Environmental Management Office Senior Advisor William "Ike" White delivered a speech at the 2023 Waste Management Symposia, where he talked about the focus and mission of the cleanup program in its next stages.
White highlighted that the EM office's focus is on the potential of the future of its workforce, industry leaders, Tribal nations and communities surrounding cleanup sites, as well as its partners around the globe, according to a Feb. 28 news release.
“By partnering with local communities, prioritizing stakeholder engagement and implementing environmental justice initiatives, EM is helping to foster successful visions for the future,” White said in the release.
White said the cleanup program can accomplish the most when it is aligned with stakeholders and regulators on shared visions, according to the release. Collaboration and alignment of vision is essential to the success of the program, as it allows all parties to work together toward a common goal.
“The tremendously successful tank waste mission at the Savannah River Site is testament to that level of alignment,” he said in the release. “It illustrates what’s possible when we are unified in driving toward shared goals. It’s an approach that translates to each and every one of our EM sites as we pave paths to a clean, safe and vibrant future.
"At Savannah River, we are treating more tank waste than ever before," White added, according to the release. "Over 5 million gallons of salt waste has gone through the site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility in just over two years of operations."
White mentioned specific achievements, including cocooning the seventh reactor at the Hanford Site, exceeding waste shipment goals and completing vital buried-waste remediation, the release said.
The mission plan will "continually identify opportunities to deploy technologies that could help improve efficiency along with cost savings and schedule acceleration for Hanford’s tank waste mission," White said, according to the release.
"EM met a priority of removing one million pounds of an ozone-depleting chemical from the Paducah Site," he said, the release reported. "This represented a benefit to the environment comparable to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by taking about 10,000 vehicles off the road in a year."
In addition to protecting the environment, promoting clean energy, implementing sustainable cleanup practices, supporting national security, fostering technology development, expanding collaborations and building a next-generation workforce, White emphasized the central role of the Waste Isolation Pilot Project and the program's transition to treatment operations in its tank waste mission, the release said.
“To those of you still in school or just starting out, if you are interested in being part of the world’s largest environmental cleanup effort or in being part of the clean energy revolution, EM is a place where you can do that,” White said in the release.
