Session: 07-01 - Public Involvement, Crosscutting Issues, Global Participation

Paper Number: 111134

111134 - Everest – Environmental Remediation Solution: A Participatory Decision-Making Exercise on Environmental Remediation 

The ENVIRONET – IAEA Network on Environmental Remediation and NORM Management – has been created in 2009 to increase efficiency in worldwide sharing and transfer of experience and knowledge leading to safe, economic, and timely solutions in these fields. The network deals with the remediation of legacy sites including closed uranium  mining and processing sites; closed NORM sites; former nuclear industry sites and former military sites; land contaminated by nuclear and radiological accidents/incidents and orphan radioactively contaminated sites. Remediation is taken not only as a reactive measure, but a life-cycle management of active and future operations is adopted to avoid the creation of new legacy sites.

The network operates different projects such as the DERES Project – Determination of Environmental Remediation End-State; the LeTrench Project dealing with the remediation of sites containing buried wastes; The NORM Project in which the so-called Holistic Approach to NORM Management  is being developed to assist IAEA Member States to deal with NORM related issues in a more effective way and the MAESTRI Project  which is developing  a structured framework that considers in an integrated manner the different dimensions and activities that are relevant to the proper management of sites that have been contaminated by past or ongoing activities, with a view to bringing them to sustainable end-states suitable for beneficial use.

The network holds biannual meetings that  provide a forum for the exchange of information on ongoing environmental remediation programmes and related issues and solutions, and for the dissemination of good practices. The meeting also allows for  gathering  feedback on relevant IAEA activities. In 2022 meeting, a facilitated exercise on environmental remediation decision-making was implemented. The exercise was intended to simulate a participatory decision-making process regarding the environmental remediation of a former uranium mining  and processing site which operations caused the contamination of adjacent areas leaving behind  two tailings dam and a waste rock pile, both generating acid drainage and in need to be reclaimed.​ The exercise entailed the recognition of the political, social, economic and environmental dimensions of a decision making for remediation of a contaminated site and stimulate practice of stakeholder communication and engagement, negotiation and decision-making skills.​

Nine groups from different regions in the world were formed. With the aid of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis tool and considering element of sustainability and circularity the groups came up with decisions regarding the preferred remediation option. Each group had a facilitator  from the International Atomic Energy Agency staff and worked in hybrid format (in person + virtual participation).

The results showed variability in terms of the criteria weighting and remediation alternative scores. Preliminary analysis of the results indicates regional differences in this decision-making process. Importantly, the exercise succeeded in generating considerable discussion and debate among participants, both regarding the specific remediation decision to be made as well as the complexity, challenges, and value of applying a MCDA approach to decision-making. The paper and presentation will provide detailed information about the exercise outcomes.

Presenting Author: Horst Monken-Fernandes IAEA

Presenting Author Biography: Horst Monken Fernandes is a Chemical Engineer by training with a Ph.D in Environmental Geochemistry at Fluminense Federal University in Brazil and a Postdoc in Environmental Engineering at University of Central Florida in the USA. He is an Environmental Remediation Specialist working at the Decommissioning and Environmental Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency since 2006. Prior to that he was a researcher at the Institute of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry from the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission.