How Legacy Management Became a Global Case Study

As part of LM’s 20-year anniversary celebration, this is one in a series of profiles of current and former LM employees who address various aspects of the LM mission.

December marked 20 years since the Department of Energy established the Office of Legacy Management to address the environmental legacy of the Manhattan Project. LM has had two decades to understand what makes post-remediation best practice. Russel Edge was among those who witnessed LM’s evolution from a nascent office to a global case study in effective legacy management.

Edge began his career with DOE in 1992, working on the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action project. As the UMTRA site remediation manager, Edge worked with sites on tribal lands. He said each site had its own set of unique challenges that taught him about cultural fluency and stakeholder relationships. 

“Some of the most rewarding work I did for the Department of Energy was time I spent out on the reservations,” Edge said.

At the time, Edge says Congress was under a lot of pressure from communities across the country to clean up former nuclear weapons facilities and uranium enrichment sites related to the development of the first atomic bomb. Given the enormous costs of environmental remediation at DOE sites and facilities, Congress needed convincing. 

“It was an uphill battle to convince Congress and the leadership in DOE that all of these sites at some point were going to need some type of post-closure activity, whether it was as simple as records management or monitoring institutional controls,” he said.

As that reality became more apparent throughout DOE, a case for forming a nationwide legacy management organization was building.

In 2008, the International Atomic Energy Agency sought Edge’s expertise. The collapse of the Soviet Union had left many newly independent former Soviet republics with multiple Cold War era sites and facilities, including uranium mining and milling facilities. The IAEA was moving full speed ahead to support assessment and remediation of these abandoned Cold War era sites. Edge transferred to IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

While at IAEA, Edge blazed new trails. He helped to form both the International Working Forum for the Regulatory Supervision of Legacy Sites and the Coordination Group for Uranium Legacy Sites.

“Both of the initiatives are about helping countries develop their expertise and national capacities, such as adopting international standards, training their staff, and facilitating international resources to help solve the problems,” Edge said.

While working on these initiatives, he realized that LM was the perfect resource and reached out to David Shafer, the UMTRA supervisor, and Tom Pauling, the director of site operations for LM at the time, to arrange a visit from international representatives.

“The international group that came to Grand Junction, Colorado, had representatives from 21 countries including Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, where sites similar to those that LM manages have now been remediated,” Shafer said. “I honestly do not think it would have happened without Russel's efforts — his technical expertise is important, but his organizational and people skills were just as, if not more, important.”

For the next six and a half years, Edge traveled the globe teaching about long-term surveillance and helping IAEA members with their uranium legacy sites. Then came the boomerang.

In 2014, LM prepared the DOE Report to Congress about the scope of abandoned uranium mines. It was a pivotal moment, Edge recalled.

“I was appointed senior advisor to Pauling and asked to create the Defense-Related Uranium Mines program,” Edge said. Dogged by time constraints and limited budget, Edge created the program from scratch.

“There was no scope, schedule, or budget, or even any mention of DRUM in LM's annual budget, until I was asked to create it,” said Edge.

From setting the budget and timeline to managing stakeholder relationships, Edge worked across federal and state agencies to improve the collection of mine-specific data.

“Going back to this program after being at the IAEA seemed like a natural fit for me,” Edge said.

In his storied career, Edge has tallied many achievements, but he says it’s the people he remembers most fondly. 

“I was fortunate to work with amazing people throughout my career. Any success I may have experienced is due to them,” he said.

Ron Stenson, a colleague of Edge’s from the IAEA, says he made a lasting impact on those around him. He saw obstacles as opportunities.

“As his friend, I always appreciate his down-to-earth wisdom,” Stenson said. “After a few days relaxing and catching no fish, Russel explained to me, ‘That’s why it’s called fishing, not catching.’”

Edge is fishing a lot more often since his retirement in 2018.

“I'm a very lucky man. I just feel very fortunate to have had those opportunities. And who would have thought working on uranium mill tailings in the western United States would open those kinds of doors for me?”