities, tribal nations and efforts around the globe to solve the climate crisis", said White. 

U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) chairman of the House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee highlighted key role of communities in the cleanup effort.  He highlighted the progress ongoing in his home state with the city of Oak Ridge and the EM mission with the groundbreaking of the new disposal cell. 

Deputy Secretary Turk also spoke about the impact that communities have on EM’s work, “Where the cleanup efforts are ongoing, we’re engaging with the communities most affected by this legacy of our nuclear programs and paving the way for future scientific discoveries”. Turk noted the accomplishments at the Idaho National Laboratory could not have been possible without the partnership from the State of Idaho, local community, and tribal leaders. 

Local communities also emerged as pivotal players in developing the future of the EM workforce. Early education within site communities and drawing from local talent were both emphasized during the day's proceedings.

Workforce challenges impact all sites. The continued need to discuss and find solutions to the critical issue of workforce emerged as a key theme over the course of the Cleanup Workshop. DOE Field Office Managers touched on the current vacancies in their authorized workforce, for example, but also highlighted efforts to recruit and promote women and minority groups within the EM program.

Last year it was noted that among EM's almost 1,200 federal employees, only 15 are under the age of 30. This year EM was proud to announce that within the last year this number has risen and is on track to continue to increase. This fact was used to drive the point that education and recruitment efforts must begin early in order to develop the future of the EM workforce. This information was also used to point out the loyalty of the current workforce and their commitment to the EM mission. 

The Early Career Workshop featured multiple panels including a roundtable with federal and industry representatives at different career stages. The panelists included, JJ Chavez, Council Member from City of Carlsbad, NM, Betsy Forinash, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Waste and Materials Management, DOE-EM and Jennifer Vollbrecht, President and CEO, J. Vollbrecht Consulting, and others. 

This year the first “EM 101” session from Christine Gelles, chief operating officer of Longenecker & Associates, was offered also as part of the Early Career Workshop. Over 100 people attended this session and were offered in-depth information about EM’s work and guidance on how to grow within the cleanup program.

Among Mayor Gerry’s ECA highlights, he mentioned that ECA, EM and EFCOG created a great new program that focuses on workforce issues across ECA sites. The forward-looking data provided by EM site contractors has been a fascinating look at the workforce needs for next five years at the sites. EM, ECA and EFCOG hosted (with N3B) the first of many EM workforce meetings at a site with local government,  

This brief video from DOE highlights the 2023 National Cleanup Workshop. 

Thank you to all the sponsors, speakers, and attendees that made this such a successful Cleanup Workshop. We look forward to our continued partnership with you all!

For more takeaways from the NCW 2023 listen to this week's Gone Fission Podcast and make sure to read this week's EM Update Newsletter.

Join ECA as we consider these and other questions during our free webinar "Reprocessing and Recycling: The Outlook and Impact on New Nuclear Development" on Thursday, September 28, 2023, from 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Eastern to learn more from experts Paul Murray and Josh Jarrell, Senior Technical Advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Nuclear Fuel Availability Program from the Idaho National Laboratories.

Please use this link to register. 

What to do with the UK's civil plutonium?

World Nuclear News | 09/05/2023

The UK's 140-tonne stockpile of civil plutonium could be used as fuel for thermal reactors or combined with the country's 100,000-tonne supply of depleted, natural and low-enriched uranium to fuel new fast reactors - or disposed of as waste in a future geological disposal facility - says a new report from The University of Manchester's Dalton Nuclear Institute exploring the options. 

The report, Managing the UK plutonium stockpile: No easy choices, says that over the past six decades the UK has built up the largest stockpile of civil plutonium in the world, which is currently stored at Sellafield as plutonium dioxide powder. It says that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is carrying out an improvement programme over the coming decades of the facilities, packaging and storage.

However, it adds: "After the period of storage, the end point of the plutonium is being examined against the possible futures of conversion into either fuel for nuclear reactors or a wasteform for disposal in the planned UK geological disposal facility (GDF)."

It says that as nuclear fuel, the plutonium "would generate quantities of low-carbon energy, the amount of which would vary with the reactors and fuel types used but could be very significant for the UK. As waste, no energy would be generated, but this option could be expected to reach an earlier end point than use as fuel and to involve less initial cost as part of the overall GDF programme".

The report says its "key initial finding is that the current programme of improvement at Sellafield is essential to reduce the risks and hazards of plutonium storage, and this must be a priority for resources and funding over the next several decades. This unavoidably long timescale allows time for the choices between 'use' and 'disposal' to be properly examined: essential when any choice will almost certainly exclude any later move to another choice. Time is, however, a consideration, when the storage of plutonium dioxide powder is more hazardous than storing the same plutonium as a reactor fuel or as a wasteform. This will need to be clearly factored into decision making, especially when the desire to minimise hazard/risk appears to be taken as an absolute driver in some quarters".

Among its 10 recommendations, the report says there needs to be a national dialogue allowing stakeholders on all sides to share their views in an evidence-based debate; the current programme of repackaging and storing the plutonium inventory in optimal conditions must be carried out by NDA and Sellafield Ltd to the currently programmed end point of 100-year design life storage; the hazard represented would be greatly decreased by conversion from dispersible powder into a solid form and government should ensure that a comprehensive assessment is carried out on the attributes and costs of the range of options and, because the different options have different pathways to putting plutonium beyond reach, government needs to develop a full understanding of the whole plutonium lifecycle for each pathway before committing to irrevocable decisions.

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Check out ECA's latest report! 

DISPOSAL DRIVES CLEANUP: RE-ENERGIZING MOMENTUM FOR DISPOSAL SOLUTIONS FOR RADIOACTIVE WASTE

This report calls on the Department of Energy to launch the initiative to develop the actual waste disposition approaches. The Department could potentially save hundreds of billions of dollars in cleanup costs by using its available tools and implementing the report’s recommendations.

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