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The Department of Energy is the custodian of approximately 3,000 facilities that
were constructed and used over the past 65 years to develop nuclear energy for
scientific, domestic, and defense purposes. Most of these facilities were designed
for specialized purposes, and over time the equipment and facilities have become obsolete.
Many of these facilities are large and complex, with unique design features, e.g.
some facilities have 6 foot thick walls. Since the early days of the Manhattan Project,
in the 1940’s through the 40 years of the Cold War the Department was under schedule-driven
deadlines to deliver products. Old facilities were often abandoned, as additional
facilities were built for newer missions and changes in technology. As the Cold War
closed a huge environmental legacy was revealed, including a large inventory of
radiological facilities needing final disposition.
The process of taking an active/excess/abandoned facility to a final disposition end
state is called deactivation and decommissioning (D&D). Because of residual
radioactivity, and other hazardous constituents, and the physical condition of EM’s
facilities D&D presents unique hazards that must be addressed from a safety,
programmatic, environmental, and technological standpoint. Although EM has many
different types of facilities in different conditions the general D&D process
applies to all facilities. For additional information on the D&D process and
a brief explanation of the DOE complex-wide facility D&D work please see the
D&D - Project Basics 
presentation under Special Features.
The Deactivation and Decommissioning (D&D) function within the Office of D&D
and Facility Engineering focuses on innovative applications and timely insertion of
existing commercially available technologies, processes and hardware to identify and
address D&D risks and challenges. The program supports the development of
informed facility D&D strategy, such as,
In-Situ Decommissioning; enhanced verifiability of the efficacy of D&D
operations; increased productivity and personnel safety of D&D operation; facilitation
of acceptable facility end-state; independent verification.
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