Headquarters Intern Arranges Tour of Cleanup Site Near His Kentucky Hometown

PADUCAH, Ky. - David Lu, left, completed his summer internship at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM) headquarters in Washington, D.C. in August. Later that month, he toured the EM Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) Conversion Plant at the Paducah Site near his hometown of Murray, Kentucky. In this photo, EM Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office Facility Representative Chris Richards, center, and Federal Project Director William Wessel lead the tour of the plant's systems and processes to convert 46,000 DUF6 cylinders at the Paducah Site to a more stable compound. With roots near the site, Lu took the initiative to arrange for the tour to familiarize himself with the site.

"I grew up in Western Kentucky, so working as a DOE Scholar in EM has been a special opportunity for me to play a part in the environmental cleanup process in my home region and to learn how my dissertation research relates to the work," Lu said. "Visiting the Paducah DOE site was a highlight of my internship experience and greatly expanded my perspective of the EM mission by seeing how efforts at the headquarters level connect with the field site, interfacing with experts in the field, and understanding how the work directly benefits the local community."

U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM) summer intern David Lu, center, tours EM's Paducah Site on Aug. 26. EM Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office Facility Representative Chris Richards, right, and Federal Project Director William Wessel point out the construction of a new rail line at the Paducah Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride conversion facility during the tour.

Lu is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Kentucky (UK) in Lexington. He received a degree in chemical engineering from UK before becoming a graduate research assistant in the UK Center of Membrane Sciences, focusing on developing, scaling up and assessing the life cycle impact of polymeric membranes derived from eco-friendly materials to remove contaminants from water. Lu is a trainee in the UK National Science Foundation Research Traineeship Program, which brings together students and faculty from multiple departments to collaborate on challenges relating to the food-energy-water nexus. Additionally, he is a trainee at the UK Superfund Research Center, which is a multi-disciplinary group that focuses on mapping the presence of emerging contaminants from the environment, studying their health effects and developing methods to remove them.

-Contributors: Zachary Boyarski, Dylan Nichols