ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Federal and contractor officials and community members serving on a panel at this year’s National Cleanup Workshop stressed the critical role of partnerships as EM reduces risks to people and the environment by addressing cleanup of contaminated, non-operational buildings with no future missions - otherwise known as excess contaminated facilities.
“Our goal is to enhance safety and provide opportunities for other DOE programs to continue and grow their research and national security missions," said Jay Mullis, manager of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM). “With the support of DOE headquarters and Congress, we’ve received funding that is allowing us to stabilize these facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, address hazards, and achieve meaningful risk reduction years ahead of schedule."
Nationwide, 2,300-plus non-operational structures represent a $29 billion liability to DOE and its missions, according to Colin Jones, vice president and deputy general manager at Jacob’s North American Nuclear. Jones was the panel’s moderator.
Oak Ridge is home to more than 200 of these facilities, and the site contains about one quarter of DOE’s high-risk excess contaminated facilities, far more than any other DOE site. The need for communication and integration among owners, tenants, and those executing the work becomes vital to the program’s success, panelists said.
For example, OREM is currently deactivating the 1940s-era Biology Complex. Owned by the DOE Office of Science, it sits on the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12). Y-12 is owned by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
Ken Rueter, president and CEO of URS|CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), said that relationships with senior leaders from each Oak Ridge site have been key to success. UCOR is EM’s cleanup contractor for the Biology Complex and other excess contaminated facility projects in Oak Ridge.
“We created a cleanup advisory council, where senior leaders from each site come together to discuss work and priorities," Rueter said. “This interface is key."
Anna-Marie Trujillo, executive director for the NNSA Office of Enterprise Stewardship, said more than half of NNSA’s properties are 40-plus years old.
“We are working with DOE-EM to reduce risk, characterize, stabilize, and remove priority facilities," Trujillo said.
Early successes at Y-12 focused on footprint reduction of non-process buildings, noted Cathy Hickey, president of Westinghouse Government Services. She reiterated the value of partnerships, which enabled those accomplishments.
Chuck Hope, councilmember for the City of Oak Ridge, said he is encouraged by the progress he sees on excess contaminated facilities and the interaction between key parties.
Mullis said a working group is developing an update to the 2016 report on excess facilities. The group is considering input from sites and lessons learned from excess facilities projects.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
