The United States Department of Energy (DOE), Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), and Nuclear Decommissioning Authority of the United Kingdom (NDA) Sign Agreement To Exchange Information Concerning Environmental Remediation and Management of Radioactive Waste
March 8th, 2020—The leaders of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL) and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority of the United Kingdom (NDA) cleanup programs signed an agreement today to supplement their longstanding collaboration arrangements and encourage trilateral collaboration to take place between the three organizations. William ‘Ike’ White, Senior Advisor for the Office of Environmental Management to the Under Secretary for Science for the Department of Energy; Alastair MacDonald, Vice-President, Decommissioning and Waste Management, on behalf of Richard Sexton, President and Chief Executive Officer for AECL; and Adrian Simper, Group Director for Strategy and Technology for NDA, signed the agreement during a ceremony held at the Waste Management Symposia 2020 in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Trilateral Agreement formalizes recent collaborative activities between the three organizations in areas including aging infrastructure management, in situ decommissioning/ disposal and near surface disposal facilities — all of which are important considerations across the three countries in working towards safe and effective cleanup of legacy sites. The agreement has a formal governance structure to ensure that activities are targeted on areas that promise the most benefit in terms of safe, efficient and timely environmental remediation, and that the proposed efforts have support from the highest levels.
“Collaborating with our counterparts and sharing best practices wherever possible will help to ensure that we all learn from one another,” said William “Ike” White. “The ability to conduct joint technology projects, exchange personnel and conduct inter-country program reviews will increase the capabilities of our people, and allow all of us to leverage our collective resources as we tackle some of the most difficult environmental challenges.
“We are all working hard, but face challenges cleaning up our sites and effectively managing our waste, to better protect the environment and the health and safety of our communities, all the while ensuring good value,” said Richard Sexton. “Today’s announcement clearly signals that through sharing knowledge and best practices, we can build on experience gained by our counterparts and tap into the right expertise, to find unique and safe solutions to common issues, thereby leaving a better legacy for future generations.”
Adrian Simper added “We have been collaborating on a bilateral basis for some years now with our North American friends. This has allowed us each to benefit from sharing each other’s experiences of our most difficult clean-up tasks. Coming together under this agreement is a natural progression and provides a unique opportunity to accelerate our individual missions and better manage our environmental responsibilities,”