COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
New DOE EM Innovation Facility Being Built in Aiken and BEA Supporting the Community
SRSCRO | 4/21/21
On April 1, 2021, the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) awarded North Wind Construction Services (NWCS), LLC of Idaho Falls, ID, a contract to design and construct the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (AMC) Facility. The new facility, to be located on the campus of the University of South Carolina Aiken (UofSC Aiken), will support the missions of EM and the Savannah
River National Laboratory (SRNL) while enhancing and expanding collaborations with academia, industries, and other government agencies.
Design is expected to be completed this year and construction of the facility is expected to be completed in 2024. But depending on how quickly the steps fall in place, it could be sooner.
The AMC Facility will provide new laboratory, office, and conference space suitable for advanced manufacturing research and development and will be conducive to laboratory, university, and industry collaboration. Specifically, the AMC Facility will provide administrative, research and manufacturing areas for the design and development of chemical engineering reactions, processes, and materials as well as
the production of mechanical and electrical components. The location of the facility was established through a no-cost land lease agreement between the government and the Aiken County Commission for Higher Education (ACCHE).
The new contract is an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity type (IDIQ) contract with a not-to-exceed value of $50 million. The awardee, NWCS, is a Small Business Administration (SBA) certified 8(a) and Small Disadvantaged Business construction firm that is a subsidiary of the Cook Inlet Region, Inc., an Alaska Native Corporation. North Wind is a familiar player around the weapons complex. It runs the
Transuranic Waste Processing Center at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, is lead partner in the landlord services contract for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and does cleanup at the Energy Technology and Engineering Center within the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California.
In a recent announcement, Idaho Falls and Idaho National Laboratory have joined together on plans to repurpose fields near a complex similar to AMC into a hub for research institutions after the city received more than $55,000 in grant funding in hopes of expanding businesses and amenities. The city received a grant from Battelle Energy Alliance (also the new contract lead for SRNL) for $55,700 earlier
this month to establish plans for an innovation district focused on the Center for Advanced Energy Studies and the regional campuses of Idaho State University and the University of Idaho. Innovation districts are created in or near major cities where specific lines of business create hubs for broader economic development.
They have been a favorite subject of the Brookings Institution. Innovation districts are defined as geographic areas where leading-edge anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with start-ups, business incubators and accelerators. Such districts are physically compact, transit-accessible, technically wired and offer mixed-use housing for both office and retail. Rather than focus on discrete
industries, innovation districts represent an intentional effort to create new products, technologies and market solutions through the convergence of disparate sectors and specializations – for example, information technology combining with bioscience, energy, or education.
In one of their previous briefs Brookings looked at the DOE labs’ ability to engage fully with the regional economies in which they are located. In this article, it suggests that in order to improve the impact of the national labs, DOE and Congress
should:
- Improve the labs as an economic asset
- Open labs to small- and medium-sized businesses
- Increase labs’ relevance to regional and metropolitan clusters
- Provide greater flexibility in oversight and funding
The AMC announcement this month checks most of the boxes above. And, as the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program stated in their 2014 paper, The Rise of Innovation Districts: A New Geography of Innovation in America, “the real challenge is
how each community marshals resources in a deliberate and customized way to capitalize on advantages and realize the promise of productive, inclusive, and sustainable growth”.
Now is the time for local community leaders to start a dialogue on their next steps to harness the AMC opportunity and leverage its regional benefits, such as a designated innovation district (like our friends at Idaho Falls) around the AMC facility.
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Engaging Energy Communities in Advanced Nuclear Demonstration Projects
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May 4, 2021
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Coalition Requests Funds to Accelerate Cleanup and Create Jobs in Energy Communities
This week, a coalition made up of the Energy Communities Alliance, Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO, and several regional organizations sent letters to Capitol Hill and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm urging support for a one-time $7.25 billion increase in funding for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) program.
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TESTIMONY
Testimony of Secretary Ernest Moniz, CEO, Energy Futures Initiative before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs | 4/22/2021
Yesterday, former Department of Energy Secretary Moniz testified on the risks of climate change and methods to address those risks to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
In highlighting the risks of climate change, Moniz cited the financial risks that climate change poses to the U.S. economic system and used the case study of Texas' climate emergency earlier this year. It is clear that climate can bring unpredictable swings, Moniz included in his testimony as "Institutions, policymakers, system operators, and investors
across the country need to acknowledge that yesterday’s weather is not a good predictor of future weather extremes." With extreme weather risks ranging from hot to cold, floods to droughts "the 'market' needs improved rules of the road to reduce physical and financial risks to the country."
Moniz noted that with such variability in climate and weather, there is a greater need for reliable and resilient electricity supplies across the entire grid. This directly relates to a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources last month on March 25 that pulled in representatives from the nuclear
energy complex. Many of the Senators questions and witnesses answers during this energy hearing noted the reliable, safe nature of nuclear energy, specifically the nuclear power plants that currently exist and the nuclear reactors that are in development.
Several other points of note given by Moniz include:
- The resources, infrastructures, emissions profiles, innovation, and policy needs vary greatly by region of the country—a “one size fits all” approach to climate risks will likely impede, not accelerate progress towards deep decarbonization.
- Existing U.S. infrastructure, aging and in need of repair, is especially vulnerable to climate impacts.
- Special attention also needs to be paid to providing the training needed as we transition from conventional to clean energy jobs.
- Large scale deployment of intermittent carbon free electricity generation will require significant levels of longer duration storage capable of meeting daily, weekly, and even seasonal variations.
- Clean energy technologies introduce entirely new supply chain needs; there are corresponding and growing risks to those supply chains. Supply chain issues for new clean energy technologies must be evaluated and factored into policies.
- Protecting global supply chains, growing domestic industries and options, and investing in innovation are all critical to providing the energy and associated infrastructures for a clean energy future.
Although nuclear was only briefly mentioned in his testimony, clean energy and carbon-free emissions energy sources were consistently mentioned. Moniz highlighted the need for innovation and the opportunities that exist for the U.S. to become a leader in innovation, policy, and clean energy in a domestic context but also in a global framework.
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
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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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