Copyright 2000 Federal News Service, Inc.
Federal News Service
April 12, 2000, Wednesday
SECTION: PREPARED TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 11780 words
HEADLINE:
PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. CAROLYN L. HUNTOON ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
BEFORE THE
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND
WATER DEVELOPMENT
BODY:
Mr. Chairman, and
Members of the Subcommittee, I appreciate this opportunity to appear before you
to discuss the Department of Energy's Environmental Management (EM) program and
its Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 budget request.
Our budget request of
$6.318 billion for FY 2001 for the EM program will enable the
Department to continue our progress cleaning up our sites. The request seeks
$5.803 billion in traditional budget authority and
$515 million in budget authority to support privatization
projects. This is a total increase of approximately $440
million over this year's current appropriation.
This level of funding in
our request supports critical safety programs for the protection of workers who
carry out cleanup activities across the DOE complex; accelerates cleanup at key
sites; enables the Department to be substantially in compliance with legal
agreements and requirements; responds to Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
recommendations; addresses significant safety risks; and continues efforts to
develop alternative technologies that can reduce the cost and schedule of
cleanup. The request keeps us on track with meeting accelerated closure
schedules at Rocky Flats in Colorado, and at the Mound and Fernald sites in
Ohio. We will be able to continue progress at all sites, including treatment and
disposal of nuclear waste and safe management of nuclear materials. The FY 2001
request for the EM program represents a significant increase over the FY 2000
appropriation, both in traditional budget authority and in funding for
privatization projects. We are requesting an additional $113
million in traditional budget authority and $327 million more
for privatization, an eight percent increase overall. These additional funds
will enable the Department to make more progress in FY 2001 - more shipments of
transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), accelerated cleanup
at the Paducah and Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plants, and the completion of EM
cleanup at Argonne National Laboratory-West in Idaho, Monticello Remedial Action
Project in Utah, and Grand Junction Site in Colorado. With this request we will
also be able to maintain the schedule for the design, construction, and
operation of a privatized vitrification plant for high-level nuclear waste at
the Hanford site in Washington. This waste is currently in underground storage
tanks near the Columbia River.
INTRODUCTION
Before discussing
our FY 2001 budget request, I would like to provide an overview of our program
and describe some of the actions I have taken since being confirmed as Assistant
Secretary for Environmental Management in July 1999, as well as highlight some
of our accomplishments in the past year and our planned achievements for the
current fiscal year.
A. MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL
LEGACY
The Environmental Management program is responsible for managing
and cleaning up the environmental legacy of the nation's nuclear weapons program
and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. If there is one common theme
at all of the very diverse facilities across the country where the EM program is
conducting cleanup, it is the challenge presented by the magnitude and
complexity of the task we face in managing large volumes of nuclear wastes,
safeguarding materials that could be used in nuclear weapons, and remediating
extensive surface and groundwater contamination.
In total, we are
responsible for addressing an estimated 1.7 trillion gallons of contaminated
groundwater and 40 million cubic meters of contaminated soil and debris. EM is
responsible for safely storing and guarding more than 18 metric tons of
weapons-usable plutonium, enough for hundreds of nuclear weapons. Our inventory
includes over two thousand tons of intensely radioactive spent nuclear fuel,
some of which is corroding. EM is also responsible for storage, treatment, and
disposal of radioactive and hazardous waste, including over 340,000 cubic meters
of high-level waste stored at the Hanford, Idaho, New York and Savannah River
sites; and for deactivation and decommissioning of about 4,000 facilities that
are no longer needed to support the Department's mission. In addition, the EM
program also has responsibility for critical nuclear non-proliferation programs
to accept and safely manage spent nuclear fuel from foreign research reactors
that contains weapons-usable highly enriched uranium.
Completing the
cleanup of the legacy from nuclear weapons production will meet our legal and
moral obligation to those communities and states that supported our national
defense effort and helped win both the Second World War and the Cold War.
Completing this cleanup will allow us to turn lands and facilities to other
public uses and allow the Department to focus on its science, security, and
energy missions.
B. PRINCIPLES AND PRIORITIES FOR THE EM PROGRAM
The actual tasks of remediating contamination and storing, treating, and
disposing of wastes are performed exclusively in the field, at the sites where
the contamination and wastes are located. The role of Headquarters is to provide
program guidance and management as to how this work will be conducted. I have
established several management principles and priorities that will guide the
program under my leadership. They are: Safety first; Reduce risks; Meet our
commitments; Accelerate site cleanup and project completion;
*
Strengthen project management; Integrate nuclear waste and materials management
and operations to take advantage of site capabilities across the DOE complex;
Build public confidence and involve stakeholders in our cleanup decisions and
actions; Develop an effective long-term stewardship program -- at many sites
after cleanup is completed the Department will retain responsibilities for
long-term monitoring and maintenance; and Apply the best science and technology
to solve technical problems and reduce costs.
The EM Headquarters office
has recently been organized to implement these principles and better align the
EM program with our goals. The new structure groups management of closure sites
together to ensure the lessons learned about facilitating closure are shared
across the complex. It also establishes specific organizations focused on
safety, project management, and long-term stewardship, as well as science and
technology and cross-complex integration. The re-organization, formally in place
last November, provides stability to an organization that had seen significant
personnel reductions in the past few years and establishes permanent managers
and staff throughout the organization.
We will continue to work towards
cleaning up as many of the remaining contaminated sites as possible by 2006,
safely and cost-effectively. By working toward this goal, we not only reduce the
hazards presently facing our workforce and the public, but also reduce the
long-term financial burden on the taxpayer. For every year that a site remains
open because cleanup has not been completed, we are paying a "mortgage" of
overhead costs for activities such as site security, facility operations,
personnel, and safety. Our budget request, and our organization in Headquarters,
is now structured to emphasize site closure, and site/project completion at our
larger sites and our sites with continuing missions.
C. PROGRESS AND
ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN CLEANING UP AND CLOSING SITES
I am pleased to report
that our program has produced substantial cleanup results at contaminated
nuclear facilities around the country. Our accomplishments reflect the program's
continued commitment to performance-based management, establishing stretch goals
and performance measures that demonstrate our progress in on-the-ground
environmental cleanup and meeting our goals. For example: The Waste Isolation
Pilot Plant (WIPP) opened and began disposal operations in March 1999. Since its
opening through November 1999, 44 shipments of transuranic waste have been sent
to WIPP for disposal from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Rocky Flats, and Idaho
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). We expect that the
Hanford and Savannah River sites will begin shipping waste to WIPP in FY 2000.
We continued to successfully operate two high-level waste vitrification
facilities in South Carolina and at West Valley in New York where last year we
produced 248 canisters of vitrified high-level waste. In F%2000, we expect to
produce at least 200 more canisters at the Savannah River Site facility,
bringing the total canisters poured at this facility to more than 900 canisters
since the facility began operating in 1996. We will vitrify five canisters of
waste at West Valley. At Rocky Flats, we continued to make great strides towards
meeting our 2006 closure goal, including completing shipments of plutonium pits
to the Pantex Plant in Texas and shipments of highly enriched uranium to the
Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge Tennessee. In addition, we demolished a plutonium
research facility and made 12 shipments of transurauic waste to WIPP. EM
completed its cleanup work at three more sites in FY 1999 and will clean up two
more sites by the end of FY 2000. This will bring the number of completed sites
to 71, with 42 sites remaining. At the Hanford Site, we have made significant
progress in reducing the urgent risks associated with the 177 underground
high-level waste tanks at the Hanford site, some of which are known to have
leaked to the surrounding soils threatening groundwater and the nearby Columbia
River. We resolved high priority safety issues in several tanks, such as the
generation of high heat in one tank and a rise in the surface level in another.
We are also interim stabilizing single-shell tanks, transferring free liquids in
the tanks to more secure double-shelled tanks. We have begun pumping free
liquids from six single-shelled tanks, meeting all milestones in the Consent
Decree with the State of Washington. Also at Hanford, we continue stabilization
activities to reduce the risks posed by unstable plutonium materials. In
addition, in August 2000 we expect to make a decision on whether to authorize
the construction of the privatized facility to vitrify the liquid tank waste. At
Weldon Spring in Missouri, we finished treatment of waste pit sludge in the
Chemical Stabilization and Solidification Facility in FY 1999, with about
180,000 cubic yards of treated sludge placed in the disposal facility, and the
treatment facility was decommissioned. We plan to complete waste placement in
the 1.5 million cubic yard capacity disposal facility in FY 2000, with only the
completion of the facility cover remaining.
At INEEL, we completed
construction of a dry storage facility for the Three Mile Island : spent nuclear
fuel and began transfer of the fuel to the facility. We also made four shipments
of transuranic waste to WIPP, meeting a major milestone in the settlement
agreement with the State of Idaho, signed in October 1995. In addition, we
expect to begin construction on the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment facility in
FY 2000. In FY 1999, we disposed of 49,000 cubic meters of low-level waste,
14,000 cubic meters of mixed low-level waste, and 282 cubic meters of
transuranic waste at disposal facilities at DOE sites and at commercial disposal
facilities. At the Mound Plant in Miamisburg Ohio, we continue progress toward
the 2004 closure goal. In FY 1999, we completed shipment of all remaining legacy
low-level and mixed low-level waste from the site. By the end of FY 2000, we
expect to complete the removal of all remaining nuclear materials from the site
and complete decommissioning of three more buildings.
-- Also at Mound,
we transferred two buildings and 27 acres to the City of Miamisburg in FY 1999,
and we expect to deed over two more buildings and another 100 acres in FY 2000.
We awarded the privatization contract for the design, construction, operation
and capping of a waste disposal facility at Oak Ridge for up to 400,000 cubic
meters of contaminated soils and debris. In addition, we expect to issue a
Record of Decision for the transuranic waste treatment project at Oak Ridge. In
support of non-proliferation goals, we have now completed a total of fourteen
shipments of spent nuclear fuel from foreign research reactors in 23 countries
including Brazil, South Korea, and Venezuela. On-the-ground use of new
innovative technologies continues to increase. During FY1999, DOE sites used
innovative technologies 218 times in cleanup activities. For example, the
Segmented Gate System (SGS) was successfully used for projects at Sandia
National Laboratories and Los Alamos. This technology is a computer-controlled
mechanical sorer that separates clean soil from contaminated waste streams,
thereby significantly reducing the volume of waste to be packaged and disposed
of, and reducing costs by up to 75 percent. Also in FY 1999, 40 innovative
technologies were made available for use for the first time. One such technology
is the Multifunction Corrosion Probe now being used in the tanks at Hanford.
This technology helps reduce the volume of tank waste by allowing workers to
directly monitor the rate of tank corrosion and add only the minimum amount of
sodium hydroxide necessary to inhibit corrosion. During FY 2000, the sites
expect to deploy new technology at least 60 times in cleanup activities. For
example, the Lasagna electro- osmosis process will be used to remove groundwater
contaminants at the Paducab Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
THE FY 2001 REQUEST
The FY 2001 budget request of $5.803 billion in
traditional budget authority and $515 million in budget
authority to support privatization projects will enable EM to continue making
progress across the country. In FY 2001, we will continue to give priority to
high risk problems such as stabilizing and ensuring the security of plutonium at
several sites; stabilizing tanks containing high-level radioactive waste; and
ensuring the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel, including foreign research
reactor fuel in support of non- proliferation goals. We will continue to move
closer to the goal of completing the cleanup of Rocky Flats, the Mound Site and
Fernald in Ohio, and Weldon Spring in Missouri by 2006. We will complete the
cleanup of three additional DOE sites. We will accelerate the cleanup of the
uranium enrichment plants at Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky, and will
significantly increase the number of shipments to WIPP. We also are requesting
funds to begin construction of the privatized high-level waste vitrification
plant at the Hanford site.
A. SAFETY FIRST
The safety of our
workers is our highest priority. We will not compromise the safety of our
workers in any of our activities. As our cleanup accelerates, we must ensure
that we have truly implemented and institutionalized Integrated Safety
Management - the systems, procedures, and behavioral attitudes in place to
continually improve our safety performance. In the recent EM reorganization, I
created the Office of Safety, Health and Security to consolidate EM's resources,
expertise and experience in these areas.
A primary objective of this
office is to ensure all EM personnel understand their responsibilities in the
areas of safety and security so that these concepts and practices are integral
to all EM programs and activities. Safety culture flows from actions by the
senior management of an organization. These actions enforce understanding at
every level that constant attention to safety has incremental beneficial
effects, and the absence of these actions can almost guarantee adverse
consequences. We are improving our safety orientation and performance as we
strive to become a leader in safety throughout the DOE complex, with an approach
to and record in safety that meets or exceeds the best private industrial firms.
Managers at all levels are responsible for monitoring, taking appropriate
actions to ensure that a commitment to safety is engendered throughout the
organization, and participating in feedback systems so that continual
improvements can be realized. We will be successful when we consider safety in
everything we do - whether it is budget allocation, work formulation and
prioritization, or staffing.
B. MAKING MORE PROGRESS IN REDUCING RISKS
Move spent nuclear fuel from K Basins at Hanford - The FY 2001 request
furthers our efforts to protect the Columbia River by beginning the removal of
spent nuclear fuel from K-Basins at the Hanford Site in Washington. Our request
will enable us to meet the milestone to begin fuel removal in November 2000.
This project will carry out a first-of- a-kind technical solution to move 2,100
metric tons of corroding spent nuclear fuel from at-risk wet storage conditions
in the K-East and K- West basins adjacent to the Columbia River into safe, dry
storage in a new facility away from the river.
Achieving this milestone
will represent a significant accomplishment for a project that previously
suffered from technical and management problems that delayed schedules and
increased costs. We are now on track with a new baseline established in December
1998 thatprovides a realistic means to move this spent fuel to a safer facility
and location.
Move Three Mile Island Spent Nuclear Fuel to Safe Storage
- At INEEL, we will complete the transfer of Three Mile Island spent nuclear
fuel to dry storage and the transfer of spent nuclear fuel at the Idaho Nuclear
Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) from aging, deteriorating underwater
storage to safer storage facilities. These transfers reduce environmental and
safety risks and fulfill commitments in the Idaho Settlement Agreement.
Stabilize Plutonium at Hanford and Savannah River Sites - We are
reducing risks by stabilizing plutonium-bearing materials at the Hanford and the
Savannah River Sites. At Hanford, we will continue stabilization of
plutonium-bearing materials and oxides at the Plutonium Finishing Plant. In
addition, we will begin operating the bagless transfer system for packaging
plutonium-bearing materials and complete brushing and repackaging of plutonium
metal inventory. These stabilization activities support our commitment to the
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and are a critical step in the
deactivation of Plutonium Finishing Plant, which will significantly reduce
mortgage costs at Hanford.
The request supports critical work to
stabilize plutonium residues and other plutonium-bearing materials from the
Savannah River Site and other sites across the complex, including plutonium
residues and other plutonium-bearing materials from the Rocky Flats site in
Colorado, in the FCanyon and H-Canyon at Savannah River. Stabilization of these
"at risk" materials is critical in resolving health and safety concerns
surrounding these radioactive materials, since they are now in liquid or
unstable forms unsuitable for long-term storage; supporting closure goals at
Rocky Flats; and responding to Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
recommendations.
Stabilize High-Level Waste in Underground Storage Tanks
at Hanford - In FY 2001, we will continue improving safety of the high-level
waste tanks by resolving high priority safety issues such as flammable gas
generation and continuing interim stabilization work that involves pumping
liquid waste from single-shelled tanks into double-shelled tanks. The remaining
two tanks which are suspected of having leaked in the past will be pumped during
FY 2001.
Receive Foreign Research Reactor Fuel -- The FY 2001 request
continues support for the return of spent nuclear fuel containing uranium
originally enriched in the United States from foreign research reactors around
the world. This program reduces the threat of nuclear proliferation by ensuring
enriched uranium will not be used to make nuclear weapons. It also supports a
U.S. nuclear weapons nonproliferation policy calling for the reduction and
eventual elimination of the use of highly enriched uranium in civil programs
worldwide.
Spent nuclear fuel will be shipped from research reactors in
Argentina, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Japan to the United
States in FY 2001, and the Department is working with other interested, eligible
foreign research reactors in The Netherlands, Chile, and Indonesia in an attempt
to include additional countries in the 2001 shipment schedule.
Blend-down of Highly Enriched Uranium at Savannah River- The FY 2001 EM
request includes $37.9 million to support a creative approach
to convert the Department's store ofsurplus highly enriched uranium to low
enriched uranium for use as a commercial reactor fuel, offering a means to
eliminate the proliferation risk posed by this weapons-grade material. The
"Blend-Down" project, managed by the Office of Fissile Materials Disposition, is
a collaboration between DOE and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which will
use the converted fuel in its nuclear power reactors. The project is highly
beneficial to both agencies. First, blending down the highly enriched uranium to
low enriched uranium furthers DOE's non-proliferation goals. Second, it will
reduce DOE's long-term liabilities and risks associated with storing the
material as highly enriched uranium or converting it to a waste form for
disposal. Third, transferring the low enriched uranium solution to TVA's vendors
will satisfy a DOE commitment to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
Fourth, TVA will realize significant savings as compared to buying virgin fuel
on the open market. Depending on actual program costs and uranium market prices,
DOE may ultimately receive a share of the savings.
The request will
provide for a loading station at the Savannah River Site to transfer the uranium
solutions from the H-area tanks to shipping containers and fund other
infrastructure requirements for the project at the site. The project will use
existing reprocessing facilities at the site and, as currently planned, will not
extend the life of Savannah River reprocessing facilities or increase EM
operational funding requirements.
C. MEETING OUR COMMITMENTS
At
the FY 2001 request level of $6.318 billion, EM will be
substantially in compliance with applicable environmental and other legal
requirements. Most of our activities are governed by federal and state
environmental statutes and regulations and enforceable agreements between the
Department and federal and state agencies. We are committed to complying with
these legal requirements and agreements. In addition, we plan to meet our
commitments to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. In several cases, we
need to work closely with our regulators and the Board as well as our
stakeholders and Tribal Nations, on the appropriate schedule and milestones for
our program. We will continue to work to reduce costs and accelerate schedules
so that we can meet our compliance requirements in the most practical and
cost-effective manner.
D. ACCELERATING SITE CLEANUP AND PROJECT
COMPLETION
Complete More Site Cleanups - In FY 2001, we will continue to
make progress toward the goal of cleaning up as many of the remaining
contaminated sites as possible by 2006, safely and cost-effectively. At the
start of FY 1997, shortly after the EM program first established this goal, 61
of the 113 sites in the EM program required active cleanup. We now have
completed cleanup at 69 sites, and have 44 sites that still require active
cleanup. We plan to complete cleanup at two additional sites this fiscal year
and at three sites in FY 2001 Argonne National Laboratory-West in Idaho,
Monticello Remedial Action Project in Utah, and Grand Junction Site in Colorado.
In fact, we are accelerating the cleanup at Grand Junction to 2001 from 2002 as
initially planned. We plan to reduce the number of cleanup sites remaining to 39
by the end of FY 2001.%
Complete Vitrification of High-Level Waste at
West Valley - At the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York, we will
achieve significant milestones in carrying out the Department's responsibilities
at this once privately-owned commercial nuclear processing facility. We will
complete high-level waste vitrification processing, producing the final five
canisters, and begin deactivation of the vitrification facility.
At the
end of the vitrification campaign, the Department will have vitrified 600,000
gallons of liquid high-level waste, reducing risks to the workers and public by
converting the waste into a stable form. We will also complete the shipment of
all spent nuclear fuel to INEEL. Removing the 125 spent fuel elements from the
spent fuel pool at West Valley is a prerequisite for decontamination and
decommissioning of facilities.
Make Progress Toward Closing Rocky Flats
by 2006 - The budget request of $664.7 million supports closure
of Rocky Flats by December 15, 2006, the closure date targeted in the new
costplus-incentive-fee contract with Kaiser-Hill that took effect February 1,
2000. The Rocky Flats site is the largest site challenged to accelerate site
cleanup and achieve closure in 2006 and, to date, significant progress has been
made toward making this goal a reality. Despite the many challenges facing the
closure of Rocky Flats, we are confident that the terms and conditions of the
closure contract, including the schedule and performance incentives, better
position us to achieve our goal of realizing substantial savings and dramatic
risk reduction through accelerated closure. Critical elements in the closure
strategy are stable funding for the life of the project and the ability to move
nuclear materials and radioactive wastes from the site, which requires that
other sites - often DOE sites - are available and prepared to accept the
materials. The coordination of these planned shipping campaigns to the receiver
sites demonstrates the Department-wide commitment to the goal of achieving
accelerated closure of Rocky Flats.
In FY 2000, we began operating under
a baseline that supports closure in 2006, which replaced a baseline for
completing cleanup in 2010, and our activities and schedules for FY 2001 are
consistent with this baseline. Under this baseline, by the end of 2001, we will:
complete 98 percent of plutonium residues packaging for shipment;
complete the draining of the liquid plutonium from the pipes in Building 771 and
remove the pipes in preparation for demolishing the building; complete 88
percent of plutonium metal and oxides packaging for shipment; complete 80
percent of plutonium metal and oxides off- site shipments.
The new
closure contract, valued at nearly $4.0 billion plus incentive
payments, requires KaiserHill to submit a revised baseline reflecting the terms
and conditions of the contract by the end of June 2000. The specific activities
detailed within the FY 2001 request will be adjusted pending review and
acceptance of the new baseline.
Under the new contract, the Department
and Kaiser-Hill are better positioned to safely achieve site closure by 2006. We
have clearly come a long way since the previous contractor estimated a few years
ago that it would take $30 billion and 30 years to complete
cleanup at Rocky Flats.Increase Shipments to WIPP - The FY 2001 budget request
of $194.5 million, a $13 million increase over
the FY 2000 appropriation, supports more shipments of transuranic waste to WIPP
in New Mexico. The FY 2001 request supports shipments of contact-handled
transuranic waste at a rate of 13 shipments per week by the end of FY 2001, a
significant increase over the end-of-year rate of two shipments per week in FY
1999, and five shipments per week in FY 2000. The number of shipments will
increase from about 120 in FY 2000 to about 485 in FY 2001, from Rocky Flats,
Los Alamos, INEEL, Hanford, and the Savannah River Site. We will also be
completing remote-handled transuranic waste equipment upgrades and regulatory
submittals, in preparation for beginning remote-handled waste shipments in FY
2002.
Begin the Construction Phase of High-level Waste Treatment
Facility at Hanford - The FY 2001 request provides $450 million
in budget authority to support the privatization project to develop treatment
facilities to vitrify at least 10 percent by volume of the 54 million gallons of
high-level waste now stored in underground tanks at the Hanford Site in
Washington, a project managed by DOE's Office of River Protection. This
significant increase over the request of $105.7 million in the
FY 2000 appropriation anticipates a decision in FY 2000 authorizing the
contractor, BNFL, Inc., to proceed with the start of the construction phase for
the facilities. The project is now in a phase in which the contractor will
complete 30 percent of the design process, obtain financing, and submit a
fixed-price bid. The Department will evaluate the contractor's proposal, as well
as determine whether all other critical elements, such as the delivery of the
waste to the facility, are in place and ready to support the project and the
schedule. Based on this in-depth evaluation, the Department will make a
decision, expected in August 2000, on whether to proceed. If the Department
authorizes construction to proceed, the amount requested in FY 2001 will allow
the contractor to initiate long-lead procurements and begin construction.
We are requesting less for FY 2001 than previously indicated because
design work has progressed at a slower pace than originally anticipated. We are
confident that we will have sufficient design completed to make the
authorization to proceed decision in August as scheduled, but we intend to
develop a robust and complete design before beginning construction and long-lead
procurement. As a result, construction and long-lead procurement activities will
not be at the same pace in FY 2001 as indicated previously. This approach will
provide the Department and the Congress with additional confidence in the
project before we move forward.
In addition, we are requesting
$382 million in traditional budget authority for the Office of
River Protection, a $44 million increase from last year. This
funding enables the Department to mitigate the hazards associated with the
high-level waste in the tanks and safely maintain them. It also funds the
preparation of the tank farm retrieval system that will deliver tank waste to
the privatized treatment facility. The schedule for developing the waste
delivery system and preparing waste must be fully integrated with the privatized
facility schedule in order for the treatment to begin on time. We will be
determining the readiness of this waste feed system when making the decision
next August regarding the authorization-to- proceed with a treatment facility.
This part of the project will continue to be funded through traditional budget
authority, as reflected in this year's request. Accelerate Cleanup at Portsmouth
and Paducah - Our FY 2001 budget request responds to concerns raised by
investigations by DOE's Office of Environment, Safety and Health (EH) about the
pace of cleanup, and fulfils the Secretary's commitment to seek additional funds
to accelerate cleanup of environmental contamination at the gaseous diffusion
plants at Paducah, Kentucky and Portsmouth, Ohio. This also meets the
recommendations in the Conference Report for the FY 2000 Energy and Water
Development Appropriations Act to substantially increase funding for cleanup of
these two sites. These plants were used to enrich uranium for defense and energy
purposes and were transferred to the U.S. Enrichment Corporation in 1998.
The Department is requesting $78 million for Paducah in
FY 2001, nearly $24 million more than in FY 2000 and almost a
two-fold increase from the appropriation in FY 1999. These funds will allow us
to complete the removal of"Drum Mountain," a large scrap pile containing
thousands of drums, which is a suspected source of contamination of the Big and
Little Bayou Creeks from surface run-off. We will remove the remaining 51,000
tons of contaminated scrap metal stored in outside storage areas, allowing
characterization of the ground underneath the piles. The funds will be used to
continue stabilization activities in two shut down buildings. We will also be
able to characterize and dispose of the remaining 9,000 drums of low-level
radioactive waste, some of which are currently stored in deteriorating drums,
and ship 2,000 drums of mixed waste to an offsite disposal facility. These
activities address specific concerns raised by the EH investigation team.
The request provides $76.2 million for cleanup
activities at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, about $30
million more than in FY 2000. This funding will allow the site to complete final
corrective actions for the groundwater plumes on the south side of the site
containing such chemical contaminants as polychlorinated byphenyls (PCBs),
trichloroethylene (TCE), and chromium and begin design and construction for soil
and groundwater contamination on the north side. We will also dispose of
contaminated soil and accelerate characterization and disposal of mixed
hazardous and radioactive waste. The increased funding will keep us on track
with completing environmental restoration activities by FY 2002 and waste
management activities by FY' 2006.
We also have submitted a supplemental
request for $16 million in FY 2000 to accelerate work at the
Portsmouth and Paducah plants. We appreciate this Subcommittee's favorable
consideration of our request.
Make Progress Toward Closure at Ohio Sites
- At the Fernald Environmental Management Project, we will continue accelerating
closure of this former uranium production facility. We will place a permanent
eap on Cell 1 of the On-site Disposal Facility using an innovative capping
technology. This facility, designed to have seven cells with an option for an
eighth, is enabling us to accelerate disposal of contaminated soil and debris
resulting from cleanup and building demolition.
At the Mound Plant in
Ohio, we will accelerate tritium decontamination in buildings on the "critical
path" to closure, completing decontamination of three of eight acres in the
Semi-Works building, one of three significant contaminated buildings that
comprise the tritium complex. Wesurplus highly enriched uranium to low enriched
uranium for use as a commercial reactor fuel, offering a means to eliminate the
proliferation risk posed by this weapons-grade material. The "Blend-Down"
project, managed by the Office of Fissile Materials Disposition, is a
collaboration between DOE and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which will
use the converted fuel in its nuclear power reactors. The project is highly
beneficial to both agencies. First, blending down the highly enriched uranium to
low enriched uranium furthers DOE's non-proliferation goals. Second, it will
reduce DOE's long-term liabilities and risks associated with storing the
material as highly enriched uranium or convening it to a waste form for
disposal. Third, transferring the low enriched uranium solution to TVA's vendors
will satisfy a DOE commitment to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
Fourth, TVA will realize significant savings as compared to buying virgin fuel
on the open market. Depending on actual program costs and uranium market prices,
DOE may ultimately receive a share of the savings.
The request will
provide for a loading station at the Savannah River Site to transfer the uranium
solutions from the H-area tanks to shipping containers and fund other
infrastructure requirements for the project at the site. The project will use
existing reprocessing facilities at the site and, as currently planned, will not
extend the life of Savannah River reprocessing facilities or increase EM
operational funding requirements.
C. MEETING OUR COMMITMENTS
At
the FY 2001 request level of $6.318 billion, EM will be
substantially in compliance with applicable environmental and other legal
requirements. Most of our activities are governed by federal and state
environmental statutes and regulations and enforceable agreements between the
Department and federal and state agencies. We are committed to complying with
these legal requirements and agreements. In addition, we plan to meet our
commitments to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. In several cases, we
need to work closely with our regulators and the Board as well as our
stakeholders and Tribal Nations, on the appropriate schedule and milestones for
our program. We will continue to work to reduce costs and accelerate schedules
so that we can meet our compliance requirements in the most practical and
cost-effective manner.
D. ACCELERATING SITE CLEANUP AND PROJECT
COMPLETION
Complete More Site Cleanups - In FY 2001, we will continue to
make progress toward the goal of cleaning up as many of the remaining
contaminated sites as possible by 2006, safely and cost-effectively. At the
start of FY 1997, shortly after the EM program first established this goal, 61
of the 113 sites in the EM program required active cleanup. We now have
completed cleanup at 69 sites, and have 44 sites that still require active
cleanup. We plan to complete cleanup at two additional sites this fiscal year
and at three sites in FY 2001 Argonne National Laboratory-West in Idaho,
Monticello Remedial Action Project in Utah, and Grand Junction Site in Colorado.
In fact, we are accelerating the cleanup at Grand Junction to 2001 from 2002 as
initially planned. We plan to reduce the number of cleanup sites remaining to 39
by the end of Fir 2001.Complete Vitrification of High- Level Waste at west
Valley - At the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York, we will achieve
significant milestones in carrying out the Department's responsibilities at this
once privately-owned commercial nuclear processing facility. We will complete
high-level waste vitrification processing, producing the final five canisters,
and begin deactivation of the vitrification facility. At the end of the
vitrification campaign, the Department Will have vitrified 600,000 gallons of
liquid high-level waste, reducing risks to the workers and public by converting
the waste into a stable form. We will also complete the shipment of all spent
nuclear fuel to INEEL. Removing the 125 spent fuel elements from the spent fuel
pool at West Valley is a prerequisite for decontamination and decommissioning of
facilities.
Make Progress Toward Closing Rocky Flats by 2006 - The
budget request of $664.7 million supports closure of Rocky
Flats by December 15, 2006, the closure date targeted in the new
costplus-incentive-fee contract With Kaiser-Hill that took effect February 1,
2000. The Rocky Flats site is the largest site challenged to accelerate site
cleanup and achieve closure in 2006 and, to date, significant progress has been
made toward making this goal a reality. Despite the many challenges facing the
closure of Rocky Flats, we are confident that the terms and conditions of the
closure contract, including the schedule and performance incentives, better
position ns to achieve our goal of realizing substantial savings and dramatic
risk reduction through accelerated closure. Critical elements in the closure
strategy are stable funding for the life of the project and the ability to move
nuclear materials and radioactive wastes from the site, which requires that
other sites - often DOE sites - are available and prepared to accept the
materials. The coordination of these planned shipping campaigns to the receiver
sites demonstrates the Department-wide commitment to the goal of achieving
accelerated closure of Rocky Flats.
In FY 2000, we began operating under
a baseline that supports closure in 2006, which replaced a baseline for
completing cleanup in 2010, and our activities and schedules for FY 2001 are
consistent with this baseline. Under this baseline, by the end of 2001, we Will:
complete 98 percent of plutonium residues packaging for shipment; - complete the
draining of the liquid plutonium from the pipes in Building 771 and remove the
pipes in preparation for demolishing the building; - complete 88 percent of
plutonium metal and oxides packaging for shipment; - complete 80 percent of
plutonium metal and oxides off-site shipments.
The new closure contract,
valued at nearly $4.0 billion plus incentive payments, requires
KaiserHill to submit a revised baseline reflecting the terms and conditions of
the contract by the end of June 2000. The specific activities detailed within
the FY 2001 request Will be adjusted pending review and acceptance of the new
baseline.
Under the new contract, the Department and Kaiser-Hill are
better positioned to safely achieve site closure by 2006. We have clearly come a
long way since the previous contractor estimated a few years ago that it would
take $30 billion and 30 years to complete cleanup at Rocky
Hats.Increase Shipments to WIPP - The FY 2001 budget request of
$194.5 million, a $13 million increase over
the FY 2000 appropriation, supports more shipments of transuranic waste to WIPP
in New Mexico. The FY 2001 request supports shipments of contact-handled
transuranic waste at a rate of 13 shipments per week by the end of FY 2001, a
significant increase over the end-of-year rate of two shipments per week in FY
1999, and five shipments per week in FY 2000. The number of shipments will
increase from about 120 in FY 2000 to about 485 in FY 2001, from Rocky Flats,
Los Alamos, INEEL, Hanford, and the Savannah River Site. We will also be
completing remote-handled transuranic waste equipment upgrades and regulatory
submittals, in preparation for beginning remote-handled waste shipments in FY
2002.
Begin the Construction Phase of High-level Waste Treatment
Facility at Hanford - The FY 2001 request provides $450 million
in budget authority to support the privatization project to develop treatment
facilities to vitrify at least 10 percent by volume of the 54 million gallons of
high-level waste now stored in underground tanks at the Hanford Site in
Washington, a project managed by DOE's Office of River Protection. This
significant increase over the request of $105.7 million in the
FY 2000 appropriation anticipates a decision in FY 2000 authorizing the
contractor, BNFL, Inc., to proceed with the start of the construction phase for
the facilities. The project is now in a phase in which the contractor will
complete 30 percent of the design process, obtain financing, and submit a
fixed-price bid. The Department will evaluate the contractor's proposal, as well
as determine whether all other critical elements, such as the delivery of the
waste to the facility, are in place and ready to support the project and the
schedule. Based on this in-depth evaluation, the Department will make a
decision, expected in August 2000, on whether to proceed. If the Department
authorizes construction to proceed, the amount requested in FY 2001 will allow
the contractor to initiate long-lead procurements and begin construction.
We are requesting less for FY 2001 than previously indicated because
design work has progressed at a slower pace than originally anticipated. We are
confident that we will have sufficient design completed to make the
authorization to proceed decision in August as scheduled, but we intend to
develop a robust and complete design before beginning construction and long-lead
procurement. As a result, construction and long-lead procurement activities will
not be at the same pace in FY 2001 as indicated previously. This approach will
provide the Department and the Congress with additional confidence in the
project before we move forward.
In addition, we are requesting
$382 million in traditional budget authority for the Office of
River Protection, a $44 million increase from last year. This
funding enables the Department to mitigate the hazards associated with the
high-level waste in the tanks and safely maintain them. It also funds the
preparation of the tank farm retrieval system that will deliver tank waste to
the privatized treatment facility. The schedule for developing the waste
delivery system and preparing waste must be fully integrated with the privatized
facility schedule in order for the treatment to begin on time. We will be
determining the readiness of this waste feed system when making the decision
next August regarding the authorization-to- proceed with a treatment facility.
This part of the project will continue to be funded through traditional budget
authority, as reflected in this year's request.Accelerate Cleanup at Portsmouth
and Paducah - Our FY 2001 budget request responds to concerns raised by
investigations by DOE's Office of Environment, Safety and Health (EH) about the
pace of cleanup, and fulfils the Secretary's commitment to seek additional funds
to accelerate cleanup of environmental contamination at the gaseous diffusion
plants at Paducah, Kentucky and Portsmouth, Ohio. This also meets the
recommendations in the Conference Report for the FY 2000 Energy and Water
Development Appropriations Act to substantially increase funding for cleanup of
these two sites. These plants were used to enrich uraninm for defense and energy
purposes and were transferred to the U.S. Enrichment Corporation in 1998.
The Department is requesting $78 million for Paducah in
FY 2001, nearly $24 million more than in FY 2000 and almost a
two-fold increase from the appropriation in FY 1999. These funds will allow us
to complete the removal of "Drum Mountain," a large scrap pile containing
thousands of drums, which is a suspected source of contamination of the Big and
Little Bayou Creeks from surface nra-off. We will remove the remaining 51,000
tons of contaminated scrap metal stored in outside storage areas, allowing
characterization of the ground underneath the piles. The funds will be used to
continue stabilization activities in two shut down buildings. We will also be
able to characterize and dispose of the remaining 9,000 drums of low-level
radioactive waste, some of which are currently stored in deteriorating drums,
and ship 2,000 drums of mixed waste to an offsite disposal facility. These
activities address specific concerns raised by the EH investigation team.
The request provides $76.2 million for cleanup
activities at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, about $30
million more than in FY 2000. This funding will allow the site to complete final
corrective actions for the groundwater plumes on the south side of the site
containing such chemical contaminants as polychlorinated byphenyls (PCBs),
trichloroethylene (TCE), and chromium and begin design and construction for soil
and groundwater contamination on the north side. We will also dispose of
contaminated soil and accelerate characterization and disposal of mixed
hazardous and radioactive waste. The increased funding will keep us on track
with completing environmental restoration activities by FY 2002 and waste
management activities by FY 2006.
We also have submitted a supplemental
request for $16 million in FY 2000 to accelerate work at the
Portsmouth and Paducah plants. We appreciate this Subcommittee's favorable
consideration of our request.
Make Progress Toward Closure at Ohio Sites
- At the Fernald Environmental Management Project, we will continue accelerating
closure of this former uraninm production facility. We will place a permanent
eap on Cell 1 of the On-site Disposal Facility using an innovative capping
technology. This facility, designed to have seven cells with an option for an
eighth, is enabling us to accelerate disposal of contaminated soil and debris
resulting from cleanup and building demolition.
At the Mound Plant in
Ohio, we will accelerate tritium decontamination in buildings on the "critical
path" to closure, completing decontamination of three of eight acres in the
Semi-Works building, one of three significant contaminated buildings that
comprise the tritium complex. Wewill also continue demolition of surplus
buildings. Of the 107 buildings to be removed from the site, approximately 50
percent will be either demolished or auctioned off by FY 2001.
Begin
Work at the Uranium Mill Tailings Site in Moab - The budget request also
includes a proposal that the Department undertake cleanup of a uranium mill
tailings site in Moab, Utah, formerly owned by the now-bankrupt Atlas
Corporation. The tailings contain low-levels of radioactivity from uranium,
radium and their decay products, as well as hazardous constituents that present
a small but continuing risk for contamination of the Colorado River. There have
been concerns expressed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as local
communities and downstream states, about the risks posed to the river. Located
next to the river, the site is in a major tourist area because of its proximity
to two National Parks. The Department believes it is important to preserve these
national treasures and restore the environment. Our experience with cleanup of
older uranium mill tailings sites, many of which were located along streams and
rivers, makes the Department well-suited to this task. We are proposing to work
with Congress to develop legislation that would direct the Department to
undertake this $200 to $300 million cleanup
project to relocate and stabilize the Moab tailings at a secure site, away from
the river. We are requesting $10 million in FY 2001 in the
non-defense account to initiate activities at this site.
E.
STRENGTHENING PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project management principles and
practices provide the discipline for EM to achieve its cleanup goals
efficiently. To effectively oversee and manage our contractor workforce, we must
be knowledgeable of and employ state-of-the-industry project management
practices. I have created an Office of Project Management within EM to set
project management policies and procedures, conduct independent project reviews,
and train our staff in project management practices. This office is working with
organizations such as the Construction Industry Institute, the Project
Management Institute, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, to
bring state-ofthe-art project management tools and training into the EM program
to enable us to better manage our projects.
Many of our sites have
improved their project baselines and project management practices in the last
year. The Oak Ridge Operations Office completed a comprehensive revision of
their baselines that provides the most complete and thorough baselines to date
for their sites. The Idaho Operations Office implemented a process for
re-estimating about half of their baselines, resulting in higher confidence in
their estimates. A new baseline for the project at the Hanford site to move
spent nuclear fuel from the aging K-Basins to safer, dry storage was established
in FY 1999 that provided the first realistic and achievable cost and schedule to
accomplish the transfer of the fuel. The Rocky Flats site revised its baseline
to reflect a 2006 closure rather than the 2010 closure date in last year's
baseline. Additional improvements in baselines are under way this year at Idaho
and Rocky Flats with selected improvements elsewhere.
Over the past year
we have developed and implemented a system of internal controls. We are
requiring that all work be organized into discrete projects and that baselines
be documented, and have established a change-control system. EM has
re-instituted a rigorous "change-control" andcritical decision process with
defined thresholds for approval to enable us to better control our projects.
Finally, I am formalizing quarterly reviews of major systems and other high
visibility projects.
The Department has created the Office of
Engineering and Construction Management within the Office of the Chief Financial
Officer to provide a Department-wide focus on project management policies,
tools, and procedures. EM is working closely with this office to develop and
implement a new DOE Order governing project management. Included in this Order
will be enhanced policies on change control, critical decision approval by the
Deputy Secretary for Major Systems, quarterly project reviews, and monthly
project performance reporting.
F. INTEGRATING WASTE AND MATERIALS
MANAGEMENT Sharing information and the unique capabilities for managing and
treating nuclear wastes and materials at many of our sites is critical to our
success. Our integration initiative seeks to consolidate treatment, storage and
disposal facilities and use available capacity rather than construct new
facilities; apply innovative technologies at multiple sites; and apply lessons
learned and site successes complex- wide.
We have several key
initiatives to facilitate site closure by moving materials to other sites for
interim storage, with requested funds supporting the necessary activities in
both the receiving and the sending sites. The Department has made substantial
progress in consolidating storage of certain special nuclear materials from the
Rocky Flats site in Colorado.
In FY 1999, Rocky Flats completed
shipments of plutonium weapons pits to the Pantex Plant in Texas and highly
enriched uranium to the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Rocky Flats also
began shipments of plutonium scrub alloy to the Savannah River Site in South
Carolina in FY 1999; we will complete these shipments this year. This
consolidation of nuclear materials has supported our 2006 closure goal for Rocky
Flats and reduced the cost of maintaining security for the remaining special
nuclear materials. The Department is also preparing to ship containers of excess
plutonium to the Savannah River Site for storage in modified K-Reactor Area
facilities. These shipments are scheduled to begin in FY 2000.
The
Department has made progress in identifying sites that will treat and dispose of
similar waste generated by sites across the DOE complex. In December 1999, after
extensive technical analyses and consultation with state representatives and
other stakeholders, we announced our site preferences for disposal of DOE
low-level and mixed low-level waste based on the Waste Management Programmatic
Environmental Impact Statement. This allowed us to complete a formal Record of
Decision in February 2000 on low-level and mixed low-level waste treatment and
disposal facilities, after further consultations with the affected states. The
decisions, when implemented, will result in more efficient waste disposal
operations as well as development of capabilities that do not currently exist.
These capabilities are needed to move waste from storage to disposal and support
cleanup and closure of sites. The Department also has 340,000 cubic meters of
high-level waste at four sites, and is storing spent fuel at a number of sites.
These will be safely stored until a geological repository is available. The
Department is now evaluating the suitability of Yucca Mountain
in Nevada as a repository.The opening of WIPP in New Mexico for disposal
operations in March 1999 provides a good example of the benefits of integration.
For decades a large amount of transuranic waste has been stored at about two
dozen sites across the United States. Beginning disposal operations at WIPP
provides a means for the Department to permanently dispose of this long-lived
radioactive waste while reducing the number of sites where this waste is stored.
WIPP is critical for closing sites like Rocky Flats; for meeting compliance
obligations for more than a dozen other sites, including the Idaho Settlement
Agreement; and for reducing storage costs and risks to the public. In October
1999, the State of New Mexico Environment Department issued a final hazardous
waste permit that became effective in November 1999. The permit allows WIPP to
dispose of mixed transuranic waste. The Department is working to implement the
permit while challenging several provisions that we believe are inappropriate,
such as financial assurance requirements and certain technical requirements. It
is critical that these issues are successfully resolved so that our waste
management commitments and goals for WIPP can be met. From March 26, 1999, when
WIPP began disposal operations until November 1999 when shipments were
temporarily stopped to align the program with requirements in the newly-issued
RCRA permit, WIPP received 44 shipments of non-mixed waste from three sites -
Los Alamos, Rocky Flats, and INEEL.
Finally, the transport of
radioactive waste and material between sites is critical to the success of our
integration priorities. Our transportation program, which successfully moved
spent nuclear fuel containing U.S. enriched uranium from research reactors
around the world to the U.S. for safe storage, is applying its success to other
DOE shipments. EM is working with other DOE program offices and with the sites
to develop a corporate strategy that will enable us to identify future packaging
and transportation needs, to support aggressive shipping schedules, and to
utilize our transportation assets more efficiently.
G. BUILDING PUBLIC
CONFIDENCE
We have found that performing good technical work is not
enough. Getting the job done requires cooperation with regulators and others
outside of DOE that have a stake in our actions. By working cooperatively with
regulators, stakeholders, local communities and the Tribal Nations, we have
improved the efficiency of the EM program and have been able to meet our
regulatory commitments in a more efficient and cost-effective way. Our request
continues support for effective public participation through continued
relationships with states, site-specific and national advisory boards, and
Indian tribes potentially affected by our activities.
H. DEVELOPING
EFFECTIVE LONG-TERM STEWARDSHIP
As the Department completes
stabilization, cleanup and disposal of waste, we must consider the next and
final stage in the cleanup process: meeting our enduring environmental
protection obligations through long-term stewardship. At most sites the
Department is performing cleanup that will make the land available for other
uses, but not necessarily unrestricted use, because of the presence of residual
contaminants or deliberate entombment of waste or facilities. The Department has
been completing cleanup that results in substantial risk and maintenance cost
reductions. Similar to the cleanup of private sites, cleanup to levels allowing
for unrestricted use often cannot be achieved at DOE sites for economic or
technical reasons and has not beendemanded by regulators. The Department has
been able to take advantage of the Superfund administrative reforms developed by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow anticipated future land
use to be considered in developing cleanup remedies.
The goal of
long-term stewardship is the sustainable protection of human health and the
environment after cleanup, disposal or stabilization is completed. A robust
long-term stewardship program emphasizes good project management, the value of
applying the best science and technology to manage residual hazards, and
increasing public confidence through effective involvement of state and local
governments, Tribal Nations, and stakeholders in longterm stewardship decision
making. A reliable long-term stewardship program can also provide confidence to
regulators and the public that non-removal remedies are acceptable because the
Department can be trusted to care for the sites after the waste is contained in
place.
Most of the explicit long-term stewardship activities in the
field are conducted by our staff in Grand Junction, Colorado. This office is
responsible for long-term stewardship at approximately 30 sites across the
United States in FY 2000. These sites range from large uranium mill tailings
sites (mostly in Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico), former nuclear
weapons productions facilities (e.g., Pinellas, Florida), and commercial nuclear
fuel cycle facilities (e.g., AMAX in Parkersburg, West Virginia) that did work
for the federal government.
During the past year, the Department has
taken action to strengthen its long-term stewardship program. First, we
increased the budget for long-term stewardship to respond to the greater demand
resulting from the completion of more cleanups. Our FY 2001 budget request for
the long-term stewardship program, managed by our Grand Junction Office, is more
than $5 million, an increase of approximately 60 percent over
the FY 2000 budget level. The budget largely reflects the expected transition of
new responsibilities to the Grand Junction Office for long-term stewardship of
the Monticello and Weldon Spring sites when they complete cleanup. This funding
will provide continued cost- effective stewardship of approximately 35 sites in
2001' which is more than a 50 percent increase since 1999, when Grand Junction
managed 25 sites. This funding will enable us to comply with Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) permit requirements for long-term surveillance and maintenance
for closed uranium mill tailings sites, as well as for increased
responsibilities under Superfund and hazardous waste laws for protecting human
health and the environment at several additional sites where closure occurred
with residual contamination in place.
Second, we recently established an
Office of Long-Term Stewardship at our Headquarters office. The office is
addressing these emerging challenges with responsibility for field guidance and
policy development, technical analysis, and identification of science and
technology needs. While this may be the first office addressing long- term
stewardship in the federal government, I would suggest to you that it will not
be the last. This is because the issues we are grappling with ! are not unique
to the Department of Energy. This new office is located within and funded
through our Office of Science and Technology. This reflects the fact that we
intend to continue investing in science and technology to help ensure that the
protections provided by our remedies can be maintained as cost- effectively as
possible for the necessary duration.There are a number of activities that this
office will complete by the end of this year that will help establish the basis
for a stronger long-term stewardship program. First, EM is responding to the
mandate in the FY 2000 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to report to
Congress by October 1, 2000, on the Department's long-term stewardship
responsibilities. This report will provide the best available information off
the cost, scope, and schedule for long-term stewardship at sites and portions of
sites in sufficient detail to undertake the necessary stewardship
responsibilities.
Third, we are preparing a study on long-term
stewardship pursuant to the lawsuit settlement agreement (Natural Resource
Defense Council, et. al. v. Richardson, et. al., Civ. No. 97-963 (SS) (D.D.C.
Dec. 12, 1998)). The study will address national, programmatic, and cross-
cutting issues related to long-term stewardship.
The management system
required for performing long-term stewardship as cost-effectively as possible
will likely build on the existing EM system. However, there may also be an
additional need for new technologies, new contracting mechanisms, and new
specialized personnel to ensure reliable and cost-effective long-term
stewardship. This is what we are now examining as we accelerate our efforts to
complete cleanup and close more sites, which in turn will require more long-term
stewardship.
I. SOLVING PROBLEMS THROUGH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Our investments in science and technology are providing the scientific
knowledge and new technologies necessary to help us reduce the cost and time
frame of the complex-wide cleanup effort, and enable us to tackle cleanup
problems that had no effective solutions. We are requesting
$196.5 million in fiscal year 2001 for investments in both
basic and applied research. These funds will target our highest priority needs
and will be applied across the spectrum of science and technology work from
basic research through deployment among EM's five major problem areas: mixed
waste, high-level tank waste, subsurface contamination, deactivation and
decommissioning, and nuclear materials.
Our science and technology
program has made a significant impact on how we conduct our cleanup operations.
Over 75 percent of the approximately 250 innovative solutions made available for
use over the past ten years are making real on-the-ground contributions. For
instance: Site characterization represents a large portion of the cost for
environmental restoration activities. We now have very sophisticated, safe
methods to identify, characterize, quantify and monitor contamination. New
remotely operated machines now exist to perform work in conditions that are too
hazardous for humans, such as inside radioactive waste tanks. Among the new
technologies making a difference is a process that uses a concentrated caustic
solution to dissolve and remove large quantities of unwanted nonradioactive
elements in the sludge, thereby decreasing waste volume (Enhanced Sludge
Washing). This process has been selected as the technology to be used to
pretreat Hanford tank sludges where it is expected to avoid
$4.8 billion in costs compared to other technology choices. An
in-ground "wall" of iron filings (Permeable Reactive Treatment Wail) has been
installed at the Kansas City Plant and Monticello Uranium Mill Site to remove
contaminants from groundwater as the water passes through the "wail." This
eliminates the need for a more costly "pump and treat" system. A third Passive
Reactive Barrier is in place in the Solar Ponds at Rocky Flats to destroy
nitrates and remove uranium from groundwater; compared against a thirty-year
pump-and-treat baseline, this technology will save more than an estimated
$20 million. Other reactive barriers deployed at Rocky Flats
have been designed to destroy chlorinated solvents and capture radionuclides.
Optimized use of the existing re-injection well network at the Fernald site in
Ohio will enable the site to accelerate groundwater remediation. It may enable
us to complete groundwater remediation as much as 17 years ahead of schedule,
potentially saving the Department up to $50 million.
EM's science and technology program is also now providing on-the- ground
technical assistance, sending some of our top scientists out of the laboratory
and into the field to help with specific technical problems. Our first formal
technical assistance effort was to identify solutions for groundwater
remediation at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. The
federally-led team, including four national laboratories, responded quickly and
produced a strong plan for aggressive remediation of the contaminants in the
groundwater and the soil. It is my intention to continue this approach to ensure
our cleanup efforts are based on technically defensible decisions.
We
are also pleased with the progress of our EM Science Program (EMSP), which is
conducted in partnership with DOE's Office of Science. Since its inception in
fiscal year 1996, EMSP has invested over $224 million in
support of 274 research projects. Our open, competitive approach has ensured the
highest caliber of research involving 90 universities, 13 national laboratories,
and 22 other governmental and private laboratories. Research is being conducted
in 34 states and the District of Columbia, two Canadian provinces, Australia,
Russia, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic. Our efforts are already
providing some encouraging results. For instance, a high-level waste research
project, being led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, focuses on
determining the effect of radiation on the stability of glasses and ceramics at
an atomic, microscopic and macroscopic level. Because these materials are an
integral part of the planning ! for the final waste forms of a number of DOE
waste streams, an understanding of how radioactive materials influence their
long- term stability is critical in material selection.
The increasing
number of deployments of new technologies to solve real cleanup problems
demonstrates that the field is recognizing their value. Preliminary data, now
being verified,indicate that during fiscal year 1999, DOE sites used innovative
technologies 218 times in cleanup activities, 129 of which were first uses by
the site. Of these deployments, 166 were science and technology-sponsored
technologies. This is a definite and dramatic improvement over previous years.
Since the inception of this program, we have seen nearly 450 deployments at DOE
sites of 194 new technologies that were sponsored by EM's science and technology
program. The accelerated site technology deployment effort initiated in FY 1998
has contributed to these increased deployments. A total of 47 projects have been
initiated that involve a total of 92 technologies. From a total life-cycle EM
investment of $300 million, we estimate $1.5
billion in life-cycle savings. Selections for new projects for fiscal year 2000
will be announced in March.
To help ensure that this upward deployment
trend continues, the Department is in the process of evaluating contracts with
our site contractors to provide better incentives for them to use innovative
technologies. We believe contract incentives, coupled with the integration of
our technology developers and users, will ensure that the innovative technology
we are providing is used to accomplish our cleanup goals cheaper, faster and
safely.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the Department is making
progress in cleaning up the legacy of contamination left from the nuclear
weapons production process. We are reducing our most serious risks, accelerating
and finishing cleanup at sites across the country, safely storing and
safeguarding weapons-usable nuclear materials, and reducing the long- term costs
of the program. We will continue to improve our project management, make the
most effective use of our unique resources across the DOE complex, use science
and technology to reduce costs and schedules, and maintain our focus on worker
safety. We pledge to continue to work closely and cooperatively with the
Congress to ensure that this progress continues and that we can meet the
challenges ahead in the most effective way.
END
LOAD-DATE: April 13, 2000 
