Gone Fission Nuclear Report

As we near the end of Black History Month, in this week’s podcast host Michael Butler features the story of the Scarboro 85. In August 1955, 85 young African American students entered all-white classrooms in the Oak Ridge High School and the Robertsville Junior High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This desegregation stands as an important milestone in American civil rights history. Oak Ridge City...

Consistent, reliable Congressional funding is an essential element of success in the Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup program. In this week’s episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report podcast, host Michael Butler interviews two former members of Congress who were instrumental in creation of the Nuclear Cleanup Caucus in the mid-1990s. Our guests are former Washington State Congressman...

The Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup program is now focused on 15 remaining sites around the country, down from 107 at the start of the program three decades ago. It is a multi-million dollar, multi-decade effort that depends on qualified contractors to get the job done. DOE is the largest civilian contracting agency in the federal government. In this week’s episode, the Gone Fission N...

Every DOE community has local leaders who step up to advocate for funding and new missions and to hold the Department of Energy accountable for its cleanup obligations. These leaders take the time to educate themselves on site issues, get to know DOE leaders and members of Congress, and use their voices and influence to represent their communities. In this week’s episode, the Gone Fission Nuclear...

In 2015, the United States welcomed its 409th National Park. Known as the Manhattan Project National Historic Park, it tells the story of the men and women who developed the atomic bomb that ended World War II. The Park features three key locations across the U.S.—Oak Ridge TN, Los Alamos NM, and Hanford WA. National Park Service Superintendent Wendy Behrman is our guest in this week’s episode of...

In our last episode, the Gone Fission Nuclear Report podcast examined the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee’s decision to close in two years. This week, Department of Energy officials at Headquarters and two sites discuss the continuing need for CROs and the importance of community support in the success of DOE’s cleanup mission.  Hear our interview with Kristen Ellis, DOE-EM Headquar...

The Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET) recently announced its plans to close after three decades of successfully representing the Oak Ridge community with the Department of Energy. Why now? And what does this decision mean for the CROs that continue to operate in other DOE communities? Learn the answers in this week’s episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report podcast featuring...

If you want job security and the feeling of doing something meaningful, the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management program is the place to be. That was the message of top government and industry leaders—and young professionals themselves—at the 2023 National Cleanup Workshop in Washington, DC. EM Senior Advisor Ike White says about half the federal EM workforce is eligible to retire now....

Cleanup is essential. Budgets are tight. Partnership is imperative. That was the message delivered by two members of Congress at the National Cleanup Workshop in Washington, DC, last week. Hear Congressmen Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) assess the current status of the Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup program in this week’s episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report....

This week's episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report podcast features an in-depth interview with Stuart MacVean, recently retired President and CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, DOE's lead environmental cleanup contractor at the Savannah River Site. MacVean looks back on his four decades in the nuclear industry and discusses the challenges that remain in the DOE environmental cl...

The Gone Fission Nuclear Report podcast celebrates the American worker on Labor Day 2023. Our skilled crafts work daily in hazardous environments and all kinds of weather to carry out the EM cleanup mission. Sean McGarvey, president and CEO of North America’s Building Trades Unions, joins us on this week’s episode to thank these workers for all they do. Visit the Gone Fission Nuclear Report channe...

The Department of Energy's Environmental Management office spends a lot of time remediating the problems of the past. But that doesn't mean they don't have an eye on the future. Perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in EM's current push to electrify it's gasoline-powered vehicle fleet.  In this week’s episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report, Rob Seifert, DOE EM Head...

Environmental cleanup at Department of Energy sites is a family affair. Each day, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, uncles and nephews show up together to perform the hazardous tasks and myriad support services necessary to carry out one of the world’s largest environmental cleanup missions. In this week’s episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report podcast, we introduc...

A controversial figure to this day, J. Robert Oppenheimer led the development and construction of the world's first atomic bomb. After World War II, his past communist leanings came to a head when his government security clearance was revoked after several contentious hearings at the height of the "Red Scare". In this week’s episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report, we look ahead...

The Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup program is complex, expensive and long-term. It requires federal oversight, experienced contractor management, a skilled workforce, continual funding from Congress, negotiations with regulators, buy-in and support from communities and stakeholders, and lots of careful planing. That planning is conveyed in DOE Environmental Management’s Strategic Vis...

Officials have taken another step forward in preserving the history of the K-25 site in Oak Ridge, breaking ground for a new viewing platform that will provide a bird’s eye view of the former gaseous diffusion plant’s footprint. A nearby K-25 History Center focuses on the men and women who built and operated the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant during the Manhattan Project and Cold War. In this w...

Ensuring an adequate workforce for the Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup program is a continuing concern and a high priority. There are decades of cleanup work left to do, and much of the current workforce is approaching retirement age. EM is now engaged in an aggressive program to hire more professionals.  In this week's episode, we examine the need for workers and what EM is doin...

This week, the Gone Fission Nuclear Report celebrates with employees of Idaho National Laboratory, INL management, the Department of Energy and state leaders. Crews have completed transfer of Experimental Breeder Reactor-2 spent fuel from wet to the dry storage, meeting a key milestone in a settlement agreement between the Department of Energy and the state. Employees exceeded expectations, comple...

Every Department of Energy field site has a landlord—a DOE programmatic office that oversees the real estate, utilities, security and other day-to-day operations. Every now and then a new landlord is installed to reflect the site’s changing missions and programmatic responsibilities. It’s happening now at Savannah River as NNSA prepares to take over landlord responsibilities from Environmental Man...

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is engaged in a comprehensive cleanup program for liquid radioactive waste. 51 underground carbon-steel tanks were built to hold radioactive liquid waste from Cold War-era nuclear weapons production. Eight of the tanks have been emptied and closed. The remaining 43 tanks contain about 34 million gallons of liquid waste. In this week’s episode of the G...

In observance of Women's History Month, the Gone Fission Nuclear Report this week features Carolyn Leach Huntoon, the first woman Assistant Secretary of Environmental Management at the Department of Energy. She was the first of six women to hold this important DOE post. Dr. Huntoon had a distinguished federal career, having also served as the first woman Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Cente...

In support of its Department of Energy client, United Cleanup Oak Ridge LLC (UCOR) has entered the next chapter of environmental cleanup on the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. With the historic Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant fully demolished and significant portions of land turned over to the community for economic development, UCOR is now focused on new cleanup projects at Oak Ridge Nation...

The Department of Energy’s Hanford site in Washington State is engaged in one of the largest and most complex environmental cleanup challenges on the planet. Multiple contractors are performing various parts of a decades-long mission that will ultimately result in 56 million gallons of radioactive waste being converted to a solid glass form for ultimate disposal. In this week’s episode, Brian Vanc...

The longest serving Community Reuse Organization (CRO) leader in the Department of Energy complex has retired. He is Rick McLeod, president and CEO of the Savannah River Site Community Reuse Organization. Rick held the post for 15 years, nearly half of the CRO's existence. Since he took the job in 2008, Rick has worked with DOE and the community in two states to make sure community interests...

Grace Stanke, Miss America 2023, is an aspiring nuclear engineer preparing to graduate from the University of Wisconsin. She is a smart, articulate advocate of nuclear energy, who believes this safe and reliable energy source should grow from its current 20 percent of U.S. electrical energy supply to as much as 60 percent. She also wants to use her platform to counter fears and misconceptions abou...