Waste and Transportation Oversight Specialist

Overview

Argonne National Laboratory seeks a Waste and Transportation Oversight Specialist to provide independent technical oversight, governance, and assurance for the Laboratory’s Waste Management Program (WMP) and associated on‑site transfer and off‑site waste characterization, handling, disposition and transportation activities. Operating from the WSE Division, this role evaluates and drives safety, regulatory compliance, and performance across the lifecycle of hazardous, radioactive, mixed, RCRA, TSCA, and TRU wastes—from generation to disposition including accumulation, storage, characterization, packaging, and transportation.

The Specialist works in concert with the Nuclear Waste and Site Services (NWS) division, Operations‑Quality Assurance, Radiological Operations, Facilities, applicable programmatic divisions and external stakeholders (e.g., DOE‑ASO, IEPA/US EPA, NNSS, CBFO, commercial TSDFs) to strengthen technical rigor and foster a robust culture of compliance.

• Provide independent oversight of waste and transportation related activities, procedures and processes to ensure conformity with DOE Orders, federal and state regulations, and Laboratory policies and procedures.
• Support and participate in periodic review of, and provide input on revision of, waste and transportation program documents, maintaining required review schedules with attention to conformance with relevant changes to requirements.
• Maintain cognizance of upcoming regulatory and directive changes and evaluate the potential impact in guidance with Legal, on the overall waste and transportation programs to provide updates to oversight plans and activities.
• Ensure communication of any changes and impact with the NWS and other affected organizations.
• Provide oversight and expertise to sitewide waste planning activities (e.g., future waste generation, projections, disposition pathways, and risk mitigation strategies for evolving waste streams).

• Perform independent assessments, surveillances, and readiness reviews of waste characterization (AK/PK, sampling and analysis, data quality and validation).
• Review waste processing, treatment, and packaging (including NDA/NDE and liquid treatment).
• Examine waste storage, characterization, classification, accumulation, inventory control, and data integrity in waste management systems (e.g., WMS‑U).
• Verify waste packaging and shipping compliance and compliance with DOE carrier qualification requirements.
• Document issues, lead or support causal analyses, and track corrective actions to closure in institutional corrective action programs, adjust and plan for verification activities with the goal of ensuring timely and effective resolution.
• Apply, as applicable, NQA‑1 and DOE O 414.1D quality assurance principles to oversight activities.

• Monitor waste‑related activities in nuclear and radiological facilities for compliance with applicable safety basis requirements (e.g., DSA, TSRs, SACs, LCOs) and movement controls as they relate to the waste operations.
• Oversee adherence to DOE and regulatory transportation requirements (e.g., DOE O 460.1D/460.2A, transportation safety documents and TSRs) for on‑site transfers and off‑site shipments.
• Evaluate compliance with DOT/PHMSA regulations (49
  
  CFR) related to hazardous materials classification, packaging, marking, labeling, placarding, shipping papers, emergency response information, and hazmat security.
• Provide oversight of adherence to RCRA/TSCA and state documentation and shipping requirements and record retention (manifests, e‑Manifest, LDR notifications, PCB shipments).

• Assess program conformance with relevant DOE Orders; 10
  
  CFR (e.g., 830, 835, 850, 851); 40
  
  CFR (RCRA, TSCA, and related environmental rules); 49
  
  CFR; 29
  
  CFR
  1910; and Illinois Administrative Code Title
  35.
• Partner with EPP to monitor RCRA accumulation limits, SAA’s, CAA’s, container storage conditions, inspection findings, and housekeeping standards in waste storage areas; ensure timely resolution of…