Resolving issues at the Department of Energy/Oak Ridge Operations Facilities

Waste management, like many other issues, has experienced major milestones. In 1971, the Calvert Cliff's decision resulted in an entirely different approach to the consideration of environmental impact analysis in reactor siting. The accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl have had profound effects on nuclear power plant design. The high-level waste repository program has had many similar experiences that have modified the course of events. The management of radioactive, hazardous chemical and mixed waste in all of the facilities of the Oak Ridge Operations (ORO) Office of the Department of Energy (DOE) took on an entirely different meaning in 1984. On April 13, 1984, Federal Judge Robert Taylor said that DOE should proceed 'with all deliberate speed' to bring the Y-12 plant into compliance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Clean Water Act. This decision resulted from a suit brought by the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation (LEAF) and grew out of a continuing revelation of mercury spills and other problems related to the Oak Ridge plants of DOE. In this same time frame, other events occurred in Oak Ridge that would set the stage for major changes, to provide the supporting environment that allowed a verymore » different and successful approach to resolving waste management issues at the DOE/ORO Facilities. This is the origin of the Oak Ridge Model which was recently adopted as the DOE Model. The concept is to assure that all stakeholders in waste management decisions have the opportunity to be participants from the first step. A discussion of many of the elements that have contributed to the success of the Model follows.« less