DOE’S OFFICE OF SITE CLOSURE: PROGRESS TOWARDS 2006

摘要

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) was established in1989 to address the legacy of the Cold War: assess and clean up contamination, treat and dispose ofnuclear materials and wastes, and transition sites from production operations to another government use,closure, or non-government use.In June 1998, EM published “Accelerating Cleanup: Paths to Closure,” in which a new programmaticfocus was articulated: complete cleanup at more than 90% of the EM sites by 2006. To achieve thisgoal, EM developed or revised “baselines” for its projects, which included descriptions of the work tobe accomplished, schedules (including interim milestones), and cost estimates for each project. In1999, EM established the Office of Site Closure (OSC) to be responsible for the entire missions ofwaste management, environmental restoration, and nuclear materials stabilization for sites under thejurisdiction of seven of EM’s ten Operations or Field Offices.In March 2000, EM published a “Status Report on Paths to Closure,” which addressed progresstowards the “90% goal” reflecting the current and projected budgets. The status report showed that theanticipated completion dates for a number of sites had slipped, in some cases to beyond 2006.Since it was formed, EM has made significant progress in completing cleanup at a number of sites andcompleting a number of activities at other sites that will enable EM to close out its responsibilities atthose sites on the schedule identified in “Accelerating Cleanup: Paths to Closure.” To achieve thesesuccesses, EM has developed and implemented innovative technologies to assist in environmentalrestoration, waste management, materials disposition, and long term monitoring capabilities, whichenable site closure. EM has also continued to work closely with stakeholders to identify final land usesfor sites which benefit the public and the environment, and which must be agreed to for a final end stateto be achieved. And EM has adopted innovative approaches such as: new contract incentives; sales ofsite assets, such as equipment, land or buildings; and reindustrialization. But the realities of the delaysdiscussed in the “Status Report on Paths to Closure” remain.Of the 113 sites included in the EM program, 109 fall within the responsibility of OSC. Of these 109OSC sites, cleanup has been completed at 71. An additional three are scheduled to be completed bythe end of FY 2001. But what of the remaining 35 sites? When will cleanup be completed? And howwill OSC deal with new information affecting site cleanup, from the discovery of unanticipatedcontamination to the addition of new facilities to the current site baselines.This paper will explore the progress OSC has made in cleaning up our sites. It will highlight the siteswhere cleanup was completed in FY 2000, and will describe some of the activities that enabled this