The Office of Legacy Management highlights some of its achievements made in 2023
December 28, 2023
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The U.S Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management had significant achievements in 2023 and some of those are captured here in the 2023 Year in Review. LM not only won multiple awards and completed major program milestones, but also celebrated its 20-year anniversary. LM began on Dec. 15, 2003, and has since grown and expanded as it continues to perform LM’s mission.
Here are some of the top 2023 LM accomplishments.
LM DRUM Program Wins Secretarial Honor Award
LM’s Defense-Related Uranium Mines team won a Secretary of Energy Achievement Award in January 2023 for its outstanding achievements in locating and assessing more than 1,500 mines. The team worked with federal and state partners in safeguarding nearly 400 mines that pose a risk to human health and the environment.
Read more about the LM DRUM award here.
DRUM team completed Validation & Verification of a mine on the Navajo Nation in fall 2022.
LM Implements New Data Collection Methods
The LM Environmental and Spatial Data Management (ESDM) team is improving its methods of collecting data in the field by adding ArcGIS tools on Apple iOS phones and tablets to its repertoire of existing field data collection technology. The ongoing project to develop tools that support additional types of data collection not only complies with the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA), signed into law in December 2018, but will also minimize the use of hard-copy spatial data recording for site inspections and other purposes.
Read more about the new ESDM methods here.
A field team member tests the new ESDM technology on Apple iOS technology at the former production area at the Fernald Preserve Site in Ohio in January.
Teamwork, Safety, and Dedication Drove Success During Amchitka Trip
A U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management support team traveled by plane and boat to the Amchitka, Alaska, Site to monitor, inspect, and conduct environmental sampling. Environmental sampling focused on two priorities: verifying marine foods were safe to eat and determining if any contaminant migration was occurring from underground nuclear tests that took place in the 1960s and 1970s. The team collected marine water, freshwater, precipitation, and rockweed samples from the Poseidon and Amchitka Island and collected marine fish samples, including rockfish, Irish lord, Pacific cod, Atka mackerel, and Dolly Varden.
Read more here.
LM and partners caught several types of fish — including rockfish — during the Amchitka, Alaska, Site inspection and sampling trip in June 2023. LM will use sample data to provide information to local communities about commercial-catch food safety.
New Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center Exhibit Honors Former Workers
A new exhibit at the Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center in St. Charles, Missouri, was unveiled May 28 and honors former uranium processing and remediation workers in the St. Louis region. The exhibit celebrates former uranium processing workers in St. Louis and Weldon Spring and workers who were involved in the Weldon Spring Remedial Action Project.
Read more about the new Weldon Spring Site exhibit here.
More than 160 guests attended the unveiling of a workers exhibit at the Weldon Spring Site, Missouri, on Sunday, May 28. Many of the guests once worked as uranium processors or in remediation.
LM Receives 2023 Phoenix Award at National Brownfields Conference
U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management Beneficial Reuse Asset Manager Diana Kamenel Trettin accepted a 2023 Phoenix Award on LM’s behalf at an Aug. 9 ceremony at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Brownfields Training Conference in Detroit. LM received the EPA Region 8 Phoenix Award for its work on Las Colonias Park, formerly the Grand Junction, Colorado, Processing Site.
Read more about the Brownfields Conference here.
Finding Closure: LM Celebrates 20 Years Within DOE Cleanup Mission
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management began operations in December 2003 and began a campaign in October 2023 to celebrates its 20-year anniversary. Through social media, digital, and other channels, the campaign includes LM’s first podcast series, profiles of former and current LM employees, LM news articles, timelines, and a video series that outlines LM’s six goals.
Read more here about LM’s celebration.
LM Support Partner Museum Collections Specialist Taylour Whelan interviews LM Director Carmelo Melendez for one of four podcasts LM produced for its 20th anniversary celebration.
DOE, International Partners Collaborate on Stakeholder Engagement
In October, representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy, Nuclear Energy Agency, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ohio EPA, and technical and communications professionals from around the world converged in Cincinnati, Ohio, for the Forum on Stakeholder Confidence Workshop. The workshop explored lessons learned and best practices and focused on the forum members’ relationships with communities with nuclear sites.
Read more about the forum here.
LM, EPA, USACE Leaders Praise Partnership at Site Reuse Award Ceremony
In October, leaders from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency came together in Middlesex, New Jersey, to celebrate LM’s receipt of a National Federal Facility Excellence in Site Reuse Award for the Middlesex Sampling Plant Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program site. The award recognizes the efforts supporting the reuse and restoration of the site for use as a Middlesex Borough Department of Public Works and Office of Emergency Management facility and a public road that will provide access to an adjacent $40 million warehouse development and a larger community redevelopment zone.
Read more about the Middlesex award here.
In November, LM declared construction complete on the demolition of the Piqua Decommissioned Reactor Site in Ohio. The demolition was a complex project, completed effectively with more than 30,000 hours of safe operations, without incident, on-schedule, and within budget.
Learn more about the Piqua Site here.
Outside the reactor dome in November 2022 at the Piqua Decommissioned Reactor Site in Ohio.
Wyoming Site Now Under LM’s Supervision
The Split Rock, Wyoming, Disposal Site is the 102nd site to come under the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management's long-term care. As the new long-term custodian of the site, LM is responsible for inspections, groundwater monitoring and reporting, routine maintenance, and site record keeping.
Learn more about the Split Rock site transfer here.
