Editor’s note: The Exchange Monitor hosted its annual RadWaste 2.0 Summit in Summerlin, Nev., this week. The summit brings together managers responsible for the day-to-day operations of sites and businesses that treat, transport, store and dispose of radioactive waste.
Two of the Monitor’s reporters attended the show and, in addition to news coverage nearby, returned with these impressions of their visit to the conference, the Nevada National Security Site, and the town of Summerlin, just outside of Las Vegas.
SUMMERLIN, NEV. – Roughly 260 people turned out for the Radwaste Summit 2.0 here this week and a busload of early arrivals started their show early Monday with a tour of the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site — the test site, as almost everyone who’s ever heard of it still calls it.
For both newcomers to the DOE weapons complex and more seasoned hands, visiting the site of nuclear weapon tests that once shook Las Vegas and lit up the desert skies pre-dawn, was an eye-opening experience.
Here are a few other take-aways from the week:
Everybody is hiring: While that’s not new, it was reiterated by organizations ranging from DOE national labs to companies needing truckers to haul nuclear waste. Dee Gray, who heads “talent management” for Jacobs said companies need a strategy to lure younger workers, many of whom like to work for companies with a strong record of social responsibility.
One handicap for the nuclear industry is that many jobs, waste remediation for example, don’t lend themselves to telework. The remote location of many nuclear facilities can also be a drawback, said Leah Lavallee, a manager with Veolia, who promptly turned to Waste Control Specialists President David Carlson and said she meant no disrespect to Andrews County, Texas. Lavallee drew laughs as, evidently, Andrews is not a tourist mecca.
Nobody tackled the hiring issue more directly than the manager of DOE’s Carlsbad, N.M., Field Office Mark Bollinger, who announced he was hiring everyone in the room, and attendees should board a bus to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) within an hour.
“My WIPP is your WIPP,” Bollinger said.
There was no word at deadline as to whether anyone at the summit took him up on the offer.
Heard anything about the Hanford contract? Partly because DOE’s Hanford Site is the most contaminated and costly around, and partly because $45 billion is, well, $45 billion, folks were eager to learn more about the Integrated Tank Waste contract challenge in Federal Claims Court. As of Friday morning, the judge had issued no ruling. In the space nearby, you can read that the Department of Justice would prefer that the lawsuit between the winning and losing bidder be put on hold and that the case be sent back to DOE for a fix.
The people and the process. Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper, halfway through her third four-year term as mayor, urged the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) not to be shy when it comes time to share nuclear cleanup news.
“DOE, particularly EM, bless your hearts, you still struggle with approving a press release when it’s time to share some good news,” Casper said in a presentation to the summit. “It could take months to get a simple press release approved by them!”
COVID, the way it was. As a global health emergency, the pandemic is over. But the stories of how people coped personally and professionally live on. A session on transportation included tales of workers spending two-week periods confined to hotel rooms in strange cities and sometimes foreign countries while serving out mandatory COVID quarantine periods. Edlow International chief operations officer Russell Neely detailed the logistics of returning foreign research reactor fuel to the United States by ship during the pandemic.
Go Knights go! At bars and restaurants and other locales around Greater Las Vegas, locals and often staff were wearing logos of their hometown hockey team, the Vegas Golden Knights. At a minor league baseball game in the area, the crowd belted out “knight!” during the third-to-last line of the pregame performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The Knights, at this writing, lead the Stanley Cup championship series two-to-one over the Florida Panthers.
