Executive Summary
The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2017 (P.L. 114-328) contained a request (see Appendix A) for a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) review and assessment of science and technology (S&T) development efforts within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM). The National Academies appointed an expert committee to carry out the study and prepare a technical report. This executive summary contains the complete list of the committee’s findings and recommendations.
This study charge is addressed in Chapter 2 of this report.
Finding 1: DOE-EM projects that it will spend at least another 50 years and $377 billion to complete its cleanup of the nuclear weapons complex. These time and cost estimates are highly uncertain—and probably low—because of (1) substantial remaining uncertainties in the cleanup program’s lifecycle costs, schedules, and risks; and (2) the possible future inclusion of additional DOE sites and facilities into the DOE-EM cleanup program.
Recommendation A: DOE-EM should obtain an independent assessment of the cleanup program’s lifecycle costs and schedules from a government engineering organization—for example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—that is specifically focused on identifying key remaining technical risks and uncertainties. DOE-EM should use this assessment to reevaluate the major cleanup challenges it faces, including the timeline and costs associated with addressing them with current S&T investments, and make any necessary adjustments to its S&T development program.
Finding 2: Most DOE-EM-related S&T activities are site based, contractor driven and managed, and have a short-term focus on addressing technical challenges in existing cleanup projects. DOE-EM headquarters has a limited role in selecting, managing, and coordinating this site-based S&T to ensure that it meets the cleanup program’s needs, particularly over the long term and across different sites.
Finding 3: DOE-EM’s management of S&T is ad hoc and uncoordinated and thus less effective than it should be. DOE-EM lacks formal, documented processes for (1) managing the technology lifecycle—from basic research through technology deployment—and (2) sharing lessons learned, including failures, successes, and good practices, from its technology development and deployment efforts both within and outside of DOE-EM.
Recommendation B: DOE-EM should design and implement an S&T management process for identifying, prioritizing, selecting, developing, and deploying the new knowledge and technologies needed to address its cleanup challenges, including the technical risks and uncertainties identified from the assessment in Recommendation A. Independent peer review should be used to evaluate (1) the S&T management process before it is implemented, (2) S&T projects before they are funded, and (3) the overall effectiveness and impact of DOE-EM’s S&T efforts.
Finding 4: DOE-EM has substantially reduced investments in S&T development over the past 15 years and has focused instead on technology deployment in current cleanup projects. In particular, DOE-EM has demonstrated little to no interest in investing in S&T development that might lead to breakthrough solutions and technologies that can substantially reduce cleanup lifecycle costs, schedules, risks, and uncertainties.
Recommendation C: A portion of the technology development effort for the DOE-EM cleanup program should focus on breakthrough solutions and technologies that can substantially reduce cleanup lifecycle
costs, schedules, risks, and uncertainties. Such a program would require substantial new funding separate from the DOE-EM budget and a different model for managing research and stimulating innovation. This technology development effort should be
- Managed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), a division within DOE with a record of investing in innovative solutions for complex technical challenges.
- Informed by the independent assessment of the cleanup program’s key remaining risks and uncertainties called for in Recommendation A and the S&T management process for identifying, prioritizing, selecting, developing, and deploying the new knowledge and technologies called for in Recommendation B.
- Be independently peer reviewed to evaluate its impact on the cleanup program.
DOE-EM should work cooperatively with ARPA-E to identify and implement these breakthrough technologies and solutions into the cleanup program.
This study charge is addressed in Chapter 3 of this report.
Finding 5: The committee identified seven technologies and alternative approaches that could substantially reduce long-term cleanup costs; accelerate cleanup schedules; and mitigate uncertainties, vulnerabilities, or risks, or otherwise significantly improve the cleanup program. These involve changes to the following:
- Waste chemistry at bulk and interfacial scales to facilitate treatment and disposal.
- Nuclear properties of waste to facilitate treatment and disposal.
- Human involvement in cleanup activities to increase cleanup efficiencies and reduce worker risks.
- Interrogation approaches to characterize wastes and monitor cleanup remedies and environmental impacts.
- Modeling and visualization approaches to manage large cleanup-related data sets and improve predictive capabilities.
- Disposal pathways to increase waste disposition options.
- Decision-making approaches to improve the quality and durability of cleanup decisions.
