Environmental Protection
Argonne's environmental policy commits the laboratory to condust all activities — including experiments, facility operations, construction activities, and other activities — in an environmentally safe and sound manner consistent with Argonne permit conditions.
Argonne strives to be a good neighbor and a responsible environmental
steward. A number of Argonne programs care for the environment by continually
monitoring and measuring environmental contaminant on site and by conscientiously
tracking, collecting and properly disposing of the small amounts of chemical
and radioactive wastes that Argonne research generates. Argonne also
carries out environmental monitoring for the U.S. Department of Energy
of Red Gate Woods, where nuclear-reactor-related research was performed
from 1943 to the mid 1950s.
The following links provide access to official technical reports and
to short, easier-to-read summaries of these activities.
- Environmental monitoring – A
short fact sheet summarizing Argonne 's programs to monitor the effects
of its activities on the local environment.
- Waste handling and disposal – A
short fact sheet summarizing the waste created by Argonne activities
and the laboratory's programs to responsibly handle and dispose
of it.
- Pollution Prevention – Argonne 's pollution prevention programs
divert waste from landfills, conserve energy, improve indoor air
quality and reduce operating costs. Since 1996, these programs have
saved Argonne and taxpayers about $11 million. The program has been
declared one of the best in the U.S. Department of Energy national
laboratory system.
- Land and Wetlands Management and Habitat
Restoration – The
Argonne landscape is a mosaic of tall grass prairie, oak savanna,
oak forest and wetland areas. Argonne 's land management programs preserve
and protect these natural habitats, which to clean the air and water,
to reduce flooding and to enhance the site's aesthetics.
- Summary Site Environmental
Report – (4.2 MB, PDF) Because Argonne's annual Site Environmental
Report is necessarily lengthy, detailed and highly technical, Argonne
works with honors science classes at nearby Downers Grove South High
School to develop a shorter, easier-to-read Summary Site Environmental
Report. This document summarizes in plain English the annual results
or Argonne 's ongoing site environmental monitoring and surveillance
program.
- Site
Environmental Report – (17.7 MB, PDF)
Argonne's most recent annual report on environmental monitoring and
clean-up activities at its Illinois site. The report is searchable
from the Web. An archive
of reports since
1972 is also available online.
- Surveillance of Site A and Plot M – (1.34
MB, PDF) An official annual report of environmental surveillance of
Site A and Plot M at Red Gate Woods in the Cook County Forest Preserve.
A number of small research reactors, including the world's first nuclear
reactor, operated on this site from 1943 to the mid 1950s. The report
is searchable from the Web.
|