While remediation is nearly complete at a couple of the 16 sites overseen by the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, other cleanup efforts could last late into this century, according a roundup included in the Donald Trump administration’s budget request for fiscal 2021.
The Energy Department announced in June 2019 that demolition of facilities was finished at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) near Schenectady, N.Y. Remaining work includes disposal of 24 containers of transuranic waste, cleanup of a storage area called the F-yard, and submission of closeout reports by contractor Amentum, according to the budget document.
The SPRU tasks, with the exception of the TRU waste repackaging and transportation, should be done in fiscal 2021. Procurement for the SPRU work could also occur in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.
In addition, final remediation at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, also in upstate New York, could occur this year, DOE said. Brookhaven’s non-defense environmental cleanup budget was $20 million in fiscal 2019; zero in 2020, and zero requested for fiscal 2021.
Likewise, remediation is entering the home stretch at the East Tennessee Technology Park within the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, according to the administration’s justification document. The projected cleanup date for ETTP, the former uranium enrichment complex at Oak Ridge, is officially listed as “to be determined,” in the budget document. Although other DOE documents target completion this year.
The Energy Department and cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge have said only a handful of small facilities remain to be taken down at ETTP, which is the portion of the Oak Ridge Site owned by the Office of Environmental Management. While the cleanup office does environmental work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex, those facilities are run by the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
Following is a rundown of DOE projections for completion of work at the other Environmental Management sites. The agency said it is between 50% and 80% confident in these dates, which are unchanged from the fiscal 2020 budget justification.
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California: 2023;
- Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico: 2028;
- Nevada National Security Site:2030;
- Moab, Utah: 2034;
- Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico: 2035 to 2042;
- Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico: 2036;
- West Valley Demonstration Project in New York: 2040 to 2045;
- Idaho National Laboratory: 2045 to 2060;
- Portsmouth Site in Ohio: 2039 to 2041;
- Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee: 2046;
- Paducah Site in Kentucky: 2065 to 2070;
- Savannah River Site in South Carolina: 2065; and,
- The Hanford Site in Washington state: between 2070 and 2075.
The Government Accountability Office last October, citing the Office of Environmental Management’s projected cleanup liability of $377 billion, said DOE should prioritize projects by the highest risk.
