RAND RECEIVES CONTRACT FROM DOE FOR WHITE PAPER ON POSSIBLE WASTE AGENCY

The U.S. Department of Energy Idaho Operations awarded a contract of a half million dollars to Rand Corporation yesterday for continued support of a white paper the company put together on the creation of a possible new used nuclear fuel and high-level waste management organization, according to a notice yesterday. The notice said the white paper is meant to aid congressional debate on the matter, which was first recommended in the findings of the Blue Ribbon Commission. The contract is worth $555, 982, the notice said. Deborah Knopman, project manager for the Rand project said, “It’s really just an extension of the work we have already completed on options for a new management organization. We published a report in January. At this stage, the only thing the department is authorizing us to do is to continue to support outreach efforts, which we have been doing before, to follow up on inquiries that come from the Hill or stakeholder groups on the report that we have completed. There is no other work authorized at this time.” DOE officials were not available for comment yesterday.