Effectiveness and Efficiency of Defense Environmental Cleanup Activities of the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management Report 2 (2022) / Chapter Skim
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6 Enhancing the Effectiveness and Efficiency of the Cleanup Program
6 Enhancing the Effectiveness and Efficiency of the Cleanup Program
Pages 54-64
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From page 54... ...
cleanup activities. The committee provides one finding and one recommendation in this chapter to address this task element, focused on the cleanup program's growing liabilities1 and steps that should be taken by DOE-EM and others to reduce them.
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From page 55... ...
constraints created by the requirements and preferences of multiple federal, state, and local stakeholders, including inflexible and outdated regulatory agreements; (3) lack of clearly defined strategic goals, objectives, and outcomes for completing the overall cleanup mission and assessing progress; (4)
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From page 56... ...
2. Constraints created by the requirements and preferences of multiple federal, state, and local stakeholders, including inflexible and outdated regulatory agreements.
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SOURCE: Data from 2000-2021 DOE Annual Financial Reports. $300 $250 $200 $150 $100 $50 $0 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Hanford Liabilities ID+GDF+SR Liabilities All other liabilities FIGURE 6.2 Cleanup liability growth ($billions)
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From page 58... ...
These agreements require frequent amendments to keep pace with the changing understanding of 5 Technical challenges include the retrieval and immobilization of tens of millions of gallons of mixed (radioactive and hazardous) tank wastes and closure of hundreds of underground tanks, some of which are leaking; retrieval of radioactively contaminated buried wastes and remediation of radioactively contaminated soils and groundwater; and dismantlement and disposal of hundreds of highly contaminated facilities.
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From page 59... ...
However, the committee sees no alignment on how DOE-EM can reduce growing cleanup liabilities and successfully complete the cleanup mission. LACK OF CLEARLY DEFINED STRATEGIC GOALS, OBJECTIVES, AND OUTCOMES FOR COMPLETING THE OVERALL CLEANUP MISSION AND ASSESSING PROGRESS DOE-EM recently initiated a 10-year cleanup program planning effort (DOE, 2022b)
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In fact, the program is averse to innovation if it creates risks for achieving near-term milestones.9 DOE-EM lacks the completion mindset and urgency to finish the cleanup mission and instead defaults to the practice of frequent re-baselining of cleanup schedules and costs and renegotiation of regulatory agreements. CLEANUP PROGRAM FUNDING UNCERTAINTIES AND RESTRICTIONS Uncertainties in the annual appropriations cycle and restrictions on reprogramming of appropriated funds make it difficult for DOE-EM to plan and execute the cleanup mission on a multi-year basis.
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, 2019, "Past Assistant Secretaries for Environmental Management," December 12, https://www.energy.gov/em/past-assistant-secretaries-environmentalmanagement; DOE, "William "Ike" White," https://www.energy.gov/em/person/william-ike-white, accessed March 31, 2022.
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for a discussion of notable external reviews.) DOE-EM's continu ing failure to improve project management practices is a root cause of cleanup liability growth over the past decade.
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From page 63... ...
The Secretary of Energy, working with federal and state regulators and with the support of the administration and Congress, should review, update, and restructure outdated site-level regulatory agreements. Incorporating performancebased requirements into these agreements that are focused on achieving specified levels of risk reduction could benefit all parties by accelerating the pace of the cleanup program and reducing cleanup liabilities.
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