After more than 30 years of mitigating the most pressing environmental risks, EM is approaching a crossroads, shifting to remaining work that involves some of the toughest and most expensive challenges.
Office of Environmental Management
December 20, 2022
minute read time
EMTV VIDEO PREMIERE: Watch EM's inaugural Year in Review video, a cinematic exploration of the cleanup program's achievements throughout the DOE complex in 2022.
After more than 30 years of mitigating the most pressing environmental risks, EM is approaching a crossroads, shifting to remaining work that involves some of the toughest and most expensive challenges. EM summarized its cleanup accomplishments across the complex, including numerous major program priorities, in its 2022 Year in Review released today.
"I am proud of all the work done this year across EM to begin clearing the decks of some of the last longstanding challenges facing the program,” EM Senior Advisor William “Ike” White said. “The progress realized in 2022 sets EM up well for even greater success in the future as cleanup progress sets the stage for stewardship, restoration and enduring economic growth.”
Click here to Read EM's 2022 Year in Review.
The 2022 Year in Review highlights progress and accomplishments at each EM site, including:
- Received 235 transuranic waste shipments from five generator sites.
- Reached a depth of more than 700 feet for a new utility shaft towards the targeted depth of 2,275 feet.
- Increased stakeholder engagement activities in northern New Mexico.
- Completed 52 transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, surpassing an EM 2022 priority.
- Began an EM Los Alamos strategic vision plan with stakeholder input for remaining legacy cleanup campaigns at the Los Alamos National Laboratory Site.
- Completed exhumation of 5.69 acres of the Radioactive Waste Management Complex Subsurface Disposal Area — an EM 2022 priority.
- Began the first large-scale treatment of waste from large underground storage tanks with the start of Tank-Side Cesium Removal System operations — an EM 2022 priority.
- Completed construction of a protective enclosure, or “cocoon,” around K East Reactor — an EM 2022 priority.
Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office
- Completed demolition of the 2.6-million-square-foot X-326 process building at the Portsmouth Site — an EM 2022 priority.
- Transferred 200 acres of land from the Portsmouth Site to the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative, reducing the federal footprint and expanding opportunities for reindustrialization.
- Completed the disposition of an additional 1 million pounds of refrigerant currently stored at the Paducah Site — an EM 2022 priority.
West Valley Demonstration Project
- Launched Main Plant Process Building demolition — an EM 2022 priority.
Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management
- Completed cleanup and transfer of the Biology Complex area — an EM 2022 priority.
- Began processing uranium-233 material in hot cells — an EM 2022 priority.
- Treated more than 2.1 million gallons of tank waste and removed over 3.7 million curies from the waste.
Small Site Progress
- Continued characterization and hazard reduction activities to prepare for demolition and closure of two legacy facilities at the Nevada National Security Site.
- Disposed a cumulative 13 million tons of the estimated 16 million tons of uranium mill tailings at the Moab Site in Utah ― an EM 2022 priority.
- Completed disposal of building demolition debris at the Energy Technology Engineering Center Site in California.
- Completed the Building 280 Reactor Removal Project and finished waste disposal from the demolition of Building 175 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The 2022 Year in Review can be accessed here.
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