The week of September 12-16 was a big week for DOE in Washington, DC. Representatives from SRSCRO were on hand for several of the events.

SRSCRO representatives participated on panels at the 2016 National Cleanup Workshop held Sept. 14-15, 2016, at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center in Alexandria, Va.  The Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) along with the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) hosted the event. http://energy.gov/em/2016-national-cleanup-workshop. The workshop brought together senior DOE executives, officials from DOE sites, industry executives, and other stakeholders to discuss the DOE Office of Environmental Management's (EM) progress in the cleanup of the environmental legacy of the nation's Manhattan Project and Cold War nuclear weapons program.  As the largest environmental cleanup program in the world, EM is charged with the responsibility of cleaning 107 sites across the country, totaling a combined area equal to that of Rhode Island and Delaware.

Following the workshop on Sept. 14, the bipartisan House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus met on Capitol Hill to discuss how technology development can make EM's cleanup of nuclear waste sites safer, more effective and cost efficient. The caucus advocates for EM cleanup and provides updates on the program to members of Congress.

In addition, at DOE's Sept. 13 Lab Day event on Capitol Hill called "Advancing Environmental Stewardship through Innovation", members of Congress and their staff learned about the capabilities and contributions of the national laboratories in four key areas: advancing the science of safety for cleanup, enabling a sustainable future and understanding Earth systems, coping with emergencies, and national labs as a network. Directors and representatives from all 17 of the Department of Energy National Labs were also on hand to showcase demonstration projects across the four theme areas

In addition to the DOE events discussed above, DOE also hosted a meeting to summarize the comments received and discuss next steps in designing a consent-based siting process on September 15, 2016. DOE released a draft report for public comment concerning its consent-based siting process for nuclear waste storage which received more than 11,000 public comments. DOE has summarized public input it received nation-wide in an online report. The draft report titled ' Designing a Consent-Based Siting Process: Summary of Public Input' is now available on the Department of Energy consent-based siting website. The draft report is also available for public comment for 45 days, until October 30, 2016.  Learn how to submit a comment to DOE >>. After DOE considers comments received, it plans to issue a final summary report by December 2016.

On September 27, the Bipartisan Policy Center's Nuclear Waste Council will release a series of recommendations on the topic of consent-based siting as the culmination of the second phase of the council's work. These will serve as a foundation for the upcoming national nuclear waste management conversation and are based on a year of intense research, surveys of state government officials, and visits to communities undergoing nuclear waste siting consideration. BPC's Nuclear Waste Council was designed to reinvigorate and expand the discussion on nuclear waste, identify barriers prohibiting progress on storage and disposal of the waste, and explore options to create a viable national strategy for its long-term and safe disposition. You can join the discussion on the challenges and solutions to America's nuclear waste management and the promise consent-based siting can have for future projects. The event will be streamed live at http://bipartisanpolicy.org/events/consent-based-siting-nuclear-waste-facilities/.