Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management 2021 Year in Review

Completed construction and startup testing of all Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant facilities needed to start immobilizing tank waste in glass using vitrification.
Completed building and testing the Tank-Side Cesium Removal system that will start treating tank waste in 2022 to build up a supply to feed directly to the vitrification facility in 2023—an EM 2021 priority.

Completed more than 50 equipment modifications focused on contamination control and off-gas filters in preparation for operations at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the DOE Idaho National Laboratory Site. The facility will convert about 900,000 gallons of liquid radioactive waste into a granular solid.

Completed demolition to slab of Building 175, the MARS E-Beam Facility—an EM 2021 priority.

Certified and completed 30 legacy transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant—an EM 2021 priority.
Completed a planned investigation of 124 unique locations along DP Middle Road site in the Los Alamos townsite.

Reached a cumulative total of more than 12 million tons of residual radioactive material shipped from Moab to Crescent Junction, Utah—an EM 2021 priority.

Safely and securely disposed of approximately 550,000 cubic feet of classified low level radioactive waste (LLW) / mixed low level radioactive waste in support of DOE cleanup and activities at federal sites across the United States involved in nuclear research, development and testing, and ongoing national security and science missions.
Completed the Nevada National Security Site Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Complex infrastructure expansion project to allow for future construction of LLW disposal cells.

Completed demolition of the Biology Complex—an EM 2021 priority.
Processed and disposed the low-dose portion of Oak Ridge’s uranium-233 inventory and provided medical isotopes for next-generation cancer research.

Initiated demolition activities on the X-326 process building at Portsmouth and demolished 40 percent of the building – the first of three massive structures being demolished—an EM 2021 priority.
Opened the Portsmouth On-Site Waste Disposal Facility and moved the first demolition debris generated from deactivation and decommissioning at the site into the facility.
Completed deactivation of the C-530 switchyard at Paducah, the last of four switchyards that supported electrical needs equivalent to a large city for legacy uranium enrichment operations.

Opened the Critical Infrastructure, Industrial Control System Cybersecurity Laboratory at the Georgia Cyber Center in downtown Augusta, Georgia, establishing the laboratory’s physical presence in the state.
Leading a multi-lab/multi-institution Advanced Long-Term Environmental Monitoring Systems technology development project to reduce EM and Office of Legacy Management sampling and long-term monitoring costs.

Processed more than 2 million gallons of waste at the Salt Waste Processing Facility in its first year of operations—an EM 2021 priority.
Completed construction eight months ahead of schedule and $32 million under budget for Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) 7, the second mega-sized SDU built at the Site to permanently dispose of decontaminated saltstone—an EM 2021 priority.

Received more than 200 transuranic waste shipments in the past year, and more than 13,000 since the facility opened in 1999.
Began mining the West Access Drifts—an EM 2021 priority.

Continued preparation for the Main Plant Process Building demolition by installing a new water collection and treatment system, and by repurposing an administrative trailer complex into a multipurpose building to support demolition activities.