Chairwoman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Eddie Bernice Johnson on July 13 discussed how innovation and technology is required to clean the 15 active nuclear waste sites in the U.S.
Johnson delivered her statement at the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy's hearing on Nuclear Waste Cleanup. The hearing covered the necessary steps to remove nuclear waste in the U.S.
“The Manhattan Project helped the United States change the course of World War II, and in turn, the course of global history,” she said. “In the decades to follow, it became clear that these early days of nuclear innovation left a complex legacy of radiological contamination. It is only right that the federal government apply the same intellectual firepower and passion to research and innovation for addressing our nation’s remaining 15 cleanup sites.”
Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy Jamaal Bowman and chairwoman Johnson gave the hearing's opening statements. Witnesses included William “Ike” White, Dr. Vahid Majidi, Dr. John Plodinec and Nathan Anderson.
White, a senior adviser for the Office of Environmental Management (EM), testified that his office successfully cleaned 92 out of 107 nuclear waste sites in the U.S. in the past 30 years. EM is currently working with the House Subcommittee on Energy to eliminate current nuclear waste sites, addressing on the ground issues, like the waste sites at Hanford and the Savannah River, as well as advocating for greater research and investment into emerging nuclear treatment technology.
Dr. Vahid Majidi, director of the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), discussed the mission and involvement of the SRNL in eliminating nuclear waste. The lab was founded to tackle processing and cleanup issues at the Savannah River site and currently aids nuclear cleanup efforts, both at the SRS and across the U.S., including sites in Hanford and Los Alamos.
“SRNL’s expertise, experience, innovative spirit and our relentless pursuit of excellence combine to uniquely position the lab to help DOE accelerate cleanup activities, realizing a reduction in liabilities and costs by shortening the time necessary to complete cleanup operations,” he said.
Dr. John Plodinec, vice chair of the Committee on Independent Assessment of Science and Technology for the Department of Energy’s Defense Environmental Cleanup Program, argued that the Department of Energy needs a more comprehensive science and technology program to provide long-term solutions and cost reductions to waste management.
Plodinec also said this program must be coupled with the real world implementation of scientific findings. Because “no matter how robust a DOE-EM S&T program may be, a positive return on investment requires successful deployment of the knowledge it has generated,” he said.
Nathan Anderson, director of Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, testified about two reports from his office: one from October 2021 and the other from May 2022.
“The October 2021 report emphasized the importance of establishing a coordinated, complex-wide approach to EM’s nuclear cleanup R&D efforts and a comprehensive approach for prioritizing those efforts," he said. "Our May 2022 report addressed how instability in EM, including increasingly frequent turnover in its leadership, has contributed to challenges in carrying out its mission, including slowed progress on cleanup.”
Anderson concluded his testimony by asserting, “implementing our recommendations on these issues would help ensure that EM can continue to make progress on its crucial cleanup efforts.”
