EM News

Four of five crews of operations staff, including Commissioning Technician Gwendy Watkins, pictured here, at the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant are now fully qualified in their “watch stations”.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM) recently completed the demolition of the X-326 uranium process building, marking the most significant cleanup milestone to date at its Portsmouth Site.

Over the past 24 years and spanning three liquid waste contractors, EM’s construction team at the Savannah River Site (SRS) has achieved 35 million safe hours without injury resulting in a missed day of work.

EM Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) management and operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) is playing an important part in helping southeastern New Mexico students develop a lifelong interest in science, technology, engineering and math.

The EM Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) recently installed a hydraulic shear system, a major step toward remediating transuranic (TRU) waste contained in large, corrugated metal pipes buried underground at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) since 1986.

Officials from the EM Office of River Protection (ORP) and Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council were on hand for the recent ribbon-cutting of a new workshop for craft workers supporting the tank waste storage and treatment mission at the Hanford Site.

EM has appointed five new members to the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant Citizens Advisory Board (CAB).

Improving processes to increase efficiency and reduce waste are vital to the Hanford Site cleanup mission.