Pictured at EM headquarters last week, from left, are Ana Han, foreign affairs specialist, EM International Program; Joceline Nahigian, director, EM Office of Intergovernmental and Stakeholder Programs; Scott Whiteford, deputy director, DOE Office of Legacy Management; William “Ike” White, EM senior advisor; Masaki Nakagawa, special adviser to executive directors, NDF; Tokuhiro Yamamoto, executive director, NDF; Shin Morita, managing director,

Pictured at EM headquarters last week, from left, are Ana Han, foreign affairs specialist, EM International Program; Joceline Nahigian, director, EM Office of Intergovernmental and Stakeholder Programs; Scott Whiteford, deputy director, DOE Office of Legacy Management; William “Ike” White, EM senior advisor; Masaki Nakagawa, special adviser to executive directors, NDF; Tokuhiro Yamamoto, executive director, NDF; Shin Morita, managing director, International Affairs Group, NDF; Taro Hokugo, managing director, International Affairs Group, NDF; Jeff Avery, EM principal deputy assistant secretary; Angela Watmore, deputy assistant secretary, EM Office of Acquisition and Project Management; and Ming Zhu, EM senior advisor for laboratory policy.

Representatives from the Japan Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation (NDF) visited EM headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the Hanford Site in Washington state last week to promote collaboration and provide updates on the status and plans to decommission the Tokyo Electric Power Company Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, that caused unprecedented nuclear damage to the station and surrounding communities. The NDF was created in September 2011 to oversee the decommissioning and cleanup of the station.

Such interactions between EM and Japanese officials are not new. EM officials joined other government and industry representatives to explore potential collaborations between the U.S. and Japan in workshops held in 2020. Those workshops, which focused on decommissioning work in Japan, were hosted by Japan’s Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry and supported by EM’s Office of Intergovernmental and Stakeholder Programs. A year earlier, EM hosted a tour at the Idaho National Laboratory Site for Japanese engineers helping with the cleanup of the 2011 accident.

Pictured at EM headquarters last week, from left, are Ana Han, foreign affairs specialist, EM International Program; Joceline Nahigian, director, EM Office of Intergovernmental and Stakeholder Programs; Scott Whiteford, deputy director, DOE Office of Legacy Management; William “Ike” White, EM senior advisor; Masaki Nakagawa, special adviser to executive directors, NDF; Tokuhiro Yamamoto, executive director, NDF; Shin Morita, managing director,

On Friday, the delegation received an overview windshield tour of the Hanford Site 100 K-Basin Area, the Central Plateau, 300 Area and Volpentest Hazardous Materials Management and Emergency Response (HAMMER) Federal Training Center. Pictured from left are Taro Hokugo, managing director, International Affairs Group, Japan Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation (NDF); Brian Stickney, EM Richland Operations Office deputy manager; Rod Rimando, EM headquarters senior site liaison; Tokuhiro Yamamoto, executive director, NDF; Brian Vance, manager of the EM Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office; Masaki Nakagawa, special adviser to executive directors, NDF; Mark Triplett, DOE Pacific Northwest National Laboratory advisor, applied decision analytics; Ana Han, foreign affairs specialist, EM International Program; and Shin Morita, managing director, International Affairs Group, NDF.