VNS Federal Services (Veolia) had a strong showing at the recent 2025 Waste Management Symposia
Phoenix, Ariz. – With a team of 30 in attendance and a new booth, the team highlighted Veolia’s broad range of capabilities and innovations supporting the radioactive waste management industry.
This year’s theme was “Empowering a Sustainable Future – Advanced Technologies, AI, and Workforce Development Across the Nuclear Landscape.” The conference’s technical program included more than 240 technical papers from professionals and students.
Veolia subject matter experts were among hundreds of technical speakers and presenters throughout the five-day event, sharing information on the future of safe effective environmental cleanup and waste management. From innovative solutions to collaborative partnerships, the conference highlighted the important work happening across the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear cleanup.
“The Waste Management Symposia is an opportunity to connect with clients and partners. This year we were able to conduct over 30 meetings to identify new opportunities,” said Steve Moore, President and CEO of VNS Federal Services. “We debuted a new booth this year featuring our brand as a solutions provider for the DOE marketplace. Additionally, technical presentations from Veolia personnel reinforced our reputation as an innovative partner.”
Veolia personnel demonstrated how our deep and varied experience, technological innovation, and operational know-how is helping partners. Highlights included:
- Ron Mitchell, Director of Technology Deployment for VNSFS, presented on “Treatment of Problematic Reactive Metal Wastes Using the GeoMelt® In-Container Vitrification Process.”
- Philippe Bernard, Nuclear Measures Expert for Veolia Nuclear Solutions in France, discussed his poster titled, “Investigation on Estimation Method for the Characterization of Highly Radioactive Waste Using Non-Destructive Measurement Data.” Bernard also gave a presentation titled “Radiological Monitoring for Nuclear Effluent Decontamination Process After Severe Accident.”
- Kevin Finucane, VNSFS Project Manager, presented his findings on “Treatability Testing of INL Calcine Surrogates with GeoMelt® In-Container Vitrification.”
- Simon Delavalle, Chief Technology Officer for Veolia Nuclear Solutions in the UK, discussed “Challenges and Opportunities of Integrating Machine Learning for Waste Sorting and Visualization in Nuclear Environments.”
- David Gilson, General Manager of Alaron Nuclear Services, gave an Alaron update during a session on “Nuclear Power Plant Waste Management – LLW Waste Disposal Issues.’ Ethan Begg, Director of Client Services at Alaron, discussed “Disposition of High-Activity Waste from Palisades Restart.”
- Bob Miklos, Executive Vice President of Program Assurance chaired several panels throughout the conference, including: “Demonstrating Advanced Reactors at INL,” “The Fusion Breakthrough,” “Commercial Advancements in Fusion Energy,” and “Use of Business Intelligence (BI) to Manage the Complexities of DOE Task Order Based Contracts.”
“Presenting at the annual Waste Management Symposia is essential for Veolia to showcase our broad capabilities and thought leadership in this market,” said Sean McGraw, VNSFS Vice President for Corporate Strategy & Growth. “These presentations provide an opportunity for our technical personnel to demonstrate their expertise.”