Recycling in the US Dept. of Energy's Environmental Restoration Program

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) operates a large industrial complex located at various production, processing, testing, and research and development installations across the country. For more than 40 yr, DOE's production of materials for nuclear weapons was its top priority. The Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (EM) was established in 1989, when DOE's top priority changed from nuclear weapons production to environmental cleanup. The environmental restoration (ER) program within EM was created to perform this cleanup and to ensure that risks to human health and the environment posed by DOE's past operations at these facilities and sites are eliminated or reduced to prescribed, safe levels