In December, the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management completed what its head of field operations calls the “beta phase” of a new electronic “dashboard” for tracking nuclear remediation technology development.
All of the research-and-development data run through Environmental Management (EM) headquarters in Washington, D.C., has been entered into the system, Nicole Nelson-Jean said Thursday Jan. 12 during a hybrid meeting of the National Academies’ Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board.
In a month or so, EM hopes to load technology development data from its field offices as well, Nelson-Jean said. The latter can be tricky because some nuclear cleanup offices define technology research and development in different ways, she said.
Getting to the end of phase one will involve “getting all the information into the system,” Nelson-Jean said.
“You implement in phases,” Nelson-Jean said. “We are still in Phase 1 but we are chugging along.” She did not say when the dashboard might be fully operational. A DOE spokesperson said Tuesday there is no date set.
Both the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board, part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and the Government Accountability Office have issued reports urging a more coordinated approach to researching and developing new cleanup technology for legacy cleanup of Cold War and Manhattan Project sites.
Environmental Management’s acting boss, senior adviser William (Ike) White pointed to development of the new database last July in testimony before the House Science, Space and Technology energy subcommittee. The dashboard is considered a key step toward a less ad hoc approach to cleanup technology.
A special committee at EM has been working on the dashboard since mid-2020, Nelson-Jean said.
In response to a question, Nelson-Jean said EM expects to eventually make at least part of the new database accessible to parties outside the DOE cleanup office.
