Savannah River National Laboratory Establishes Regulatory Center of Excellence

The Regulatory Center of Excellence was created to help DOE sites address stakeholder and regulatory challenges frequently associated with DOE missions and DOE-EM’s goals to accelerate cleanup and reduce environmental risk and liability.

The SRNL Regulatory Center of Excellence will create a standing source of multi-faceted technical and regulatory expertise and training for Department of Energy sites and programs by consolidating and leveraging SRNL’s ongoing research and development efforts, its academic connections and strategic partnerships, DOE’s National Laboratory competencies and corporate resources.

“The Savannah River National Laboratory’s Regulatory Center of Excellence has the ability and proven experience to develop strategies and collaborative approaches to regulatory interaction,” said Connie Herman, director of Environmental and Legacy Management at SRNL. “The RCE draws upon the collective expertise of the Savannah River Laboratory, Longenecker and Associates and SRNL’s university partners, to serve as a critical resource for connecting research developments and regulatory compliance strategies,” said Herman.

Specifically, the RCE will:

• Build a diverse network of experts and researchers to support DOE interactions with regulators and community leaders to address emerging and existing regulatory compliance challenges, technical communication challenges, policy changes and community concerns.
• Leverage DOE-EM experience and best practices to support other DOE missions that involve complex environmental issues requiring effective regulatory and stakeholder engagement strategies.
• Provide counsel to federal program owners, other federal partners, state regulators, tribal governments, local governments, redevelopment organizations, and members of the community in the development of risk-informed strategies for environmental cleanup and closure within the bounds of their respective regulatory agreements.
• Recommend strategies to build upon existing community interactions to strengthen communications and mitigate stakeholder concerns. – more – Ad1_SRNL_Regulatory Center of Excellence

As requested, the RCE will provide DOE-EM with innovative strategies to address mission-critical challenges impacting regulatory compliance at DOE sites.

“This work is not new to SRNL,” said RCE Director Stephanie Jacobs. “We have already undertaken tasks to prove the concept of operations and to move SRNL closer to meeting its contractual obligation to establish the RCE. For example, we reviewed the EPA Draft Method 1633 for Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in the fall of 2021 and made four recommendations to DOE-EM based on SRNL researchers’ review of the EPA’s efforts,” said Jacobs.

DOE sites wishing to access the RCE’s services should email the RCE at RCE@srnl.doe.gov.

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) is a United States Department of Energy multi-program research and development center that’s managed and operated by Battelle Savannah River Alliance, LLC. SRNL puts science to work to protect the nation by providing practical, cost-effective solutions to the nation’s environmental, nuclear security, nuclear materials management, and energy manufacturing challenges (https://srnl.doe.gov/).