August 20, 2002

Advanced Vitrification System

The Department of Energy (Department) faces an environmental remediation task of unprecedented scope and technical complexity. Current estimates are that the clean-up effort will eventually cost more than $230 billion and take decades to complete. At your direction, the Department recently completed a comprehensive evaluation of its remediation effort with a goal of finding a way to reduce associated costs, as well as the time needed to complete the task. Given the nature of the work, the effort will likely involve many as yet untested technologies. In this vein, the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management has established a priority to identify breakthrough technologies with the potential to dramatically reduce the Department's remediation mortgage costs.