Mar 31 2009
Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced $6 billion in new funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to accelerate environmental cleanup work and create thousands of jobs across 12 states - including a major investment in New York. Projects identified for funding will focus on accelerating cleanup of soil and groundwater, transportation and disposal of waste, and cleaning and demolishing former weapons complex facilities.
"These investments will put Americans to work while cleaning up contamination from the cold war era," said Secretary Chu. "It reflects our commitment to future generations as well as to help local economies get moving again."
These projects and the new funding are managed by the Department's Office of Environmental Management, which is responsible for the risk reduction and cleanup of the environmental legacy from the nation's nuclear weapons program, one of the largest, most diverse and technically complex environmental programs in the world.
Today's announcement includes new funding for the following cleanup efforts in the state:
- New York (Total funding $148 million)
- Brookhaven ($42 million) - Demolish surplus ancillary structures associated with a nuclear research reactor. Remove contaminated soil and buried pipelines and dispose of off-site, protecting the surrounding soil and groundwater.
- Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) ($32 million) - Cleanup the North Field Land Area removing contaminated soil for off-site disposal, performing sampling to confirm cleanup results and re-grading and re-seeding the area.
- West Valley ($74 million) - Design and construct a storage system for high-level waste canisters and move high-level waste canisters from the former waste treatment facility to the new system, allowing the former treatment facility to be decontaminated and demolished earlier than planned. Begin demolition of former process buildings and install a system to prevent migration of groundwater contamination. Accelerate radioactive waste treatment and disposal activities to shrink the area of site contamination.
For more information on the Department's Environmental Management activities, visit http://www.em.doe.gov/pages/emhome.aspx.
For regular updates on Department of Energy's efforts to implement the President's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, visit energy.gov/recovery. The page includes a map with state by state summaries of recent investments by the Department of Energy through the Recovery Act -- from state weatherization funding to grants to specific cities, counties and tribal governments.