Given future budget constraints, the current way of doing business in our industry is simply not sustainable. What can we do, in partnership with DOE, to change and adopt a more efficient model that will allow us to deal with near-term financial constraints and serve the Complex well for the future? Our panel of senior executives from national and international venues identified five areas that affect cost-effectiveness and efficiency in meeting DOE mission priorities, contractual commitments, and regulatory obligations: mission prioritization, governance/partnering, project & contract management, human capital, and compliance with state agreements. Panelists briefly shared how they are addressing these issues at their respective sites. The individual presentations were followed by an interactive discussion of such timely questions as:

• How do we prioritize site missions and integrate them into an overall plan across the Complex?
• As part of implementing DOE’s new governance model and partnering with DOE, how do we work together to manage more effectively, improve decision making, and use resources more efficiently?
• How should we structure existing and future contracts and projects to share risks and rewards fairly and improve performance?
• How do we prepare the workforce of the future to sustain DOE sites, realizing the tradeoff between hiring/ training new staff and retaining experienced personnel with site longevity and institutional knowledge?
• Are emerging international opportunities helping or hurting site cleanup in the US?
• How can we best meet legally binding agreements with states in the face of severe budget cuts that potentially limit work and slow progress?

Panelists included: Dwayne Wilson, President and CEO, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions; John Fulton, President and CEO, CH2M HILL PRC; Dennis Carr, General Manager, Fluor-B&W Portsmouth; Jim French, Executive Director, Decommissioning, Sellafield, Ltd. (United Kingdom); Beth Sellers, Associate Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Michael Graham, Manager, US Environmental, Bechtel National; George Dials, President and Project Manager, B&W Conversion Services; and Martin Schneider, Exchange Monitor Publications.