Nominations are being accepted through Aug. 31 for the Southeast Compact Commission for Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management’s 2021 Richard S. Hodes, M.D. Honor Lecture Award.
Nominees can be individuals, companies, or other organizations that have “contributed in a significant way to improving the technology, policy, or practices of low-level radioactive waste management in the United States,” according to the nomination announcement. The awardee will be recognized via a lecture at the 2021 Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix, along with payment of all travel costs for the conference and a $5,000 honorarium.
The annual award is intended to highlight industry innovations in low-level waste, such as establishing new systems or approaches for waste management, including in the areas of education, prevention, and regulation. There are four criteria for consideration: innovation, safety, economics, and transferability.
The Southeast Compact Commission is one of 10 regional commissions established under federal law to oversee disposal of low-level waste generated within member states – in this case, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The award is named for Richard Hodes, who helped negotiate the Southeast Compact law and served as the commission’s chairman from 1983 to his death in 2002. The award has been given annually since 2004, with recent recipients including the National Nuclear Security Administration in 2018 for its Off-Site Source Recovery Program; Clint Miller, principle radwaste engineer for Pacific Gas & Electric’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, in 2019; and Savannah River Remediation, liquid waste management contractor for the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, in 2020.
The nomination packet can be found on the Southeast Compact Commission website. Nominations can be submitted to the Awards Committee, care of commission Executive Director Ted Buckner, at: [email protected], or P.O. Box 5427, Cary, N.C. 27512.
