Crews demolish Building 9210 at the 1940’s-era Biology Complex at the Oak Ridge Site.
Crews demolish Building 9210 at the 1940’s-era Biology Complex at the Oak Ridge Site.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management today released its Calendar Year 2021 Mission and Priorities, a key marker to the program’s continuing success in addressing the legacy of nuclear weapons production and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. 

The Calendar Year 2021 Mission and Priorities outlines a new list of specific planned accomplishments across the cleanup complex for the coming year. Built on significant achievements in 2020, the Calendar Year 2021 Mission and Priorities marks a new era for EM that will continue progress in addressing environmental risks and financial liabilities, while advancing EM’s obligations to the communities that played such an important role in U.S. security and prosperity.

“EM is protecting the environment today and helping to prepare the communities near our sites for the economy of tomorrow. By successfully tackling our past environmental legacy, EM progress means safer, cleaner sites and new economic opportunities for the future,” said William “Ike” White, acting assistant secretary for Environmental Management.

The Calendar Year 2021 Mission and Priorities sets goals at EM sites, including:

  • Completing construction of the Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) system at the Hanford Site. TSCR is a pre-treatment system critical to the site’s Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) approach to treating tank waste.
  • Completing the processing of 6 million gallons of tank waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a goal made possible by the 2020 startup of the major Salt Waste Processing Facility.
  • Transitioning from deactivation to demolition at Building X-326, one of three former uranium enrichment process buildings at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio.
  • Completing demolition of the 1940’s era Biology Complex at the Oak Ridge site in Tennessee.
  • Beginning demolition of the Main Plant Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York, the last major facility at the former commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing center.
  • Completing demolition of all 18 DOE-owned buildings at the Energy Technology Engineering Center in Ventura County, California.
  • Awarding contracts that continue to enable safe and efficient cleanup progress across the EM enterprise.

The Calendar Year 2021 Mission and Priorities, is available here.