Title 50 — War and National DefenseRelease 119-73not60

§2586a Other Programs Relating to Technology Development

Title 50 › Chapter 42— ATOMIC ENERGY DEFENSE PROVISIONS › Subchapter IV— DEFENSE ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP MATTERS › Part A— Defense Environmental Cleanup › § 2586a

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

Creates three programs to speed better cleanup tools and train people for Department of Energy environmental work. The Incremental Technology Development Program must improve and test existing or new cleanup tools. It focuses on things like decontamination methods, remote sensing and wireless systems, detection and assay instruments, and packaging and shipping systems. Site offices must run tests, demonstrations, permitting, and deployments so choices are based on sound technical data. The Secretary may work with other federal agencies, National Laboratories, state regulators, and the Department of Labor. The Secretary may make agreements with non-government partners through open competition and independent review. The Federal share of those projects may be no more than 70 percent. The Secretary must brief the congressional defense committees at least 120 days before the first agreement about how projects will be chosen, funded, and kept scientifically rigorous with limits on conflicts of interest. The High-Impact Technology Development Program must fund projects with non-government partners that tackle big, hard problems, promise breakthrough gains, or adapt current tools to tough challenges. Focus areas include better source and plume monitoring, remediation systems and guidance to stop contaminant spread, long-term and noninvasive monitoring, faster and non-destructive waste characterization, when natural attenuation is appropriate, real-time tank waste data, pilot-scale waste treatment with real wastes, faster testing methods for disposal decisions, mercury stabilization, and improved waste retrieval methods. Project selection must use open competition and independent review, and the Secretary must brief the congressional defense committees at least 120 days before the first agreement. The Environmental Management University Program must engage faculty, postdocs, and students, offer three-year research grants (with one optional two-year extension), support strategic partnerships, run summer internships, and hold workshops to link universities and DOE. Key research areas include waste chemistry, contaminant immobilization, new materials (including nano/biomaterials) for hard-to-handle contaminants, separations, interface chemistry, waste-form design, and predicting subsurface behavior. Definitions: complex = sites managed by the Office; Department = Department of Energy; institution of higher education = defined in 20 U.S.C. 1001(a); mission = mission of the Office; National Laboratory = defined in 42 U.S.C. 15801; Office = Office of Environmental Management; Secretary = Secretary of Energy acting through the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management.

Full Legal Text

Title 50, §2586a

War and National Defense — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)The Secretary may establish a program, to be known as the “Incremental Technology Development Program”, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the defense environmental cleanup processes of the Office.

(2)(A)In carrying out the Incremental Technology Development Program, the Secretary shall focus on the continuous improvement of new or available technologies, including—

(i)decontamination chemicals and techniques;

(ii)remote sensing and wireless communication to reduce manpower and laboratory efforts;

(iii)detection, assay, and certification instrumentation; and

(iv)packaging materials, methods, and shipping systems.

(B)The Secretary may include in the Incremental Technology Development Program mission-relevant development, demonstration, and deployment activities unrelated to the focus areas described in subparagraph (A).

(3)(A)In carrying out the Incremental Technology Development Program, the Secretary shall ensure that site offices of the Office conduct technology development, demonstration, testing, permitting, and deployment of new and emerging technologies to establish a sound technical basis for the selection of technologies for defense environmental cleanup or infrastructure operations.

(B)The Secretary shall collaborate, to the extent practicable, with the heads of other departments and agencies of the Federal Government, the National Laboratories, other Federal laboratories, appropriate State regulators and agencies, and the Department of Labor in the development, demonstration, testing, permitting, and deployment of new technologies under the Incremental Technology Development Program.

(4)(A)In carrying out the Incremental Technology Development Program, the Secretary may enter into agreements with nongovernmental entities for technology development, demonstration, testing, permitting, and deployment projects to improve technologies in accordance with paragraph (2).

(B)The Secretary shall select projects under subparagraph (A) through a rigorous process that involves—

(i)transparent and open competition; and

(ii)a review process that, if practicable, is conducted in an independent manner consistent with Department guidance on selecting and funding public-private partnerships.

(C)The Federal share of the costs of the development, demonstration, testing, permitting, and deployment of new technologies carried out under this paragraph shall be not more than 70 percent.

(D)Not later than 120 days before the date on which the Secretary enters into the first agreement under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall provide to the congressional defense committees a briefing on the process of selecting and funding efforts within the Incremental Technology Development Program, including with respect to the plans of the Secretary to ensure a scientifically rigorous process that minimizes potential conflicts of interest.

(b)(1)The Secretary shall establish a program, to be known as the “High-Impact Technology Development Program”, under which the Secretary shall enter into agreements with nongovernmental entities for projects that pursue technologies that, with respect to the mission—

(A)holistically address difficult challenges;

(B)hold the promise of breakthrough improvements; or

(C)align existing or in-use technologies with difficult challenges.

(2)The Secretary may include as areas of focus for a project carried out under the High-Impact Technology Development Program the following:

(A)Developing and demonstrating improved methods for source and plume characterization and monitoring, with an emphasis on—

(i)real-time field acquisition; and

(ii)the use of indicator species analyses with advanced contaminant transport models to enable better understanding of contaminant migration.

(B)Developing and determining the limits of performance for remediation technologies and integrated remedial systems that prevent migration of contaminants, including by producing associated guidance and design manuals for technologies that could be widely used across the complex.

(C)Demonstrating advanced monitoring approaches that use multiple lines of evidence for monitoring long-term performance of—

(i)remediation systems; and

(ii)noninvasive near-field monitoring techniques.

(D)Developing and demonstrating methods to characterize the physical and chemical attributes of waste that control behavior, with an emphasis on—

(i)rapid and nondestructive examination and assay techniques; and

(ii)methods to determine radio-nuclide, heavy metals, and organic constituents.

(E)Demonstrating the technical basis for determining when enhanced or natural attenuation is an appropriate approach for remediation of complex sites.

(F)Developing and demonstrating innovative methods to achieve real-time and, if practicable, in situ characterization data for tank waste and process streams that could be useful for all phases of the waste management program, including improving the accuracy and representativeness of characterization data for residual waste in tanks and ancillary equipment.

(G)Adapting existing waste treatment technologies or demonstrating new waste treatment technologies at the pilot plant scale using real wastes or realistic surrogates—

(i)to address engineering adaptations;

(ii)to ensure compliance with waste treatment standards and other applicable requirements under Federal and State law and any existing agreements or consent decrees to which the Department is a party; and

(iii)to enable successful deployment at full-scale and in support of operations.

(H)Developing and demonstrating rapid testing protocols that—

(i)are accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department, and the scientific community;

(ii)can be used to measure long-term waste form performance under realistic disposal environments;

(iii)can determine whether a stabilized waste is suitable for disposal; and

(iv)reduce the need for extensive, time-consuming, and costly analyses on every batch of waste prior to disposal.

(I)Developing and demonstrating direct stabilization technologies to provide waste forms for disposing of elemental mercury.

(J)Developing and demonstrating innovative and effective retrieval methods for removal of waste residual materials from tanks and ancillary equipment, including mobile retrieval equipment or methods capable of immediately removing waste from leaking tanks, and connecting pipelines.

(3)(A)The Secretary shall select projects to be carried out under the High-Impact Technology Development Program through a rigorous process that involves—

(i)transparent and open competition; and

(ii)a review process that, if practicable, is conducted in an independent manner consistent with Department guidance on selecting and funding public-private partnerships.

(B)Not later than 120 days before the date on which the Secretary enters into the first agreement under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall provide to the congressional defense committees a briefing on the process of selecting and funding efforts within the High-Impact Technology Development Program, including with respect to the plans of the Secretary to ensure a scientifically rigorous process that minimizes potential conflicts of interest.

(c)(1)The Secretary shall establish a program, to be known as the “Environmental Management University Program”, to—

(A)engage faculty, post-doctoral fellows or researchers, and graduate students of institutions of higher education on subjects relating to the mission to show a clear path for students for employment within the environmental management enterprise;

(B)provide institutions of higher education and the Department access to advances in engineering and science;

(C)clearly identify to institutions of higher education the tools necessary to enter into the environmental management field professionally; and

(D)encourage current employees of the Department to pursue advanced degrees.

(2)The Secretary may include as areas of focus for a grant made under the Environmental Management University Program the following:

(A)The atomic

and molecular-scale chemistries of waste processing.

(B)Contaminant immobilization in engineered and natural systems.

(C)Developing innovative materials, with an emphasis on nanomaterials or biomaterials, that could enable sequestration of challenging hazardous or radioactive constituents such as technetium and iodine.

(D)Elucidating and exploiting complex speciation and reactivity far from equilibrium.

(E)Understanding and controlling chemical and physical processes at interfaces.

(F)Harnessing physical and chemical processes to revolutionize separations.

(G)Tailoring waste forms for contaminants in harsh chemical environments.

(H)Predicting and understanding subsurface system behavior and response to perturbations.

(3)In carrying out the Environmental Management University Program, the Secretary may make individual research grants to faculty, post-doctoral fellows or researchers, and graduate students of institutions of higher education for three-year research projects, with an option for an extension of one additional two-year period.

(4)In carrying out the Environmental Management University Program, the Secretary may make research grants for strategic partnerships among scientists, faculty, post-doctoral fellows or researchers, and graduate students of institutions of higher education for three-year research projects.

(5)In carrying out the Environmental Management University Program, the Secretary may establish a summer internship program for undergraduates of institutions of higher education to work on projects relating to environmental management.

(6)In carrying out the Environmental Management University Program, the Secretary may hold workshops with the Office of Environmental Management, the Office of Science, and members of academia and industry concerning environmental management challenges and solutions.

(d)In this section:

(1)The term “complex” means all sites managed in whole or in part by the Office.

(2)The term “Department” means the Department of Energy.

(3)The term “institution of higher education” has the meaning given the term in section 1001(a) of title 20.

(4)The term “mission” means the mission of the Office.

(5)The term “National Laboratory” has the meaning given the term in section 15801 of title 42.

(6)The term “Office” means the Office of Environmental Management of the Department.

(7)The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of Energy, acting through the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

50 U.S.C. § 2586a

Title 50 — War and National Defense

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60