# Presentation: 835872

## Decommissioning and the Office of Site Closure  

- Presented to the
- Fourth International Decommissioning Symposium
- by
- James J. Fiore
- Deputy Assistant Secretary for Site Closure
- June 13, 2000

## International Decommissioning Symposium

**WELCOME**
**to the **
**Fourth  International**
**Decommissioning**
**Symposium**** **

## International Decommissioning Symposium

**Why did the Office of Site Closure sponsor this symposium?**
- We have a large inventory of nuclear facilities that will ultimately require decommissioning
**Where are the remaining decommissioning challenges?**
- Near term - achieving site closure at Fernald, Rocky Flats, and Mound by 2006
- Longer term - the huge inventory of facilities remaining within the Office of Site Closure and the Office of Project Completion

## EM Decommissioning - Scope

**Albuquerque **
- 184 facilities total; 69 completed
**Chicago**
- 85 facilities total; 50 completed
**Idaho**
- 298 facilities total; 107 completed

## EM Decommissioning - Scope

**Nevada**
- 7 facilities total; 2 completed
**Oak Ridge **
- 231 facilities total; 69 completed
**Oakland **
- 41 facilities total; 3 completed

## EM Decommissioning - Scope

**Ohio**
- 161 facilities total; 37 completed
**Richland**
- 1265 facilities total; 52 completed
**Rocky Flats**
- 774 facilities total; 59 completed

## Office of Site Closure - Vision

**Set the standard for safe, cost-effective closure of nuclear facilities**
**Be the model for transitioning Government activities from operations to closure**
**Achieve end-states that are safe now and enable protective, effective stewardship for the future**

## Office of Site Closure - Vision

**Deploy new technologies to help the drive toward closure**
**Focus on closing sites under our responsibility by 2006**

## Achieving the Vision

**General Approach**
- More effective information exchange with industry
- More demonstrations/deployments that result in facilities being decommissioned
**Focus on**
- Increasing worker safety
- Reducing worker exposures
- Saving time and money

## The Near-Term Decommissioning Outlook

**Our current and near-term emphasis is on soil and groundwater remediation**
**In spite of tight budgets, remediation work must grow at some sites**
**Our total budget will likely remain flat**
** ****After some near-term site closures, emphasis will shift to decommissioning**

## The Near-Term Decommissioning Outlook

**How will we ensure we are ready when we begin decommissioning?  We must:**
- Ensure we learn from _every_ decommissioning we undertake
- Maximize information sharing
- Improve our performance through better sequencing, more efficient operations, and enhanced cooperation among our sites and between DOE and the regulators

## The Near-Term Decommissioning Outlook

**When our focus shifts, we will need to “hit the ground running”**
**Success will require more cost-effective deactivation and decommissioning **

## Near-Term Efficiency Goals

**Learn from other sites, agencies, and countries and apply those lessons to our program**
- See our Lessons Learned web site at
- http://www.em.doe.gov/lessons
**Improve decommissioning practices to yield safer, more effective, faster results**

## Achieving Near-Term Efficiency Goals

**What are we doing to achieve these goals?**
- Learning from and contracting with companies who have successfully decommissioned facilities similar to ours
- Consolidating responsibility within a single decommissioning contractor to ensure accountability and authority
- Encouraging subcontracting to reduce overhead costs

## Conclusion

**The decommissioning challenge facing the Office of Site Closure is formidable**
**We believe we are on a path (and have identified opportunities for improvement) that will enable us to meet the challenge**
**Thank you for your participation in our program and this symposium - we could not do it without you**