We all have responsibilities in light of that, but in the end
these are complex problems. These are not stuff you wake up
in the morning and say I can take care of 56,000,000 gallons
of high level radioactive liquid waste.
So you have to understand that it does take collaboration and
it takes a lot of really talented people with a lot of
lot of different perspectives. Welcome to the Environmental
Transformation Podcast, where we bring you interviews with
industry leaders, climate champions, sustainability
practitioners, EHS and hazmat professionals making an
impacting their businesses today.
Each leader solving complex challenges and delivering
solutions within their areas of expertise.
I'm your host, Sean Grady, and thanks for joining us today.
Before we jump in, make sure to follow us on your devices and
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for our newsletter and e-mail announcements.
Now let's get started. Welcome to the Environmental
Transformation Podcast. I'm your host, Sean Grady, and
today's guest is Steve Moore. Steve, the President and CEO of
Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal Services Group.
Steve, welcome to the show. Thank you on it is a mouthful.
It's not the easiest thing in the world to say, but I'm really
happy to be here. We've worked together for a
little while. This gives us an opportunity to
maybe die in a little Prince. The work that the Federal
Services Group does, in particular with our primary
client, the Department of Energy, that's heavily focused
on nuclear waste, which I think is a topic that your listeners
bullhenge boy, but it's also your taxpayer dollars in action.
So keep that in mind when we talk about how much money gets
spent. Absolutely.
A little painful. No, this is going to be a good
conversation. Excited to talk with you today.
So, Steve, you know, tell us a little bit about yourself, how
you got started in the business and, you know, how you became
the president, CEO of Veolia's, you know, Nuclear Solutions
Federal Services Group. Very good.
So, yeah. So my background, I've got a
chemistry undergrad. I'm an attorney kind of worked
through a lot of the traditional government sites that people
think of when they think of the Department of Energy.
I spent a lot of time at the portable side, the the where
they enriched uranium in Ohio built the relationship with the
different companies and there's a lot of players that get
involved in in this business. So over time I kind of grew into
I work with Lockheed Martin at the time and and got advanced my
career through there, started to work with a small business, had
an opportunity to become an owner of a small business when a
gentleman retired. So I had a business that that I
grew pretty significantly in, in kind of 2006 to 2015.
So and we continue to grow. We had an opportunity to really
look at the ways that we could give more people opportunities
as we continue to serve this primary client and we reached a
point where growth was really organically challenging.
So we decided let's look for an acquisition and long, Long story
short with a lot of different offers and opportunities.
I, I got connected with Veolia, which is, you know, as you know,
one of the largest environmental companies in the world sold to
them in 2018. Part of that process was then
used to create their business here in the US, in particular
for the government, U.S. government.
There's a lot of complexities when you're a foreign owned
company and how you try to work for the US government.
We were able to do that through my acquisition and then I stuck
on and help them continue to grow and have been working
through that process ever since and it's been a lot of fun.
Tell us, Steve, if you could a little bit more about the waste
symposia. We're here in in Arizona.
This is a big conference, probably 1 of the largest
conferences I've been to. And to be quite frankly, I've
never been to a conference with so many DOE contractors and
service providers that are all focused on the nuclear yeah,
business. Yeah, this is kind of their, I
think they refer to it as their Super Bowl, if you will.
But so the Department of Energy has a conference in in Phoenix
once a year. And what we really are focused
on, a lot of people don't realize is, you know, the US
government, through the Department of Energy's
Environmental Management Group, they spend about $8 billion a
year cleaning up. Really it's, you know, for lack
of a better term, it really is the Manhattan Project.
So I tell people, if you've seen the movie Oppenheimer, you
understand our places like Oak Ridge, TN, Los Alamos, NM,
right, Hanford, Washington, places where we did a lot of the
research, rather a lot of the testing and everything
associated with that, enriching the uranium, enriching the
plutonium, and the things necessary to make that happen.
So the government, you know, was all full steam ahead and and
making sure that we had the what we needed to make that work.
But the reality is there, there's a lot of work to do to
clean all that up. So it remains one of the largest
environmental liabilities that's U.S. government owns.
This is the symposium once a year, where we all get together
and discuss new technologies, new funding profiles, new things
that are happening throughout the complex.
So when you're at this conference, do you have
opportunities to interact with, say, the DOE directly?
That's that's the real advantage of this.
So there's a couple things that this is both a, a technical
conference where there's papers and, and lots of presentations
on some of the unique challenges of if they're waste, how it's
packaged, how it's handled, how it's stored, how it's disposed
of. But then there's also a lot of
interaction from the department themselves.
They're kind of listing their priorities as you would expect
with new administrations with. Different.
Things that that are important to different, different parts of
the government, the opportunity for them to be here kind of say
here, here's my top five things for this year, here's what we're
worried about on the funding side.
So it gives us that real collaboration opportunity.
And and you just, you know, when you get a concentration of
people together one time, it's you got to take advantage of
that because it's just, we're all busy.
Absolutely it doesn't happen. Well, so why is this so
important for BNSFS to be here here?
And what do you plan to accomplish by coming to this
event every year? Well, I think part of it too is
there's a lot of this industry is pretty mature.
There are a lot of companies that that are larger AE firms
and different things that are really focused on helping solve
this problem for the government. So for us in particular, this
gives us an opportunity obviously here with a client,
but also to work with our notice others to say, you know, develop
those solutions, spend time with with people in more of a
networking environment where we can really look at specific
problems and specific ways to try to solve those.
Lots of follow up meetings and stuff come from this.
But anytime you get an opportunity to get a bunch of,
you know, really talented people together, you take advantage of
it. And for us, we're really trying
to hear or listen to the client, but at the same time, you know,
engage with our partners and others to figure out what's the
right priority for us. So you mentioned that there's
opportunities to sit through trainings, education, but talk a
little bit about some maybe maybe the opportunities where
our people with B and SFS has to present to the audience about
what their key experiences are. And so maybe technologies that
we offer talk A. Little bit about that.
So I mean we do a lot of things. Again the old is one of the
largest environmental companies in the world.
So we have a lot of depth and breadth of capabilities.
Not all of those obviously are focused on on nuclear waste, but
in reality, a lot of the same type of waste issues that that
people have rather it's landfill operations or it's treatment
technologies for stabilizing hazardous ways.
The technologies are are still applicable to what what we do in
the nuclear world with this just it also happens to be
radioactive. So for us, we've got folks that
are giving presentations on, you know, everything from how
efficient ways of managing landfills and the leach aid and
everything associated with that to, you know, vitrification
technologies that can turn a, a chunk of, of radioactive waste
into a nice little piece of glass.
We just, we're going to talk about that.
We are, we're not going to get that paper weight, not good.
And then we also do a lot of things with, you know, as you,
you would understand from radioactivity, there's a lot of
robotics associated with that remote handle things where yeah,
you simply can't get that close to certain materials without,
you know, exposing people to health issues, issues that that
that are not necessary. So it's kind of the full
portfolio for us. And again, we can talk about it
in in technical sessions, but then we can also meet with the
client and and be proactive on what's the next channel.
Well, I think it's a great opportunity to demonstrate our
thought leadership and our expertise to the industry
because, you know, what better way to talk about what we do
than present in front of a lot of people, right?
And, and that's a huge asset to our company.
One of the things I was hoping to maybe get from you is, you
know, for the audience, what type of capabilities
specifically are, you know, the BNSF group focused on and, and
how do they deliver that? Because I think there's, you
know, a little some maybe know exactly how or what you guys
offer as a service. So talk about that group.
So we primarily focus focus on on on waste management
activities and you know that that kind of expertise.
So if we have the full gamut of whether it's characterizing the
waste, it's packaging, transporting and then we have
technologies we partnered with some.
There are two commercial radioactive waste disposal
facilities in the US Most of the actual disposal facilities for
nuclear material in the US are owned by the government.
So OK, we operate some of those facilities for them.
We currently operate the two largest radioactive waste
landfills that the government owns. 1 is in Hanford,
Washington. The other is in Portsmouth.
OH, that we're actually still constructing part of it.
So we really have that kind of expertise.
And as you know, deep in that's, yeah.
And, you know, in your world, we, you know, Veolia North
America does a lot of hazardous waste work.
They operate a lot of landfills. Yep.
So one of the things that we're really doing is we're partnering
with some of the other components of Veolia North
America and the hazardous waste group in particular will bring
in their, you know, subject matter expertise on landfill
operations in. We're sending our folks out.
And it really is, it's a fresh set of eyes and it's part of our
commitment to the client where we're, we're being it.
We'll bring in best practices and there's a lot of stereotypes
about people doing work with the government and people don't work
in a commercial environment. So what we really want to do is
blend that together and, and take, take the best from both.
So that that's really what we're focused on is, is kind of that
those capabilities to kind of solve some of those unique
challenges around waste. Well, I tell you, you know, the
short period time I've been here, the capabilities that we
offer is a full service that's like 1 Veolia concept.
Right where it really is. Where we have water treatment
capabilities, well, obviously we have our hazardous waste
treatment capabilities. Whether we have, you know, we
have 3 incinerators, we have a hazardous waste lamp.
Oh, we've got 4 fuel building facilities for alternative
hazardous waste fuels and other, you know, by products for
solvent recovery and things like that.
There's so many great things we do, electronic waste recycling.
Marrying those technologies and capabilities to what you guys do
in the DOE space is a game changer when you think of the
full package of federal services that we can offer any of our
clients in the DOE space. And I think that's a powerful
statement to anybody who listens to what we can do and get
partnered for so. I think it's important to what
we're seeing with this client in particular.
So obviously we're focused on the environmental stewardship
and all the things that are necessary to be the responsible
stakeholder that we should be. But what we're seeing from this
client is, is a big focus on taking these assets, the federal
facilities and kind of revitalizing them there.
There's a big initiative from this administration rather it's
a data center or it's additional energy capacity through advanced
reactors or even through solar field.
And I think again, to your point about 1 Veolia, we can you know,
even RSIB group when it comes to commissioning new data centers.
What we're seeing from this client is that, that growth
opportunity where they're just, and hey, not only do we want
this stuff cleaned up responsibly, but we're not just
going to walk away from it. We, we want to take these assets
that we own and we want to turn them into the next generation
of, of, of productivity for. And right now the focus is
certainly on data centers and whether it's our our water tech
group or or SIB group, there's certainly opportunities for us
to bring that one solution to to the client.
So when you're here, do you hear updates on, you know, the
funding, Yeah, projects from the the DOE and how that's going to
happen as part of their priorities?
So one of my challenges with communications in in Beolia or
or really with our staff or anything else is the never
ending saga of government may shut down government may
partially shut down government may open government may have a
budget may not. And it's, it's we, we joke about
it, but it's the same time it is challenging and, and I think
anybody who would appreciate large projects realize that
starts and stops and fluctuations funding create
their, you know, their own set of unique challenges.
So for us, what we try to do obviously is, is as be as
flexible as we can for our clients and see that, you know,
that there's the pluses and minuses.
Because it's not uncommon at the end of a fiscal year to have a
surge where there was some planning work that didn't
necessarily happen. And now the client comes, I've
got some stuff here. So you know, we like to have
stuff on the shelf and say, OK, here's 1-2 or three, right, if
you feel like that's something you can do.
So for us it really is about, I know Bob Capitol talks about
being nimble, agile, right. And I think that's very much
what is needed from client like this.
And it's just a function of the government and it has its own
set of challenges. Rather, you're trying to get in
the line of TSA or, or you're trying to get rid of some
nuclear waste, Eileen. It's still a challenge.
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When you when you look across the landscape of DOE and their
types of projects, are there any particular locations or, or
projects that are like that is like the big one?
You know, that is like a major going to be here for a long time
and there's so many opportunities for so many
players to support the the remediation challenges.
Which ones maybe stick out in your mind?
So the one that's the biggest of the environmental liabilities
within the CM program is and again it's a lot of people don't
realize it, but from again the Manhattan Project and kind of
end in the Cold War, there's 56,000,000 gallons of liquid
radioactive high level waste stored at Hanford, Washington in
above ground storage tank. 56. Million 56,000,000 gallons.
It remains the single largest liability within the DOE
complex, the current life cycle baseline projection, which is,
you know, roughly around the end of the century, which is kind of
code for us who've been in the business long time to say that's
code for we really don't have any idea.
But in, in all seriousness, it, it's a real issue.
We're very much involved right now with, with that client and
not to, you know, bore people with too much technical detail,
but there's, there's grappling technology, there's, you know,
liquid separation technologies there.
There's a big investment that the government has made with a,
a waste treatment plant at Hanford that's been
controversial because it has been behind schedule and over
budget. So we're looking at, we actually
just responded to a request for proposal to the client to
provide some alternative routing technologies to help again, work
away that in all seriousness, that's not gonna go away
overnight. So it is a matter of kind of an
all approach to how we can as a community of contractors work
that down. But that's the biggest single
liability that they have out there, right?
Now, so does the DOE have an end game strategy for the final
disposition of a lot of this nuclear waste that's out there?
I mean, Yucca Mountain was Swan there for a while, but now is
there other alternatives that they're evaluating that's being
hey, we're going to go this route or to some others, I mean,
is there? So, so, so it's probably not as
concrete as some people would like it to be, but this
administration came out a few months ago with a request for
information on a concept of basically, and I'll might mess
up the terminology. It's kind of energy campuses or
innovation campuses, or they're really looking at these, again,
federal assets, these facilities and they're looking at a variety
of different additional support services, consolidated waste
storage spent for recycling. And then put as you make, you
know, you, you recycle as much as you can.
Then you get to the point of where are we are looking at
repository, the repository disposal.
And that may be part of the equation too.
It's a real issue. Or, you know, Finland is the
host country here this year. We always sponsor a, a, a
country to present and they are gonna go operational with their
the repository for storage, for storage later this year.
Really. So it's, it's not A and not the
again, sound political, but it's not a it's really not a
technical issue. It is a it is, you know, there's
gotta be willing communities and there's gotta be that kind of
stakeholder involvement for people to understand, you know,
this is not something that's that's going to go away tomorrow
if you're committing to do that. But I think the technology is
there. I know the technology is there
to do it responsibly, but I think that's kind of the next
step. I know this current
administration has aspirations for that.
But to answer your your other question just a little bit.
So most of the sites individually, they do try to
work a lot with the stakeholders to understand.
Do you want this to become? In the Greenfield, do you want
this to become right a new nuclear power plant do you want
you know and really looking at the assets in the context of the
communities cuz. They're like huge brow builds
essentially, but much more complex.
Much more complex, you know, from an operation standpoint,
they're also huge employers and Oh yeah, right.
Community. Grow up around.
Correct. So what's the right answer for
each one? It's you know, it's.
It could be different. Wow, yeah, I can imagine.
I mean, the complexity of trying to address all of these
concerns, it's not easy, but you know, I think there are a lot of
really smart engineers and scientists that are here working
to all really pull the same direction to help DOE solve
these problems. When you're here, you know how
important it is for us as a company and you to develop
partnerships with others that can deliver the full service of
maybe a particular scope because.
We may be limited. In one aspect of our business,
but you know to fulfill a full scope, we need a partner,
correct. What is, how important is that
for you and and what's our strategy around that?
So I have. Not, I have not copyrighted
this, but there's a term we all say in this industry called
competimates, competimates. So we certainly have
opportunities to your point where our technologies and
services align with another company's capabilities to solve
this solution and we partner and we do that.
There are other times when you know we can do this and they can
do this and we compete. But I think this industry has
matured over the years to where the committed competitive a
concept it really is true. We we all understand and we all
have, most of us are publicly traded companies and we all have
responsibilities in light of that.
But in the end, these are complex problems.
These are not stuff you wake up in the morning and say I can
take care of 56,000,000 gallons of high level radioactive liquid
waste, right. Yeah.
So, so you have to understand that it does take collaboration
and it takes a lot of really talented people with a lot of a
lot of different perspectives. Yeah, I just, yeah, I'm just, my
mind's still kind of reeling on 56,000,000 gallons of, you know.
Or, And remember, it's your tax dollars that are going to
actually make that go away. So yeah.
When come April 15th, realize what you're what what what, what
you're signing up for there? Yeah, actually, I mean, yes,
it's kind of no different than, you know, in the in the
hazardous waste business. Or.
Solid waste business, each company can't really deliver all
the services. They can deliver a lot of the
services. And you know, we have channel
partners just like you guys have channel partners to do, you
know, deliver on service. And you know, we work together
to satisfy and and meet the demand of our clients.
And it's a great partnership when it's all working and
communication is good. We need good communication with
all our partners. And so we all know our lanes,
what we can do. That's real important.
If you could, Steve, talk a little bit about the actual
capabilities that Viola has in this space and the types of work
you're doing for the DODDOE industry because I don't think
you know everyone understands it completely and and so.
Be happy to. That's it.
This is maybe a little Segway to this.
So just one technology we have, we have a lot, lot of patented
technology. This is a vitrification
technology that really focuses on obviously radioactive waste,
but in particular waste that have reactive metals, sodium,
lithium, those kinds of things. You certainly in your hazardous
waste background know the challenges of of of reactive
metals and at the same time throw in some radioactivity and
it really does make it challenging.
So we have a patented technology called Geo Melt.
We have a couple of facilities, We have one in located at the
Hanford Site and we have another one with a partnership with
waste control specialist in Andrews, TX at their commercial
radioactive wasteland. And what this technology does is
it takes high level or, or low level waste that is also
reactive and essentially vitrifies them in the glass.
These are electrodes that are sacrificial.
And you typically see a combination of, you know,
there's recipes with a combination of the waste and
then surrogate material and then also the sand and the things to
make glass. And then this is typically in
the, you know, 1500° C range. It it, it's impressive, super
hot and you end up with a nice big, a nice glass and then with
that facility, then it goes to the land disposal in which it's
no. Longer it's encapsulated.
And it's the longer reactive metal it'll, it'll continue to
be radioactive of course, but the the reactive nature of the D
double O3 characteristic is is gone.
So that's an example. We're looking at this at the
multiple sites. We use this with waste from Oak
Ridge, TN with, with raised waste from the Idaho National
Lab right now and are really looking at it similar to my
earlier comments. You know, these are, these are
unique solution providers and for us we're looking at those
targeted things. The the waste, for example,
we're doing in Oak Ridge, it, it's the sodium shielding that
was used over 50 years ago to actually test the opportunity to
build a nuclear powered Airfrag. So, so again, those are the
things you get into and you realize there's something that's
been in storage for over 50 years and now all of a sudden,
you know, we have a safe, regulatorily compliant solution
for that. And let's figure out a way to
work that image way down. You know, I think this is such a
great example to showcase the technology for somebody just
coming by the booth or just curious about what is the end
result of a GO Melt product for the listeners and and those
watching. I mean, this is an actual block
of I think concrete here, but inside is the hot radioactive
material and then it's encased completely into in a glass
through this melting Geo melting technology.
It it's pretty fascinating. I think it's really great that
this is a a solution that is eliminating your radioactive
exposure by encasing it in vitrified type container.
Is it safe to say though this like this is our technology, but
there are other companies doing similar, yeah.
There are product side delivery, yeah, a lot of it has to do
vitification as a technology is is a common in the hazardous
waste world certification using, you know, different types of
material to be heated up and and encapsulated.
That's what you're doing. So, yeah, the patent here really
is related to the method and this is a batch process, not a
closed loop process. And kind of the way we have
sacrificial electrodes and that approach, it's a proven
technology. It's rather robust.
We configure it differently depending on the size and then
the end state if they needed, hey, we need this it to be end
up in a drum, we need this to end up in a box and we have the
flexibility to do that. And to your point of there, I
got I got some engineers who could they could do 2 podcasts
on, on on how the well we'll. Probably talk to the We'll get
Rob Mitchell out here at some point.
They'll leave me behind pretty quick, right, right.
Really passionate about this technology.
No, it's, it's really great. And, and, and to see, you know,
kind of like the actual results in the, you know, technology
right here in front of you really kind of brings together
the whole concept. And so it was really good to
learn that this week for me. Yeah, as a as a.
Partner with you. The other nice thing we've done
with this to echo your point is we've taken the DOE client to
the facility and you know, it's the shows them and models and
and PowerPoints are cool, yeah, but you stand there and you see
you know this is how it happens and there's the end product and
and everything else in it. Again, the other thing I would
say is that was a investment that Veolia made in a facility
where we didn't actually have a backlog and a long term
contract. We saw the need, we understand
the long term issues of the client.
So we've proactively developed this facility and are now this
room where we're doing the podcast.
We've had half a dozen meetings this week about how we can
continue to to solve these challenges and problems that
that this technology helps. So how big can these encased,
you know, GMO products? I mean, how big?
Can they be, so, you know, there's theoretically, you know,
lots of different scenarios, the kind of the, the sweet spot size
is a 6 by 6 by 8 box. And that's kind of, that's kind
of what we've got set up. Our facility in Texas also has
the ability to have, have two units and it's rail aligned with
rail to where you move one box in, let it cool, move another
box over here and, and be able to, to configure it that way.
But it is a, it's a flexible technology.
And we're actually looking at, one of the things we're looking
at somewhat unrelated to the kind of the nuclear waste world,
is that there's a lot of classified shape or associated
with weapons programs and things in the past.
And, you know, what needs to happen is those shapes need to
be destroyed before they're disposed of.
And this is something that we've been in discussions with some of
the security people. It's kind of interesting because
we don't know where they are, how many they are or what they
look like. But we know they're shapes.
So. So we're working with the client
to see again, because the technology makes sense and and
the application for it would be again different from a
radioactive standpoint, but it is, it's a really cool
technology that can can do a lot of different things.
This is, it's, it's, it's great. You know, when, when you're here
and you're looking at everybody and you see all these partners
and there's just so much happening.
And then, you know, one starts to think after you start to
learn about what the DOA strategies are and things like
that for, you know, addressing their big challenges, how does
that help you formulate your growth strategy for our support
of the DoD or I mean DOE and and how we grow our business
throughout the US? Yeah.
So I think a lot of people don't necessarily realize, but you
know, the US government is the largest single employer in North
America, right? They have the most facilities,
the most real estate, the most fixed assets.
So for us what we're really wanting to do is our growth
strategy is really wanting to focus on how do we bring the
full portfolio of services of Viola North America to not just
the the part of energy client, but to the government because we
have that full capability. And as I mentioned earlier, you
know we have as being a four known company, there are certain
things that we have to do a little differently still for the
US government. We can do classified work, we
have clearances, we have those kinds of things.
And in order to do that, what we want to do is, is align
ourselves with the government in general because of the growth
opportunity there. And like I said earlier, bring
the full capabilities of Veolia North America to the client.
Some things are going to make more sense for the Department of
Defense, some of them make more sense for maybe NASA or some
combination. But we really believe we've only
scratched the surface on what we as a as Veolia can do with one
Veolia with the largest employer in North America.
Well, I think it's really it's powerful statement from our
company that really wants to focus on the growth of our
federal business. You know, you mentioned some of
the things that you guys are doing like you know, you're a
mitigated entity within our own company so that we can actually
comply with all the FAR requirements and the CMCACMMC,
you know, cyber security requirements and cost accounting
and things like that. And us as a company can work
with you. I mean us meeting our
environment or has waste business can work with the
federal business under the same umbrella.
Yep. That's a that's key because now
we have the flexibility to really deliver that full one,
the only approach and so can our water business and so can yeah,
I mean it's, it's really, it's really a great opportunity.
And I think too when you look at bring up you look the
initiatives that that are so important to Paris and as we
continue to move forward is right.
Again, this is a bit of an untapped market in that sense,
right, That the US government market is, is, I used to joke
with people, it's the, it, it's in your 4-O1K, It's, it's the
stable growth fund, right? It doesn't get you jumping out
of bed in the morning, but it helps you sleep a little better
at night, right? And, and, and I think that's
what it's a. Steady, constant, slow.
And I think for for a growth company like Veolia, I think
some time spent working through the never ending challenges of
working for the federal government is probably going to
be worth it in the end. Well, I, yeah, I agree.
So it's, it's really exciting times.
I think we're in just a kind of a new era, so to speak with the
new administration. I think it's going to really
develop new opportunities that we haven't seen before.
I think there'll be an emphasis on doing things quicker, yeah,
rather than slower and less process red tape versus let's
get going and do it. Have you heard feedback in that
space? I mean, it's definitely the, the
mantra of this administration and, and having done this for
over 30 years now, there's a little skepticism from any
administration change because again, great ideas and great
initiatives we all support. But you know, we like to joke
that, you know, the, the federal government, Department of Energy
in particular, it's, you know, it's a bit of a battleship,
right? So moving, moving and in most
cases, administrations have windows, windows of opportunity,
but this administration is clearly committed to the things
you just said. And we're seeing, we're seeing
tangible results, right? The data center developments at
these sites and the conversations earlier this week
where you've got a, a commercial data center coming in and
they're saying, Hey, I want to have access to this site by this
day, right? And you know, knowing that if
you, if the department doesn't say yes, they're going to go
somewhere else, right? So, so I think we're seeing some
of that and I think time will tell.
I think there's momentum that's being built that these are
things and, and again and again, it's always a balance, but with
the regulatory framework, the decision documents, the records
and decision, the circle of sites there, you know, there's a
huge environmental envelope of safety and and care to the
communities that very much intact, not in any way being
circumvented. You know, it's just we're trying
to figure out ways to be nimble and be flexible while we're
still protect human health and the environment, and we're
seeing all that happen. Well, you know, one thing that
I've after we have a bit of some aging population in our
workforce. And what would you would say to
a young professional just trying to break into this space who,
who is attracted to say the DOE market space?
Because I can tell you from experience, the DOE market
environmental space is a little different than the industrial
commercial environmental Azure space.
And so, you know, you're, we're all working in the same kind of
mission to protect and human health, the environment.
And, but they're different, you know, industries in the South
and it's, it's how, what do you recommend for somebody?
I spend time with with the own panels with college age kids and
and others and, and it's you know, what I describe with this
industry is, you know, it's complex and I think for people
that really want to be challenged and really I pry into
the the we are cleaning up the the challenges of the past.
Right. And since the past is what A?
Lot of people would say it's a noble mission and there were
great reasons why we did what we did.
But I think again, we owe it to the country and those same
communities that sacrifice to make all those things happen, to
really do what is right by them. And and it's a noble cause.
And the other part of that for younger people is, I don't know,
a market that has as you know, as many challenges.
So there's unique issues with, with types of material, with
waste. And as as the program matures,
you know, it's only the harder stuff that's left.
So if you want to be challenged and you want to really feel like
you're having an impact that is generational, it's, it's a good
industry to be in. It is, it's also what I'm seeing
with this administration is their ability to then look, cuz
you know, the theory in part was where you're just working
yourself out of a job, but with what they're wanting to do,
developing, redevelopment or something else, you know, you're
just. You're more jobs.
You're just moving it forward, right?
You're bringing in a modernization approach to
different things, and I think that's really exciting.
Well, that's great. That's great.
Well, Steve, really appreciate you coming on the show today and
talking a little bit about what you know BNSFS is doing and and
how you are helping clean up the DOE sites that are around the
the US and really excited to see what happens in.
That it's the exciting time, but anytime there's a hint of a
government shutdown, please pray for me so that that would be
appreciated, that appreciate the time and enjoy talking to you
always. Absolutely.
Thank you, Stanley. Thanks for listening and
watching the show. If you enjoyed the show then
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