SHARING EXPERTISE AND TECHNOLOGIES IN DEACTIVATING ANDDECOMMISSIONING DOE'S CONTAMINATED EXCESS FACILITIES

摘要

The overwhelming task that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has in dispositioning itsrn10,000 or more unwanted and unneeded contaminated excess facilities can and will bernaccomplished by new approaches in technology and techniques that improve the dispositionrnprocess. Many of these facilities are already under the management of the DOE Office ofrnEnvironmental Management (EM) and, beginning in FY 2002, additional contaminated excessrnfacilities will be transferred to EM adding to the enormous task of deactivation andrndecommissioning. This inventory of contaminated excess facilities requiring disposition includesrnsome of the largest, most complex facilities in the world.rnHistorically, EM has not been as effective in sharing technologies and lessons learned at thernworking levels due in part to being organized along traditional business lines (e.g., nuclearrnmaterial and facility stabilization, environmental restoration, waste management, etc.). Inrnaddition to a recent reorganization, EM has now identified a new approach to identifying andrnresolving issues and concerns regarding the disposition of DOE's facilities.rnSignificant progress has been made over the past few years in resolving the programmatic andrntechnical challenges associated with facility disposition and EM has developed a means to sharernthe tools and expertise among all DOE sites. Cost estimating, end state determination, facilityrnevaluation, benchmarking, and lessons learned are but a few of the methodologies that have beenrndeveloped by EM for disposition projects.rnThis paper will describe 1) recent initiatives to restructure the deactivation and decommissioningrnnational programs to form a unified approach to facility disposition that addresses the entirernseamless process in a manner that largely mirrors the way in which deactivation andrndecommissioning activities are actually being conducted at DOE's field sites and 2) the recentlyrndeveloped tools and capabilities available to the complex to aid in facility deactivation andrndecommissioning. Project managers, engineers, and planners engaged in the deactivation orrndecommissioning of facilities will be interested in DOE’s new approach and how it has takenrnsteps to share solutions to issues in this area of concern. There have been too many examples inrnthe past of the "not invented here" syndrome. It is expected that the approach recently taken byrnEM will tear down these walls of resistance.