January/February 2001 Radwaste Solutions 7

n August 6, 1997, the board of directors of theMaine Yankee Atomic Power Co. elected to per-manently close Maine Yankee, a nuclear powerplant located in Wiscasset, Me. Economically,Maine Yankee was no longer viable, so they

decided to shut it down. At its peak, Maine Yankee pro-vided approximately 90 percent of the town’s tax base($20 million a year), and most of the industry in Wiscassetrevolved around supporting the nuclear plant. The town,which had the best schools, new fire trucks, and a strongeconomy, was suddenly faced with the eventual loss ofhundreds of jobs. Today as Maine Yankee undergoesdecommissioning, the plant pays taxes of only $2.5 mil-

lion a year, and the people of Wiscasset are picking upthe pieces of their once prosperous town.

Scores of nuclear facilities across the United States arecurrently in various stages of decommissioning. We readabout the successes and lessons learned of variousprojects—how some new technology will increase pro-ductivity or improve worker safety. While these are valu-able and important aspects of the decommissioning pro-cess, nothing is more important to the success of a de-commissioning project than the support of key projectstakeholders. It is vital to recognize that many groups ofpeople are affected by decommissioning and cleanupprojects—employees, community members, regulators,

Many groups of people

are affected by decommissioning

and cleanup projects—employees,

community members, regulators—

and they all have a stake in the

closure of these sites.

The Faces ofDecommissioningand Site CleanupHow ”People” Issues Affect Work Progress

By Lara Harrison

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8 Radwaste Solutions January/February 2001

to name just a few—and they all have a stake in theclosure of these sites.

The responsibility and challenge of nuclear industryleaders involved in decommissioning projects is to gobeyond leading edge technology and to proactively iden-tify all of the central stakeholders.

Key stakeholders can include employees, local volun-teer community organizations andinterested individuals, local businessowners, paid oversight committees,state and national regulatory orga-nizations, and more. Managers atnuclear decommissioning sites mustdevelop and implement strategiesto build and nurture effective anduseful relationships with stakehold-ers, which will aid in the safe andecologically prudent closure of thesefacilities.

Employees—“On the Point”Stakeholders

When a nuclear facility is slatedfor decommissioning, how doesproject leadership achieve workersupport? Employees of nuclear sitesare often overlooked as importantstakeholders in the decommission-ing process. Workers have the abil-ity to make or break any project.How can they be motivated to workthemselves out of a job?

According to Ken Powers, former plant manager of BigRock Point, a nuclear power plant currently undergoingdecommissioning in Charlevoix, Mich., managing issuesof a closure workforce is a full-time job. “There are somany emotions involved in shutting down a plant, includ-ing a lot of anger and uncertainty. Generally, the cultureof the people who work at nuclear sites is that their entire

career is spent at a site, andoftentimes they are one of severalgenerations who worked there,” saysPowers. “They have deep roots inthe community, and when a sitefaces decommissioning, you are rip-ping the roots out from under them.

“The nature of the shutdownmakes a difference,” continues Pow-ers. “At Big Rock, we shut down sim-ply because it was no longer eco-nomically feasible to continue pro-duction. We were the longest run-ning nuclear power plant in theUnited States. Our employees wereable to finish their jobs with theirflag flying.”

Other decontamination and de-commissioning (D&D) sites haven’tbeen as fortunate as Big Rock Point.Many nuclear facilities were shutdown for safety reasons but thenwere never restarted.

At Millstone-1 in Waterford,Conn., operations were curtailed in1995 by safety and configurationcontrol concerns, and restart provedto be too expensive. By the timeBob Fraser arrived at Millstone as

U Keeping workers motivated at cleanup and closure sites is a key element of success. During the celebration to mark the successfuldemolition of Building 779 at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson praised the “hard workand dedication of the workers at Rocky Flats.”

U Today’s D&D workers are pioneers in their field.Here, Steve Foster (left) is being fitted withteledosimetry by Randy McDowell before goingto work on Big Rock Point’s Control Rod DriveRemoval Project.

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January/February 2001 Radwaste Solutions 9

the decommissioning director, morale was low. To beginto rectify the situation, a decision was made to transfermany of the employees left at Unit 1 to Millstone-2 and-3 and hire all new employees to decommission Unit 1.

“I felt kind of like the grim reaper when I went toMillstone,” recalls Fraser. “I had come from Maine Yankeewhere I had worked for several months to get operationsstarted again, and I ended up implementing the decom-missioning plan, essentially ending the jobs of hundredsof workers. When I got to Millstone, the employees werein limbo as to what their jobs were anymore, and here Iwas in charge of writing the decommissioning plan to shutthe place down. At least they finally knew what was goingto happen, and many of them were able to find work nextdoor at the sister units.”

A major decision in the transition from an operating fa-cility to one undergoing decommissioning is the questionof who will perform the D&D work. At some decommis-sioning sites, the process knowledge of the workforce is anessential part of planning and executing decommissioningactivities. The workforce must be retained and retrained toperform D&D. Many workers must learn new skills andface major career changes in order to keep their jobs for afew more years. During this process, some lose their iden-tities as highly skilled crafts- or tradespersons. Ironically,the workforce must learn to take apart what they once puttogether.

Workers at the Rocky Flats Closure Project in Golden,Colo., have begun the transition from being process spe-cialists who once helped create the “triggers” of nuclearweapons to joining the generic job classification of D&Dworkers. For many, the transition is not easy.

“In the lifecycle of a nuclear site, the transition to D&D isobviously a turning point as we prepare for the ‘death’ ofthe site,” says Powers. “I believe it is appropriate for man-

agement to encourage workers to celebrate the life of theplant, recognizing the important contributions of the work-ers who gave it life, honoring their specific skills, and thenallow the workers to mourn its passing.”

Working Yourself Out of a Job

The million-dollar question workers at decommission-ing projects have is “When will my job be over?” Whenworkforce members are faced with the imminent closureof their workplace, foremost on their minds is “What aboutme?” This distracts the workforce from the work at handand can cause potential safety problems. Project leader-ship must manage change and uncertainty by educatingthe workforce about the decommissioning plans, pinpoint-ing a time frame when their jobs will be over, and provid-ing workers with the tools to plan for their futures.

“At Maine Yankee we set up a process by which allemployees received a 60-day notice, and every six monthsmanagement met one-on-one with every employee to goover staffing projections for the next six months,” saysFraser. “A career transition center was opened to providejob counseling, help with résumé writing, and assist withjob placement. A voluntary severance package was of-fered, and we were able to transition from 547 employeesto around 100 with minimal use of an involuntary separa-tion process.”

Fort St. Vrain, in Platteville, Colo., is the first (andonly) U.S. nuclear power plant to have successfully com-pleted decommissioning following a substantial com-mercial operating history. Fort St. Vrain owner PublicService Co. of Colorado completed the decommission-ing project ahead of schedule and under budget.

U Future land use is a big stakeholder issue. An interagency agreement between the DOE andthe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sets aside approximately 800 acres of the 6000-acre RFETSBuffer Zone for the Rock Creek Reserve, which will provide habitat for threatened and endangeredwildlife along central Colorado’s Front Range.

Nothing is more

important to the

success of a

decommissioning

project than the

support of key

project stakeholders.

10 Radwaste Solutions January/February 2001

A. Clegg Crawford, a vicepresident of the utility dur-ing the decommissioning,credits the retention planoffered to employees as abig reason for this success.

“The employees helpeddevelop their retention plan,”says Crawford. “Every em-ployee was given 90-daysnotice that their job was go-ing away. It came down tothree options—continueemployment with PublicService, early retirement, ora one-year severance pack-age. We were able to con-trol our staffing level as itwent from 527 to 11 withless than 1 percent uncon-trolled turnover.”

Decommissioning nuclearsites across the country have

created a whole new job market. D&D workers are pio-neers in their field, paving the way for others to follow intheir footsteps as more sites begin the decommissioningprocess. Workers are also building their résumés by learn-ing new skills that they can refine and teach others if theychoose to continue this work at other facilities.

External Stakeholders

Stakeholders, if they have the will, can stop any project.Project management is allowed to do only what the stake-holders will allow them to do. Take for example the de-commissioning project at Fort St. Vrain. Public ServiceCo. of Colorado wanted to build an independent spent-fuel storage installation (ISFSI) to temporarily store spentfuel until a repository became available. The state of Colo-rado, a regulatory stakeholder in the decommissioningprocess, refused to agree to this proposal, fearing thefuel would stay in the state forever. After a period of

negotiations amongthe U.S. NuclearRegulatory Com-mission, the state ofColorado, and theutility, they signeda tri-party agree-ment. The statewas granted a“backstage pass”to Fort St. Vrainso that officialscould observeeverything goingon throughoutthe cleanup pro-cess. As a result,the ISFSI wasconstructed.

In 1995, RockyFlats officials in-troduced the firstdraft of an accel-erated closure

You can’t assume

you know how

closure will play

to different

stakeholder

groups. You

always need to

be listening and

to be responsive

to stakeholder

concerns,

because they

matter.

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Open housesand familyactivities atclosure sitescan helpcommunitymembers learnmore aboutongoingdecommissioningand cleanupactivities,making thework morefamiliar andlessthreatening.

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January/February 2001 Radwaste Solutions 11

plan to local stakeholders. While the plan to decommis-sion the plant was widely accepted and in some casesembraced by stakeholders, some of the details of theplan were not acceptable to key stakeholders. The plancalled for low-level waste to be disposed of at RockyFlats. The majority of the stakeholders demanded allwastes be shipped offsite or stored in aboveground stor-age units until a safer disposal option was found. Itdidn’t take long for the Rocky Flats closure plan to callfor all wastes to be disposed of at offsite facilities.

Successful decommissioning requires compromise andcollaboration with all stakeholders who have a vested andlegitimate interest in the project. “Generally, public supportof construction projects far exceeds their support ofdeconstruction projects,” says Powers. “Construction gen-erates revenue and jobs for a community, usually boostingtheir economy. Decommissioning projects potentially takeaway that money, and people end up losing jobs as a re-sult. Big Rock was the biggest taxpayer and employer inthe city. When we shut down, you’d better believe therewere many people interested in what we were doing.” Infact, after Big Rock Point ceased operations in 1997, toursof the plant tripled during the next three years.

When dealing with the decommissioning of a nuclear fa-cility, many questions arise and many issues are brought tothe table. What will the impact of this decommissioning projectbe on the local economy and the future of the area? How willthe community make up the loss of tax revenue? Where willall of the waste be stored and shipped? How will you protectthe water? What are the soil cleanup levels and are theystringent enough to allow for community reuse? How will

the land be used once the site is gone? Is there adequatefunding available to ensure the site will be cleaned up to agreen field? It is important to identify each stakeholder’s mo-tivation and interests in order to build a relationship strategyfor both friendly and unfriendly stakeholders.

“We always had antinuclear groups concerned aboutour operations. Once we were shutting down Big Rock,the antinuclear groups were not always happy about ourclosure plans either,” says Powers. “You can’t assumeyou know how closure will play to different stakeholdergroups. You always need to be listening and to be re-

U Educating public officials about the work in progress can lead to improved community relations. Here, local officials tour Rocky Flats.

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It is important to identify each

stakeholder’s motivation

and interests in order to build

a relationship strategy

for both friendly and unfriendly

stakeholders.

sponsive to stakeholderconcerns, because theymatter.”

Many stakeholders haveno nuclear background andneed to be educated in or-der to understand the issuesof nuclear decommissioning.Holding public meetings ona regular basis is an effec-tive vehicle for managementto communicate decommis-sioning plans, answer ques-tions, and really listen towhat issues the stakehold-ers are interested in.

“At Big Rock, we hadpeople concerned abouthow we monitor for radia-tion if you can’t see, smell,or taste it. We brought inhigh school teachers to edu-cate stakeholders about ra-diation and other issues. Wefound it was better to useas many outside sources aswe could while we edu-cated the public because wewere still trying to build trust with our stakeholders,” ex-plains Powers.

At Maine Yankee, a Citizen’s Advisory Panel (CAP)was formed in 1997 to enhance opportunities for pub-lic involvement in the decommissioning project. Mem-bers of the CAP had to be educated in many subjectssuch as radiation, site characterization, used fuel stor-age, the decommissioning process, and decommission-ing funding before they could get off the ground. Thepanel includes a diverse group of people who repre-sent a variety of different viewpoints, including thepresident of Maine Yankee and State Sen. Marge

h Citizen advisory panels orboards serve both the

community and the cleanupsite. Here, Big Rock Point

Citizen Advisory Boardmembers (from left, Jacki

Merta, Charlevoix Chamberof Commerce executivedirector; Mike Weisner,

Charlevoix city manager; andDon Smith, Charlevoix

County Board ofCommissioners) listen to a

presentation on plantactivities.

Kilkelly. The Maine Yankee CAP, likemany advisory boards found across theUnited States, now serves as a commu-nity liaison and as an adviser to MaineYankee on issues of concern to the lo-cal community. The CAP also commu-nicates directly with federal regulatorssuch as the NRC, which gives the CAPquarterly oversight updates.

Communicate, Communicate,Communicate

“I believe stakeholder groups like theCAP are a valuable communication tool inthe decommissioning process,” says Fraser.“They keep the communities informed sothe ‘scare factor’ is not as high. Good rela-tionship building can avert stalls and stale-mates in getting plans accepted and imple-mented.”

“We launched a comprehensive com-munication plan aimed at the communi-ties around Fort St. Vrain when we startedthe decommissioning process,” saysCrawford. “We sent out questionnaires,every six months we briefed the commu-

nities, and we held open houses so stakeholders couldsee for themselves what was going on.”

“Developing relationships with stakeholders requireshonest and authentic attitudes and behaviors. We musttruly care about the stakeholders and their perspectives.We can’t fake it,” adds Powers. “There is no magic bullet.Every project has different people with different issues.We all have to work together in order to make our decom-missioning projects successful.” �

Lara Harrison works in public communications at theRocky Flats Environmental Technology Site.

Stakeholders, if they

have the will, can stop

any project. Project

management is allowed

to do only what the

stakeholders will allow

them to do.

12 Radwaste Solutions January/February 2001