Over the next 10 years, the Department of Energy’s $7.6-billion Office of Environmental Management hopes to realize several of its long-desired objectives around the nuclear weapons cleanup complex.
According to its Strategic Vision 2022-2032, published Tuesday by the Environmental Management (EM) branch, the feds expect to start converting low-level radioactive tank waste into glass at the Hanford Site in Washington state, begin operating a Mercury Treatment Facility at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, finish treating sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho National Laboratory and conclude remediation of a uranium mill tailings site in Utah. Legacy cleanup at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site should also be completed in the next 10 years.
“The Strategic Vision is our blueprint to EM’s anticipated cleanup achievements over the next decade, and it outlines goals for 2022-2032 focused on safety, environmental cleanup priorities, innovation, and improved performance,” William (Ike) White, DOE’s senior adviser and top manager for the nuclear cleanup office.
Several sessions at the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix this week least touched upon the issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.
The nuclear cleanup industry needs to recruit new blood into a workforce currently made up of “70% old white guys,” Greg Meyer, senior vice president at Fluor, who is white, told the conference.
“Not everyone wants to be first,” to break into a very homogenous group, “take it from me,” said Nicole Nelson-Jean, who is black, and leads field operations for the Office of Environmental Management. Minority applicants want to see some other people who look like them, Nelson-Jean told a session on hot topics at the cleanup office.
