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Environmental Programs
There are two programs within NNSA/NSO that deal with the
environment, Environmental Management and Environment, Safety and Health
(ES&H).
The U.S. Department of Energy Environmental
Management Program was created in 1989 to address the
environmental legacy of 50 years of nuclear weapons research,
production, and testing in the United States. The Environmental
Management Program Vision/Mission establishes the principles and goals
for programmatic work, which encompasses management of waste and
materials and corrective actions associated with contaminated sites and
facilities. These principles and goals are:
- Eliminate urgent risks to the public and the environment
- Reduce costs to provide additional funds for further risk
reduction
- Protect worker health and safety
- Reduce the generation of waste
- Create and maintain a collaborative relationship between DOE and
its regulators and stakeholders
- Focus technology development on cost and risk reduction
- Integrate waste treatment and disposal activities across all DOE Environmental Management sites
The Environment, Safety and Health Program has many
elements. The “E” portion of this program’s mission is to ensure that NTS activities are conducted in a manner which adheres to all
environmental protection standards and regulations. The scope of such
standards and regulations which govern the conduct of NNSA missions on
the NTS is very broad, ranging from protecting the environment and
public from radiation to protecting the site’s historical resources.
The annual Nevada Test
Site Environmental Report (NTSER) details the results of
environmental monitoring at the NTS, and also delineates the standards
and regulations which govern NTS activities, and how well the NTS
complies with them. Within the ES&H program, the following environment tasks are performed:
- Field monitoring to assess offsite
radiological contamination of air and
water from past and
present NNSA activities
- Field monitoring to assess onsite
radiological contamination of air,
water, and
biota from
past and present NNSA activities
- Assessment of the radiological dose
to the public due to past and present NNSA activities
- Assessments of non-radiological air
and water quality on the NTS
- Reporting environmental occurrences and
responses
- Confirming compliance with all applicable standards and regulations to
protect the environment and the public
- Ecological monitoring of
protected and sensitive species and habitats
- Historic preservation and cultural
resource protection
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