ECA CALLS ON DOE TO IMPROVE WORKFORCE PLANNING AND ADDRESS BRAIN DRAIN
In ECA’s transition paper, “Ensuring Long-Term Success: Recommendations for the Next Administration on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Management
Mission”, ECA provides multiple recommendations to tackle challenges the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) faces. In recent years, EM has placed an increased emphasis on workforce recruiting and retention, especially regarding early career workers. ECA has been working closely with EM, along with industry through the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG), on this
effort and on the needs and abilities of local communities to support an expanded workforce. Even so, EM is facing a considerable lack of mid-to-senior leadership depth. In the field, most EM site offices appear to be struggling to have experienced personnel ready to move up to the position of Manager as needed. EM headquarters is also facing significant leadership gaps due to the departures and retirements of qualified
personnel, particularly in the Regulatory and Policy Affairs and Technology Development organizations. In addition, EM’s track record in developing its next-generation workforce is decidedly mixed. As the Government Accountability Office warned this summer, “EM workforce management challenges have caused project failures and affected the mission through schedule delays, cost overruns, and workplace accidents, according to
DOE assessments. These assessments found that additional failures are likely without efforts to address workforce challenges.” These workforce issues and lack of experienced leadership are not problems that can be solved overnight and are ones that can pose a significant risk to EM as it works on longer-term planning and challenges. In its report, the GAO laid out an extensive series of recommendations to better improve its
workforce management, and we urge the new Administration to maintain focus on making progress in implementation, while continuing to work with local communities to ensure successful alignment. The depth and caliber of the EM workforce, at all levels, is critical to our members since these workers are part of our communities. We also call on the next Administration to prioritize rebuilding the EM leadership cadre and
ensuring the talent is available to move into higher tiers of responsibility as necessary. This effort should include a focus on retaining and developing mid-career employees, as well as an examination of how qualified candidates from the DOE contracting industry can be brought into the program. EM has enjoyed a level of success in recent years in establishing strong relations and coordination with other key DOE programs,
such as the Office of Nuclear Energy (concerning waste disposal) and the NNSA (concerning addressing cleanup needs for ongoing missions). This improved coordination appears to have been based, though, largely on personal relationships between leaders in EM and other DOE programs. As DOE undergoes the leadership changes anticipated when a new Administration comes in, we encourage the Department to ensure this successful record of inter-program coordination continues.
Read the paper by clicking its cover above or the button below!
ECA FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: CONSENT BASED SITING COMMUNITY GRANTS Applications now due November 1, 2024
Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) is soliciting applications for local governments to build capacity through targeted education and outreach on nuclear waste storage and disposal issues; and to evaluate community interest in hosting or supporting a federal spent nuclear fuel storage or disposal mission using a community-centered consent-based siting approach.
ECA intends to
award up to six (6) grants of up to $75,000 this fiscal year with an initial period of performance of twelve (12) months. Eligibility is restricted to a municipal or local government entity or group of municipal entities, state government created councils of local governments, community reuse organizations, and municipal government-related economic development entities. Additional information about eligible entities and the complete application can be found here: ECA Consent Based Siting Community Grant Application. ECA has extended the deadline for submission to November 1, 2024. This funding opportunity is part of ECA’s effort, as a U.S. Department of Energy Consent-Based Siting Consortia, to meet two key goals: - Build capacity in communities interested in consent-based siting and ensure they have the information – and informed representatives – to meaningfully engage on the issues a community will address as a potential host of a nuclear waste facility.
- Facilitate deeper engagement and
(re)create momentum by distributing resources for qualifying individual communities that demonstrate readiness to begin localized education and outreach to determine the potential for consent or to capture information that can help define the elements of consent.
In parallel with activities performed under these grants, ECA will be hosting public, regional educational meetings and smaller, targeted local peer-to-peer exchanges to help build trust among the public, industry, policymakers and concerned parties – based on experience – that nuclear waste can be safely managed in a way that is protective of human health and the environment,
and in a way that offers community-driven and risk-based economic opportunity. Be sure to follow the ECA Update next week, where ECA will be in Maine to discuss waste management and Consent-Based Siting at the Maine Yankee Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation
(ISFSI). For more information, please contact ECA Director of Policy, Faith Sanchez at: faiths@energyca.org or (202)
828-2410. ### Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) is a non-profit membership organization of local governments and nuclear communities
adjacent to or affected by U.S. Department of Energy activities. The mission of ECA is to bring together local government officials to share information, establish policy positions, and promote community interests to address an increasingly complex set of environmental, regulatory, and economic development needs. Additional information is available at www.energyca.org.
PROVIDE YOUR INPUT - OPEN REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION & PUBLIC COMMENT Opportunity: DOE Package Performance Demonstration DOE intends to establish a consolidated interim storage facility for storage of spent nuclear fuel until a permanent repository is available. DOE is performing this market research to gather information from all interested parties that will help formulate the actual solicitation. The first RFI is working to establish the market boundaries that can best fulfill the needs of the CISF program. This RFI works to answer the best contract
strategy and contract type, the ability of commercial businesses to support and fulfill CISF requirements & to what capacity small businesses can support CISF requirements. Response Due: October 31 2024, 7:00 pm EST Proposed Rule: Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking comment on a proposed rule for a Generic Environmental Impact Statement for licensing new reactors. The generic impact statement uses a technology-neutral framework and plant/site parameters to identify environmental issues common to new reactors, and those issues needing project-specific analysis. NRC staff members will conduct an in-person meeting and two webinars to discuss the proposed generic impact statement and
accept comments from the public. The in-person meeting will be at NRC headquarters, 11555 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland, on Nov. 7 from 1-4p.m. Eastern time. The webinars will be Nov. 13 from 1-4 p.m. Eastern time, and Nov. 14 from 6-9 p.m. Eastern time. Additional details for all three meetings will be available soon on the NRC’s website. The meetings are one method to comment before the Dec. 18 deadline. Comments can also be submitted via regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2020-0101, via email to Rulemaking.Comments@nrc.gov, or by mail to Office of Administration, Mail Stop TWFN-7- A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Response Due: December 18 2024 |
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WHAT YOU'VE MISSED: NRC schedules
Atlanta meeting A hybrid public meeting hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on October 30 will feature chair Christopher Hanson and commissioners David
Wright, Annie Caputo, and Bradley Crowell. During the meeting, NRC staff will discuss activities taking place in the agency’s Region II, headquartered in Atlanta, GA. In addition, external stakeholders will talk about their interactions with the agency. Zooming in: The NRC has invited representatives from Honeywell Metropolis, Framatome, Southern Company, Tennessee Valley Authority, the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to
share their views and make presentations. Read the full story NNSA funds projects to expand MSI Partnership Program The Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program (MSIPP) of the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has recently awarded seven federal grants to projects involving minority serving institutions (MSIs). The funding supports projects focused on building educational capacities in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematical (STEM) disciplines at MSIs. In addition, the funds strengthen educational and research capabilities for the schools, support a diverse student workforce across what the NNSA calls the “Nuclear Security Enterprise,” provide collaborative access among MSIs, and develop graduates in STEM areas of focus. “These partnerships provide experiential learning while promoting direct collaborations with a Nuclear Security Enterprise laboratory, plant, and/or site facility,” an
October 17 NNSA press release noted. Read the full story Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold meeting to discuss Constellation Energy's plan to reopen Three Mile Island The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced it will hold a public meeting in Maryland later this week to discuss a plan to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear power facility. The meeting will also discuss a potential name change to TMI, site of the United States' worst nuclear
disaster in 1979. Constellation Energy, which owns the site, is considering the idea of changing its name to Crane Clean Energy Center. Read the full story
Gone Fission Nuclear Report - Reviewing EM in the New Administration October 7, 2024 | S4
E17 With a new Administration taking office in January, the Energy Communities Alliance has released a detailed report calling for a top-to-bottom review of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management program. In this week’s episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report podcast, ECA Executive Director Seth Kirshenberg shares with Host Michael Butler the recommendations his
organization believes can help the cleanup program better accomplish its formidable mission, including revisiting EM's end-state contracting model and re-establishing a dedicated DOE office to oversee nuclear waste storage. ECA-DOE-NE Coal to Nuclear Transition Webinar September 27, 2024 As part of ECA’s New Nuclear Initiative, participants will join a discussion with DOE-NE on the feasibility of converting the nation’s retiring coal plants to nuclear power plants. By leveraging
the existing workforce and some of the infrastructure in coal communities the transition from coal-to-nuclear could preserve hundreds of jobs, while creating new jobs and economic opportunities.
DOE-NE - What's Next
for the Federal Consolidated Interim Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel November 20 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm EST In this sixth installment of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE's) consent-based siting webinar series, DOE officials will discuss consent-based siting progress and answer
questions related to the federal consolidated interim storage of spent nuclear fuel. The questions will be drawn from public feedback received during previous webinars, from social science research, and from inquiries sent to DOE email inboxes. The Consent-based Siting Consortia will also be in attendance. All communities, organizations, and individuals interested in DOE’s consent-based siting and consortia activities are encouraged to attend this webinar and, if they would like to ask questions, submit them via Zoom.gov or by email at consentbasedsiting@hq.doe.gov. Register Here |
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