Status of Environmental Cleanup Conducted by the Office of Environmental Management, U.S. Department of Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management (EM) is responsible for one of the largest environmental remediation efforts in the world. EM's mission is to safely address the substantial environmental liability resulting primarily from decades of nuclear weapons production and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. Over the past three decades, the EM program has achieved significant and lasting progress in tackling its environmental legacy. EM has eliminated, or mitigated, at most sites the environmental, safety, and health risks from the most dangerous legacy wastes and contaminated facilities. In addition, contaminant pathways have been effectively controlled in groundwater and soils to mitigate potential future risks. The program's combined active remediation footprint has been reduced by 90 percent, from approximately 3,300 square miles to less than 300 square miles. EM is currently executing environmental cleanup at the remaining 16 of the original 107 sites around the United States. EM has developed a Strategic Vision that provides a clear and concise roadmap to guide our planning and priorities. The Strategic Vision showcases EM's pursuit of its nuclear material cleanup objectives safely within a framework of regulatory compliance commitments and best business practices. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, EM achieved a historic slate of accomplishments in 2021. These achievements have set the stage for accelerating cleanup momentum across the environmental cleanup complex.