OTTAWA, Canada - EM headquarters and field site officials joined representatives from the nuclear cleanup programs of Canada and the United Kingdom (U.K.) earlier this month to share best practices and develop common approaches to address their common aging infrastructure challenges.
Attendees noted that all three government programs - EM, the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) - face similar regulatory and budgetary challenges. Representatives from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Canadian Department of Defense joined the exchange. AECL funded the exchange and EM contractor Longenecker & Associates organized it.
Aging infrastructure at the cleanup sites compounds those challenges. Participants stressed the critical need to establish prioritization approaches to manage aging infrastructure. They discussed the importance of ensuring funding is allocated to the highest-priority items while not compromising other parts of their cleanup programs, such as deactivation and decommissioning. Attendees also toured the Chalk River site, one of Canada’s cleanup sites.
“This has been an excellent few days for DOE to understand the scope and the scale of the issues faced by other similar entities, and build a network of international experts facing the same challenges," EM Office of Infrastructure Management and Disposition Policy Director Barton Barnhart said.
Martin Grey, NDA’s Asset Management Strategic Authority, described the exchange as a great opportunity to collaborate to resolve common issues.
“The experience of others in identifying and implementing sustainable solutions to the challenges showed the art of the possible for collaboration between geographically dispersed organizations," Grey said. “It was particularly beneficial to see how those solutions are manifesting themselves through the visit to Chalk River, which I am grateful to Garry Yaraskavitch and his AECL team for sponsoring and organizing. The experience of the Canadian defense organization and the U.S. NNSA in aligning their information management systems will be particularly useful to NDA."
AECL Senior Director of Plant Operations & Infrastructure Garry Yaraskavitch acknowledged that AECL was privileged to host the exchange and tour of the Chalk River site, where workers are decommissioning facilities while building new utilities and research facilities.
“The technical exchange provided valuable insight into best practices, decision-support tools, and information management that can serve to enhance the respective strategic business decisions in managing aging infrastructure," Yaraskavitch said.
Working groups will address the critical infrastructure issues common to all three cleanup programs in the months ahead.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
