Berkeley Lab Scientists Get $3+ Million in DOE Environmental Grants

Several investigators in Berkeley Lab's Environmental Remediation Program of the Earth Sciences Division were recently successful in securing over $3 million in funding from the Department of Energy's Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP). Although announcements associated with the recent EMSP proposal solicitation are still underway, the funds allocated to Berkeley Lab represent a significant portion of the EMSP's research funding for this competition.

Berkeley scientists were involved in six successful EMSP proposals, which focus on the use of advanced geophysical, geochemical, microbiological, and hydrological approaches for understanding complex subsurface phenomena.

Berkeley Lab scientists Susan Hubbard, Ken Williams, Jill Banfield and Carl Steefel were chosen to receive $1.7 million to support an LBNL-led investigation that will explore the potential of geophysical methods for monitoring subsurface processes associated with remediation treatments and the use of that information for advancing reactive transport models.

Hubbard will also participate in a project with the University of Southern California which will focus on integration of advanced hydrogeophysical characterization and hydrological modeling approaches for predicting transport at the Savannah River site.

Steefel will be involved in three other EMSP projects with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the U.S.Geological Survey (USGS), and the University of Arizona. These projects will explore upscaling of reactive transport models and reaction kinetics associated with species of interest to DOE (such as uranium). Two of the studies will be performed using samples from or conditions relevant to the DOE Hanford site.

In participation with Idaho National Energy Laboratory, Berkeley Lab researcher Mark Conrad will explore novel isotopic approaches for assessing the viability of natural attenuation as an approach for remediating chlorinated hydrocarbons at DOE sites.

For more detail on each individual project, go here .

Berkeley Lab's success in this competition indicates the expertise that the Environmental Remediation Program brings to DOE in using experimental, numerical, and theoretical approaches across a range of spatial scales to develop science-based solutions for dealing with the nation's environmental problems.