# Presentation: 930596

## Peter Sanders
Environmental Management
Nevada Site Office
September 18, 2007

- Environmental Management
- Nevada Site Office
- September 18, 2007

- Environmental Management (EM) Overview

## The Nevada Test Site

- Located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, NV
- Location of 928 nuclear tests

## Site Comparisons

## Nevada Site Office EM Projects

- Waste Management*
- Low-Level Waste (LLW)
- Mixed Low-Level Waste (MLLW)
- Transuranic (TRU) Waste

- Environmental Restoration
- Underground Test Area (UGTA)
- Industrial Sites
- Soils

- *Activities not within contract scope of work

## UGTA Sub-Project

- 828 underground nuclear tests released 132 million curies directly into the subsurface environment including the aquifers at the Nevada Test Site
- Project must define corrective action unit-specific hydrologic boundaries to reduce risk to the public and environment from potential groundwater contamination downgradient from historical nuclear testing sites

## Path Forward
Use peer-reviewed groundwater models to define contaminant boundaries around each of the five Corrective Action Units

- Use peer-reviewed groundwater models to define contaminant boundaries around each of the five Corrective Action Units

- UGTA Sub-Project
- (continued)

- Design and implement a monitoring network to ensure that the public/workers are not exposed to groundwater exceeding 4 millirem/year within 1,000 years (EPA drinking water standard)
- Drill wells, analyze data from existing wells, and conduct geophysical studies to collect data
- End-date is 2027

## Industrial Sites Sub-Project

- NTS and Tonopah Test Range (TTR) facilities such as gas stations, machine shops, equipment yards and research buildings were used in direct support of nuclear testing
- Activities resulted in some environmental contamination and subsequent hazardous and radioactive waste generation

- Contaminants of concern may include hazardous chemicals, unexploded ordnance, and low-level radionuclides

## Industrial Sites Sub-Project (continued)

- Federal Facilities Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO) is an agreement with the State of Nevada that outlines a series of activities that must be completed before an Industrial Sites can be designated as “clean” or “closed in place” with restrictions
- End-date is 2012

## Industrial Sites Status

## Soils Sub-Project

- Atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, nuclear safety experiments, and evaluation tests for peaceful uses of nuclear explosives conducted at the NTS and Nevada Test and Training Range resulted in the radioactive contamination of surface soils

- Soils sub-project is responsible for
- Characterizing and/or remediating surface soil contamination
- Ensuring appropriate controls (i.e., postings, barriers, etc.) are in place at the sites
- Conducting long-term monitoring of sites
- State of Nevada oversight provided under the FFACO
- End-date is 2025

## Radioactive Waste Disposal at the NTS*

- Other destinations are available (i.e., the Hanford Site), however due to pending resolution of issues, the NTS is the ONLY federal site disposing off-site generated LLW and MLLW

*****Activity not within contract scope of work

## NTS Approved LLW Generators

## TRU/Mixed TRU Waste Sub-Project*

- Complete the characterization and shipment of TRU waste to the Central Characterization Facility
- Awaiting HQ issuance of Supplement Analysis to the Waste Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement before remaining TRU waste can be shipped.
- Planning focused on meeting Nevada Site Office TRU sub-project end-date of September 30, 2008

*****Activity not within contract scope of work

## Program Support GroupActivities/Responsibilities

- Provides program planning, budgeting, project control, quality assurance, safety, regulatory support, contracts, administration, database management, and public involvement support for all EM projects
- Directly funds A&E:  contractor fee, business functions, document production, IT support, internal contractor project control, quality assurance, and health and safety support

## Stakeholder Involvement

- State of Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) provides programmatic and regulatory oversight of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management activities conducted by the DOE’s Environmental Management in the state of Nevada
- Active Community Advisory Board* (CAB) – 15 to 20 citizen volunteers from Las Vegas, Beatty, Amargosa Valley and Pahrump

*****Activity not within contract scope of work

## Program Requirements

- Currently there are almost a dozen contractors supporting the EM program
- Security Clearances required for certain key technical positions
- Unique Health and Safety Issues
- Active National Nuclear Security Administration Facility – requires coordination of activities

## EM Bottom Line

- Committed to accelerating cleanup and reducing risk to workers, the public and the environment with a timely, cost-effective approach for the sites under Nevada control
- Committed to working cooperatively with regulators and keeping the public informed of its activities
- Committed to supporting accelerated cleanup by providing waste disposal services to the entire DOE complex*

*****Activity not within contract scope of work