Source: DOE EM | Release | December 28, 2017
In December 2017, EM released its 2016 Year-in-Review outlining the vast amount of work conducted in the nuclear cleanup program across the DOE complex in 2017.
The Year-in-Review highlights major accomplishments at each EM site and at EM headquarters, including:
- Resumption of waste emplacement at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant after the facility’s reopening earlier this year;
- Safe and successful treatment of remediated nitrate salt drums at Los Alamos National Laboratory;
- Completion of cleanup activities at Hanford’s 618-10 burial ground;
- Construction of the Savannah River Site’s 33 million-gallon Saltstone Disposal Unit 6;
- Retrieval of about 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste at the Idaho Site’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, bringing a nearly 15-year effort to closure;
- Groundbreaking for the new Mercury Treatment Facility at Oak Ridge, which will enable EM to carry out additional cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex;
- Completion of the Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste (LLW) and GTCC-like waste Report to Congress, moving the Department closer to having a GTCC LLW disposal capability.
- Start of demolition of the West Valley Demonstration Project Vitrification Facility; and
- Completion of demolition of Building G2 at the Separations Process Research Unit.
Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management 2017 Year in Review
