EM issues strategic vision for 2020-2030

Today, DOE EM issued a new strategic plan for the next decade.  DOE states it will “… build upon the cleanup progress the nuclear complex has seen over the first 30 years of EM operations.”

The EM 2020-2030 strategic vision was first highlighted at the 2020 ECA Annual Conference in Washington DC on January 30-31 as senior adviser for environmental management to the Under Secretary for Science Mr. William “Ike” White presented a keynote address about “Understanding EM Priorities and the Year Ahead.” That session touched on what the turn of the year, and the turn of the decade, would mean for EM priorities and expectations, the future challenges, and the role local governments can play to support cleanup goals.

The main initiatives of this 40-page document prioritizes several overarching topics including:

  • Safety

  • Project Management

  • End-State Contracting

  • Innovative Approaches

  • Potential Opportunities for Acceleration

  • Next-Generation Workforce

  • Infrastructure

  • Regulatory/stakeholder Engagement

  • Security/Cybersecurity

Within those overarching themes above, the 2020-2030 strategic timeline provides specific projects that will be undertaken including:

  • Initiating radioactive tank waste treatment at the Hanford Site in Washington State.

  • Emptying and closing 22 of 51 underground waste tanks and completing disposal of legacy transuranic waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

  • Completing construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility, along with completing disposition of remaining legacy transuranic waste and uranium-233 at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.

  • Completing treatment of remaining liquid-sodium bearing waste and completion shipments of legacy transuranic waste from the Idaho National Laboratory site.

  • Completing key infrastructure upgrades at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.

  • Completing the legacy cleanup activities at the Nevada National Security Site.

Local Government Involvement

ECA would like to see more of a plan to work with local communities in the site strategic plans.  There is a clear plan to work with the states (which is required by law) but the plan to work with local communities is unclear.  The strategic plan that includes local government engagement – and we will note that EM does integrate community engagement in most its actions and identifies local government as a meaningful group for regulatory/stakeholder engagement “to promote mutual interests, share perspectives, and openly discuss potential impacts.”  Local government interaction must be a priority across the nuclear complex for progress to move at the pace set by this decade long strategic vision.

A notable detail ECA would like to highlight in the document is that the plan identifies that DOE plans to transfer land to LM at Oak Ridge.  Last year Congress rejected this plan so we will need to see how this plays out.

To learn more about the timeline, EM priorities and strategies, please find the document HERE.

Mentioned above, EM maps out initiatives for the Next Generation of Workforce, the topic of ECA’s Peer Exchange during May 13 and 14, in Santa Fe, NM.

Topics of high importance to EM and ECA overlap to include the following: waves of retirement, training and retention of a new workforce, and programs that will support workforce development and stability.

To learn more about the ECA Workforce Peer Exchange, please find the website HERE.

Energy Communities Alliance