The U.S. Energy Department said last week it has renewed a cooperative agreement with Vanderbilt University for nuclear cleanup research. The latest iteration is worth $15 million over five years.
The Nashville, Tenn., institution is part of the multi-university “Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation III” (CRESP). The program is designed to promote “cost-effective, risk-based” environmental remediation of current cleanup sites and corresponding management of future sites, according to DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center. Among its projects, CRESP is conducting a risk review of the Hanford Site in Washington state.
In whole, CRESP III is valued at $15 million, according to a March 1 press release. Vanderbilt is the lead organization for CRESP.
The consortium was formed in 1995 in response to a request from DOE and the National Research Council to create an independent institutional research arm on the nuclear weapons complex cleanup.
The cooperative agreement with Vanderbilt dates to 2006, according to the CRESP website. Other participating universities include Howard University in Washington, D.C.; New York University School of Law; Oregon State University; the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University in New Jersey, the University of Virginia, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
