Martin Schneider
ExchangeMonitor Publications CEO
6/6/2014
Exactly 25 years ago today, the FBI raided the Rocky Flats site, symbolically kicking off what would become the largest environmental cleanup project in the world—the cleanup of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex run by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. The last two-and-a-half decades have seen some remarkable successes not thought possible in the wake of that June 6, 1989 raid—including the highly successful and greatly accelerated cleanup of the Rocky Flats site itself, now a wildlife refuge.
However, as the Department takes stock of the cleanup program 25 years on, it’s clear that the Office of Environmental Management is facing a future that is as uncertain today as it was that day. And just as the FBI raid signaled a new focus on the cleanup of the nuclear weapons complex—driven, of course, more practically by the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union—a renewed focus is needed today to ensure the program does not continue to veer off track.
Today, the cleanup program is facing its own set of challenges including:
• Significant delays in core risk reduction mission: The program’s core—the high-level waste mission at Hanford and Savannah River—continue to be plagued by delays and implementation issues. In some ways, each site is a reverse image of the other: Hanford is the funding priority, but the treatment systems are far from being operational, while Savannah River has a nearly complete treatment system, but not the funding to put it to use. For the States, the result is largely the same: no progress. And that means lawsuits are a distinct possibility on both coasts.
• Poor project performance: The program is built around utilization of a series of first-of-a-kind nuclear treatment facilities (WTP, IWTU, DWPF, SWPF, etc.) and yet the Department has not figured out how to consistently design, construct, commission, and operate those facilities on a reasonable schedule or anywhere near the predicted cost. That fundamental flaw is coming due as the ‘low-hanging fruit’ has been harvested and the program is moving on to the more complex challenges for which those facilities are the backbone of the path forward.
• Funding: The fiscal environment across the government is as difficult as it has ever been and the DOE cleanup program is no exception.
• Risk reduction vs. compliance: The compliance-driven budget decisions directed by the White House Office of Management and Budget and lack of budget priority within the Department of Energy make performance of the EM mission…risk reduction, cleanup and closure… even more difficult.
• Leadership: EM program is coming up on three years without a confirmed Assistant Secretary to lead it at a time when strong leadership is needed to chart a path forward for the program
• Trust: The recent events at WIPP leading to the shut-down of the repository combined with a slew of major project delays and other recent issues have significantly eroded relations with the states that host DOE sites. Just when a strong dialogue is needed with the states on the future of the sites, the relationship is at a low point.
With these issues in mind, the Department needs refocus its efforts in the cleanup program, capitalizing on the things the program has done well (like properly incentivizing and motivating contractors) to make sound decisions about the future. A quarter century after the Rocky Flats raid, the program still needs to overcome many of the issues that were there in its infancy. Navigating beyond the current difficulties will take commitment and strong leadership, just as it did 25 years ago. A dramatic FBI raid doesn’t have to be the catalyst—the mission of the program is important enough on its own.
