The Department of Energy is seeking public comment between now and Feb. 17 on soil cleanup at the Energy Technology Engineering Center site inside the Santa Susana Field Laboratory property in Simi Valley.
DOE said Dec. 19 it is publishing a notice of intent to prepare a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and is holding a 60-day scoping period to take comment on cleanup options. The comments will center on cleanup of Area 4 within Santa Susana, which includes DOE’s technology center grounds, where the structures have already been torn down. DOE leases about 90 acres inside Area 4, according to the formal notice. The site was once home to Atomic Energy Commission nuclear test reactors.
The 2,850-acre Santa Susana property was also home to past Boeing and NASA operations. DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plan to hold at least one public hearing on the cleanup in 2025. Some contaminated dirt is expected to end up at the Nevada National Security Site for disposal.
A bill by Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) calls on the Department of Energy to better use its national laboratories and draft a technology development plan to assist environmental cleanup.
Lujan announced the Combining Laboratory Expertise to Accelerate Novel Solutions for Minimizing Accumulated Radioactive Toxins (CLEAN SMART) Act, on Dec. 12. It could cost DOE’s Office of Environmental Management about $700 billion by the end of the century to clean up 15 nuclear weapons sites, he said. “To save taxpayer dollars and shave years off the cleanup schedule, the Federal government must increase its support for science,” Lujan said in the Dec. 12 press release.
A backgrounder on the bill is available here.
An executive from the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, Johney Green, will be the new head of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, Battelle said last week.
Battelle Savannah River Alliance said in a Dec. 13 press release it chose Green, the associate laboratory director for mechanical and thermal engineering sciences at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, as the new director of Savannah River National Laboratory.
In September, Vahid Majidi, who ran the Savannah River National Laboratory for about six years, announced he was resigning in January. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management posted the job opening. Green will become Savannah River lab director effective Jan. 6, a Battelle spokesperson said Wednesday.
Roger Rocha was appointed president of the prime contractor at Nevada National Security Site effective Monday, the site announced in a press release Monday.
Rocha, the interim president since September when his predecessor resigned, now will take responsibility for all activities overseen by the Honeywell-led Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS) at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS).
Rocha joined MSTS around four years ago as the vice president and chief operating officer. Prior to his tenure at MSTS and NNSS, Rocha spent 25 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, most recently as the deputy principal associate director for operations. He succeeds Garret Harencack.
