10 U.S.C. § 6177 — Other programs relating to technology development

(a) Incremental Technology Development Program. (1) The Secretary may establish a program called the “Incremental Technology Development Program.” Its purpose is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Office’s defense environmental cleanup processes. (2)(A) In carrying out this program, the Secretary must focus on continuously improving new or available technologies, including—(i) chemicals and techniques for decontamination; (ii) remote sensing and wireless communication to reduce the need for staff and laboratory work; (iii) instruments for detection, assay, and certification; and (iv) packaging materials, packaging methods, and shipping systems. (B) The Secretary may also include development, demonstration, and deployment activities that relate to the mission but are not related to the focus areas in subparagraph (A). (3)(A) In carrying out the program, the Secretary must ensure that the Office’s site offices develop, demonstrate, test, obtain permits for, and deploy new and emerging technologies. These activities must establish a sound technical basis for selecting technologies for defense environmental cleanup or infrastructure operations. (B) To the extent practicable, the Secretary must work with the heads of other Federal departments and agencies, the National Laboratories, other Federal laboratories, appropriate State regulators and agencies, and the Department of Labor to develop, demonstrate, test, obtain permits for, and deploy new technologies under the program. (4)(A) The Secretary may make agreements with nongovernmental entities for projects to develop, demonstrate, test, obtain permits for, and deploy technologies, in accordance with paragraph (2). (B) The Secretary must select these projects through a rigorous process that includes—(i) transparent and open competition; and (ii) a review process that, if practicable, is independent and consistent with Department guidance on selecting and funding public-private partnerships. (C) The Federal Government may pay no more than 70 percent of the costs of developing, demonstrating, testing, permitting, and deploying new technologies under this paragraph. (D) At least 120 days before entering into the first agreement under subparagraph (A), the Secretary must brief the congressional defense committees about how efforts under this program will be selected and funded. The briefing must include the Secretary’s plans for ensuring a scientifically rigorous process that minimizes possible conflicts of interest. (b) High-Impact Technology Development Program. (1) The Secretary must establish a program called the “High-Impact Technology Development Program.” Under this program, the Secretary must make agreements with nongovernmental entities for projects pursuing technologies that, with respect to the mission—(A) address difficult challenges as a whole; (B) have the potential to produce breakthrough improvements; or (C) bring existing or currently used technologies into alignment with difficult challenges. (2) The Secretary may identify the following as focus areas for a project under this program: (A) Developing and demonstrating improved methods for describing and monitoring sources and contaminant plumes, with emphasis on—(i) collecting information in the field in real time; and (ii) using analyses of indicator species together with advanced models of contaminant transport so that contaminant movement can be better understood. (B) Developing and determining the performance limits of remediation technologies and integrated remedial systems that prevent contaminants from moving. This may include producing related guidance and design manuals for technologies that could be widely used throughout the complex. (C) Demonstrating advanced monitoring methods that use multiple lines of evidence to monitor the long-term performance of—(i) remediation systems; and (ii) noninvasive near-field monitoring techniques. (D) Developing and demonstrating methods for describing the physical and chemical characteristics of waste that control how the waste behaves, with emphasis on—(i) rapid, nondestructive examination and assay methods; and (ii) methods for determining the radionuclides, heavy metals, and organic constituents in the waste. (E) Demonstrating the technical basis for deciding when enhanced attenuation or natural attenuation is an appropriate method for remediating complex sites. (F) Developing and demonstrating innovative methods to obtain, in real time and, when practicable, in place, characterization data for tank waste and process streams. The data should be useful during all phases of the waste-management program. The methods should also improve 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 pilot-plant scale, using real waste or realistic substitutes—(i) to address engineering adaptations; (ii) to ensure compliance with waste-treatment standards and other applicable requirements under Federal and State law and existing agreements or consent decrees to which the Department is a party; and (iii) to support successful full-scale deployment and operations. (H) Developing and demonstrating rapid testing procedures that—(i) are accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department, and the scientific community; (ii) can measure the long-term performance of waste forms under realistic disposal conditions; (iii) can determine whether stabilized waste is suitable for disposal; and (iv) reduce the need for extensive, time-consuming, and costly analyses of every batch of waste before disposal. (I) Developing and demonstrating direct-stabilization technologies that provide waste forms for disposing of elemental mercury. (J) Developing and demonstrating innovative and effective methods for removing residual waste materials from tanks and ancillary equipment. This includes mobile retrieval equipment or methods capable of immediately removing waste from leaking tanks, as well as connecting pipelines. (3)(A) The Secretary must select projects under this program through a rigorous process that includes—(i) transparent and open competition; and (ii) a review process that, if practicable, is independent and consistent with Department guidance on selecting and funding public-private partnerships. (B) At least 120 days before entering into the first agreement under paragraph (1), the Secretary must brief the congressional defense committees about how efforts under this program will be selected and funded. The briefing must include the Secretary’s plans for ensuring a scientifically rigorous process that minimizes possible conflicts of interest. (c) Environmental Management University Program. (1) The Secretary must establish a program called the “Environmental Management University Program” to—(A) involve faculty, post-doctoral fellows or researchers, and graduate students at institutions of higher education in subjects related to the mission, and show students a clear path to employment in the environmental-management enterprise; (B) give institutions of higher education and the Department access to advances in engineering and science; (C) clearly identify to institutions of higher education the tools needed to enter the environmental-management field as a profession; and (D) encourage current Department employees to pursue advanced degrees. (2) The Secretary may identify the following as focus areas for a grant under this program: (A) the chemistry of waste processing at the atomic and molecular scales; (B) immobilizing contaminants in engineered and natural systems; (C) developing innovative materials, especially nanomaterials or biomaterials, that could help sequester difficult hazardous or radioactive constituents such as technetium and iodine; (D) explaining and using complex chemical forms and reactivity far from equilibrium; (E) understanding and controlling chemical and physical processes at interfaces; (F) using physical and chemical processes to transform separations; (G) designing waste forms for contaminants in harsh chemical environments; and (H) predicting and understanding how subsurface systems behave and respond to disruptions. (3) In carrying out this program, the Secretary may give individual research grants to faculty, post-doctoral fellows or researchers, and graduate students at institutions of higher education for three-year research projects. Each project may be extended for one additional period of two years. (4) The Secretary may give research grants for strategic partnerships among scientists, faculty, post-doctoral fellows or researchers, and graduate students at institutions of higher education for three-year research projects. (5) The Secretary may establish a summer internship program for undergraduate students at institutions of higher education to work on environmental-management projects. (6) The Secretary may hold workshops with the Office of Environmental Management, the Office of Science, and people from academia and industry about environmental-management challenges and solutions. (d) Definitions. In this section: (1) “Complex” means all sites managed wholly or partly by the Office. (2) “Department” means the Department of Energy. (3) “Institution of higher education” has the meaning given that term in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)); this section does not define the term. (4) “Mission” means the mission of the Office. (5) “National Laboratory” has the meaning given that term in section 2 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15801); this section does not define the term. (6) “Office” means the Office of Environmental Management of the Department. (7) “Secretary” means the Secretary of Energy acting through the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management.