EM has released its program priorities for calendar year (CY) 2024, covering key cleanup actions, project construction, acquisition and other important activities that will further EM’s environmental mission.
Just before the new year, there was quite the ribbon-cutting at EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). At the event, the spinning teeth of a multi-ton mechanical mining machine clawed through the ceremonial ribbon and began cutting a new disposal panel out of a 250-million-year-old layer of salt beneath the New Mexico desert.
The EM Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) and Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B), the legacy cleanup contractor at Los Alamos National Laboratory, have completed field work at the Middle DP Road (MDPR) Site.
The Paducah Site recently met an EM 2023 priority ahead of schedule with the safe and successful disposal of over 1 million pounds of R-114 refrigerant, an environmental hazard stored at the site.
DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) logged another successful year, achieving all of its EM priorities for 2023 and advancing cleanup across the site.
EM’s use of aerial drones at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site is enabling cleanup contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC) to collect valuable data, protect workers and reduce costs.
EM crews have replaced carbon material from two vessels of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory Site, allowing the plant to resume radioactive liquid waste treatment operations early next year.
EM’s H Canyon Chemical Separations Facility at Savannah River Site (SRS) has arrived at a new milestone supporting disposal of nuclear material from a Japanese research reactor.
EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has accomplished an EM 2023 priority to complete and dispose of 400 transuranic waste shipments while striving to ensure no backlog of shipments from cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) site in New Mexico.
EM team members at the Savannah River Site (SRS) recently came up with a creative way to ensure the integrity of storage containers holding radioactive material in long-term storage.