Program accomplishments spotlighted in annual report
On Tuesday, Dec. 20, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) released the 2022 Year in Review, outlining major accomplishments and environmental cleanup progress over the past calendar year. The EM Nevada Program was among the DOE sites highlighted for their work over the period.
“EM’s mission in Nevada continues to progress on multiple fronts: a completed soils program, three of four groundwater corrective action areas transitioned into long-term monitoring, and regulatory closure achieved at 99% of currently identified industrial-type sites,” said EM Nevada Program Manager Rob Boehlecke. “We are proud of our accomplishments as a program and excited for the work to come.”
The DOE Office of Environmental Management released a site-wide report that can be found at Year in Review | Department of Energy, detailing achievements across the EM mission scope. EM Nevada was highlighted for preparation work for the upcoming demolition and closure of two large legacy nuclear facilities on the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) — the Engine Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly (EMAD) and Test Cell C (TCC) complexes. Both facilities were part of the Nuclear Rocket Development Station, which supported the development and testing of nuclear propulsion rocket engines from 1957 until 1973.
The work at EMAD and TCC represents the last major demolition and closure efforts currently identified in EM Nevada’s environmental remediation mission.
For more than three decades, the DOE Office of Environmental Management has remained focused on addressing the environmental legacy of nuclear weapons development and nuclear energy research. Collectively, EM delivered a set of results in 2022 that are protecting the environment, supporting communities, and enabling a concerted focus on safely completing the mission sooner and more efficiently.
For more information on the DOE EM Nevada Program, please visit https://www.energy.gov/em/nevada-national-security-site-nnss.