Barriers to Science Technical Management of the Department of Energy Environmental Remediation Program (1996) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Symptoms
Symptoms
Pages 7-18
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 7... ...
in Lewiston, NY, and Fernaid Environment Management Project (FEMP) Site in Fernaid, OH, have residues from the recovery of uranium during World War IT from very rich ores from the former Belgian Congo (now Zaire)
|
From page 8... ...
The top level breakdown consists of one system function "Remedy Unsafe and Unacceptable Conditions" and four program management functions such as "Manage Program" and "Obtain Public Acceptance." At the next planning level, the system function was broken into seven elements which seemed to correspond more to organizational subunits than to logical system functional boundaries. For example, the waste materials still in the tanks were placed in a different element than the wastes that had leaked out of the tanks, reflecting an organizational division of tasks between DOE Office of Waste Management (EM-30)
|
From page 9... ...
, the new planning basis became a legal commitment. The revised agreement dropped a previous reference to a supplemental environmental impact statement and added the requirement for essentially complete retrieval of the waste (amounting to 99 percent or more of the inventory of the tanks containing most of the waste)
|
From page 10... ...
In response to these objections, the 1993 renegotiation of the Hanford TPA committed DOE to vitrification of the low-level tank waste fraction using technology that, it was thought, was close to being available. In fact, the decision to vitrify was made without experimental evidence that vitrification of this fraction would produce a satisfactory waste form, without any serious cost analysis of vitrification, and without knowing what preliminary processing steps would be needled to produce a material that could be vitrified into an acceptable waste form.
|
From page 11... ...
. Example Protection of buried waste against infiltrating rain water has great importance for Hanford and for other DOE defense nuclear waste sites located in the arid western United States.
|
From page 12... ...
. Example When DOE agreed in the Hanford TPA to vitrify the low-level fraction of the Hanford tank wastes, it discontinued funding of grout waste forms, even though a pilot plant had been built, test runs had been conducted, and the facility was ready to go into operation.
|
From page 13... ...
Only after the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board sharply criticized DOE's pr~onties at Rocky Flats in its recommendation 94-l (Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, 1994) , and a variety of stakeholders including plant employees and State of Colorado regulators called for a greater emphasis on stored plutonium, did DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
|
From page 15... ...
. Example The Hanford Site-Specific Science arm Technology Plan (Pacific Northwest Laboratory, 1993)
|
From page 16... ...
and Environ mental Restoration (EM-40) organizations appeared to be impeding meeting milestones established by interagency agreements related to various DOE facilities between DOE and federal and state regulatory agencies (often called tr~party agreements)
|
From page 17... ...
has been compelled to rely upon MOUs between its own subunits reflects deep organizational problems. Rather than being directed by their top management to respond together to the realities of the remediation agreements and the physical characteristics of the individual sites, the subunits of DOE/EM have created additional bureaucratic mechanisms for coordination.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.