IDAHO FALLS, ID USA - August 31, 2010
-- The American Nuclear Society's 2010 Decommissioning, Decontamination
& Reutilization (DD&R) and Technology Expo Conference will be
held at the Shilo Convention Center in Idaho Falls, Aug. 29 through
Sept. 2.
Monday morning's opening plenary session will include
a panel discussion on the challenges and lessons learned from
decommissioning and dismantlement of nuclear facilities. Richard
Provencher, manager of the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho Operations
Office, will speak Tuesday evening around 7 p.m. at a Shilo dinner
event. Members of the media are invited to attend these events as well
as the technical sessions.
This year, the two main organizers
of the conference are Idaho National Laboratory and CH2M-WG Idaho, LLC.
The DD&R conference, through the American Nuclear Society Technical
Division, happens once every two years. This is a chance for
specialists in DD&R to share their successes and problems, said
Technical Program Chair Jim Byrne of Byrne & Associates, LLC.
"Through
this sharing, people can learn new and better ways to do things or
discover a technology that will assist in solving a vexing problem," he
said.
This is Byrne's third DD&R conference as technical
program chair. Economic troubles have restricted travel budgets for
many companies, he said, so the hardest part of putting this conference
together was getting enough papers submitted.
"The key is to
get the word out early and often through as many channels as possible,"
he said. From the two earlier conferences Byrne chaired, he developed a
network of friends throughout the DD&R field. That network allowed
him to attract paper submissions from all over the world.
"As a result, we have papers from five different countries," he said.
Students
in nuclear engineering have a chance to attend the conference free of
charge in exchange for volunteering at the conference for a day,
running projectors and acting as timekeepers and runners. Members of
the media are also invited to attend the technical sessions. The
meeting schedule is available online at ddrtopical2010.org.
There
are events for spouses and guests as well, including trips to nearby
historical landmarks, Lava Hot Springs, and scenic tours in and around
Idaho Falls.
Technical sessions will cover U.S. and
international decommissioning projects, project infrastructure, waste
management, site reutilization, environmental contamination
measurements, spent fuel storage and other lessons learned. Conference
registration opened at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 29.
INL is one of
the DOE's 10 multiprogram national laboratories. The laboratory
performs work in each of DOE's strategic goal areas: energy, national
security, science and environment. INL is the nation's leading center
for nuclear energy research and development. Day-to-day management and
operation of the laboratory is the responsibility of Battelle Energy
Alliance.