EM Kicks Off New Era, Priorities Following Year of Cleanup Success

EM’s goals for continued safe progress at its sites and its efforts to strengthen the workforce and build partnerships were undaunted during the past year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The result was a set of 2020 successes that paved the way for a new era with a new set of priorities for the new year, EM leaders said last week at the Waste Management Symposia 2021.

During the conference, EM released its Calendar Year 2021 Mission and Priorities list of planned achievements. EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Todd Shrader said making the priorities public helps keep the program challenged and focused. He said EM deliberately set a high bar for achievement.

Shrader noted that the list includes challenging priorities that EM will work hard to achieve.

“Last year’s list, we made most everything. We didn’t make them all, but we made most of them, and COVID certainly impacted it,” he said.

The 2020 accomplishments included major progress in liquid waste treatment systems, including beginning operations at the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site, completing construction of the facilities supporting the Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste treatment approach at Hanford, and although the goal of startup was not achieved, great progress was made towards starting up the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory Site.

“That is really important from the standpoint of credibility within EM of us showing that, yes, we can follow through on the commitments we have to treat waste,” Shrader said.

Shrader was joined on the annual Hot Topics panel by EM’s three “APDAS'es” — associate principal deputy assistant secretaries — Nicole Nelson-Jean, Mark Gilbertson, and Dae Chung. They discussed EM efforts in the past year to strengthen the workforce and maintain production while promoting safe telework and remaining connected with stakeholders and contractor partners.

“If you look at the past year, there was a defining test of our ability to adjust and adapt,” said Chung, APDAS for corporate services. “I truly believe our EM colleagues demonstrated an impressive ability to adjust and perform very effectively despite many challenges.”

Chung noted EM conducted a variety of workshops in a virtual environment, as well as virtual peer reviews, site tours, training sessions, site advisory board meetings, and other interactions.

“I don’t think we missed any of those stakeholder engagements during the pandemic,” he said.

Nelson-Jean, APDAS for field operations, said the situation demanded a focus on teamwork between the sites and headquarters, and they delivered.

“We have a lot of people working around the 16 sites very faithfully to get the job done, but there are several other pieces of that,” she said. “There is the regulatory piece, there is the contractual piece, there is the personnel piece. Over the past year there has been a COVID pandemic that we also had to incorporate into how we do our work and continue to do it safely.

“One of the things I’ve appreciated was how well that collaboration has been done, through leadership of ensuring all those pieces came together.”

Shrader said it perhaps was easier for EM workers to adapt to pandemic safety controls than other agencies since they already are accustomed to the use of contamination control equipment and procedures.

“This is our bread and butter,” Shrader said. “We understand PPE (personal protective equipment), we understand engineering controls.”

Gilbertson, the APDAS for regulatory and policy affairs, said EM is focused on highlighting and expanding its efforts to promote STEM education and workforce diversity, priorities expressed by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. He cited EM’s long relationship with Florida International University, a leading educator of Hispanic students, and EM’s Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program that places interns in research positions.

“We are excited about those kinds of relationships and we are going to push to expand those,” Gilbertson said. “The secretary and the new administration are very much supportive of STEM activities at our sites.”

Shrader said the new administration’s value on fostering environmental justice dovetailed with EM priorities.

“In many ways, EM has always been about environmental justice in cleaning up these sites that are near our communities in various parts of the country, returning the sites to a safe configuration so people in the community can use them,” he said.

To Shrader, that is the core of environmental justice.

"We have always had the moral responsibility to do this,” he said.