PHOENIX – EM Assistant Secretary Dr. Monica Regalbuto praised the workers across the DOE complex who are helping EM make significant progress on its cleanup goals in her remarks at the annual Waste Management Conference held here earlier this month. 

   In her first appearance at the conference as EM Assistant Secretary, Regalbuto highlighted workers helping EM wrap up work on significant near-term accomplishments, including:

• Preparing to initiate waste emplacement activities at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in 2016;
• Completing in 2016 the demolition of Building K-27, the last of the gaseous diffusion enrichment process buildings at Oak Ridge;
• Finishing in 2016 construction of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at Savannah River Site (SRS), which, when in operation, will significantly increase EM’s ability to treat tank waste there;
• Achieving in 2016 closure of the eighth high-level waste tank at SRS; and
• Demolishing the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) — once the most dangerous building in the complex — to slab-on-grade in fiscal year 2017. 

   “It’s an exciting time for the EM mission,” Regalbuto said in her remarks at the plenary session. 

   “I strongly believe that my role is to enable success in the field, where the bulk of our work is performed,” she said. “It’s the men and women at work at our sites each day that make this progress possible, turning cleanup plans into reality and getting the job done — safely and efficiently.”

   Among the workers Regalbuto highlighted in her remarks was Frank Hammitt, who has worked at Hanford for 17 years, the last four of which he has worked at the PFP. “It’s because of the highly skilled workers we have at PFP, and across the complex, working as a team, that we will be able to meet our demolition goal for the PFP,” she said.

   Regalbuto also noted Jay McCrary, an engineer with Savannah River Remediation (SRR), the SRS liquid waste contractor. McCrary is a participant in SRR’s Reaching Engineers at the Development Years (READY) program, a two-year development program for newly hired college engineering graduates. 

   “It is programs like this that help us include new people in the EM program to provide new views and thoughts on how we can perform our work,” she said.

   Watch the following videos to learn more about the cleanup workers: 

• Click here for "Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: Working Toward Restart"
• Click here for "SRS Salt Waste Processing Facility Construction: The People Behind the Project"
• Click here for “The Faces of K-27 Deactivation”

   To view more videos on the cleanup across the complex, access EM’s playlist here.