PNNL

Deputy Assistant Secretary Andy Griffith of DOE's Nuclear Energy recognized a PNNL team led by Tara O'Neil for its role in supporting DOE's high-profile Consent-Based Siting Initiative. The Consent-Based Siting Initiative is developing solutions for the long-term, sustainable management of our nation’s spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.

Griffith's letter recognized the PNNL team for its work, which allowed DOE to complete an important first step in the initiative: a draft Summary of Public Input report. The Summary of Public Input is a compilation of public comments and meetings intended to help design a process for the consent-based siting of nuclear waste facilities. As part of this effort, O’Neil and her team helped organize public comments received by DOE, leveraging the Comment Response Database (CRD) developed by PNNL in support of its environmental assessment work for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Office of New Reactors.

This PNNL team recently developed a public website for DOE to make it easy for the public to search for comments associated with the Consent-Based Siting Initiative. They also developed a SharePoint site to allow DOE staff to collaborate across their National Laboratory team and commercial contractors.

Griffith praised the PNNL team in his letter, stating that they "provided exceptional training and support to our users, and were always incredibly thorough, patient, and responsive to requests for help. In short, they are an outstanding group of professionals."