At the present time in the United States, there are about 3700 sites in 34 states and territories that are contaminated with hazardous, radioactive and/or mixed wastes. The sheer number and variety of wastes present unique challenges to the Department of Energy’s clean-up effort. In order to overcome these challenges, the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board reported:

“There is a particular need for long term, basic research in disciplines related to environmental cleanup. Adopting a science-based approach that includes supporting development of technologies and expertise could lead to both reduced cleanup costs and smaller environmental impacts at existing sites and to the development of a scientific foundation for advances in environmental technologies.”

As a result of this report, the Congress of the United States in 1995 established the Environmental Management Science Program, which is jointly managed between the Office of Environmental Management and the Office of Energy Research within the Department of Energy. The EMSP is endorsed by the National Academy of Sciences. All of the projects funded through the EMSP have undergone strict peer review.

The objectives of the program are to:

• Provide scientific knowledge that will revolutionize technologies and cleanup approaches to significantly reduce future costs, schedules, and risks.
• Bridge the gap between broad fundamental research that has wide-ranging applicability such as that performed in DOE’s Office of Energy Research and needs-driven applied technology development that is conducted in EM’s Office of Science and Technology.
• Focus the nation’s science infrastructure on critical DOE environmental management problems.

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