Nuclear Waste Cleanup Continues The Public Opinion Tide Is Turning for Idaho National Laboratory

By Kimberlee Kruesi - kkruesi@magicvalley.com | Posted: Friday, April 27, 2012 2:00 am

IDAHO FALLS • As the Idaho National Laboratory prepares to take on another nuclear waste project, officials also hope they’re making just as much headway on gaining the public’s trust. Starting next month, contractors at the Idaho National Laboratory will begin treating 900,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste, then shipping it out of the state. The project is the latest step in a multi-decade effort to remove nuclear waste from INL and the state, laid out in a 1995 court settlement involving the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Navy and Idaho officials.

The liquid waste is currently being stored in underground tanks that were built during the Cold War for spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. The DOE received approval to open a new $570 million facility to treat the spent fuel, said Rick Craun, the project’s federal director. It matters to residents of the Magic Valley because the tanks are positioned a few hundred feet above the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, a major source of southern Idaho drinking water, said Brad Bugger, spokesman for DOE. “We’ve never had a leak in those tanks but now that we’re no longer reprocessing the spent fuel, we want to get it all out,” Bugger said.

The DOE has completed more than 950 milestones tracking the course of the cleanup, including unearthing almost three acres of buried waste and dismantling more than 2 million square feet of buildings contaminated with radioactivity. There’s still quite a bit of waste left to remove, but Bugger said spreading word of INL’s current accomplishments helps establish a certain amount of trust among regulators and the public. “We delivered on our commitments,” Bugger said. “We’ve done what we’ve said we would do and that’s helped change the attitude.”

INL has constantly followed through on its promises, said Susan Burke, INL coordinator for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. DEQ oversees INL’s activities for the state and monitors water and air quality near the facility. “It just seems logical that you’re going to build up confidence with the public if you do what you say you’re going to do,” she said.

DEQ will always be a regulator first when it comes to INL, Burke said. But she noted the two organizations have moved closer to a partnership. “I think it’s mostly been done in keeping us aware on how it’s going over there and what they’re thinking on how they’re approaching something,” Burke said. “There’s room for discussion on some things.” Beatrice Brailfford from the Snake River Alliance, a nuclear watchdog organization, praised DOE’s efforts. “In the early days of the cleanup, people had some wacky ideas on how to get rid of waste,” she said. “But they’ve remained vigilant in making progress and I’m pretty pleased with that.” 

Read more: http://magicvalley.com/news/local/state-and-regional/the-public-opinion-tide-is-turning-for-idaho-national-laboratory/article_d6e0a035-1710-58ba-815c-a33ef2919be1.html#ixzz1tXrdHMdk

At a Glance: INL Cleanup

The Idaho National Laboratory, managed by the U.S. Department of Energy, is now in its 17th year of nuclear waste cleanup following a court settlement with the state of Idaho. A look back:

1995 • Settlement agreement reached between the state of Idaho, U.S. Navy, and DOE that requires DOE to meet certain waste cleanup obligations. Among them:transuranic waste stored at INLmust leave the state of Idaho by 2018.

2006 • Amid a dispute over the terms of the agreement, a federal judge rules that the DOE must remove all buried waste from the INL site.

2008 • Due to definition disputes of “all,” the state agrees to a new deal that allows DOE to seal and leave in place some waste in specific areas.

2012 • By the end of this year, 900,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste stored at INL should be treated and removed.

Mishaps Pause Some INL Progress

The Idaho National Laboratory has attracted headlines this month for another matter — safety issues at its research and development facilities.

About 800 workers at the Materials and Fuels Complex are spending two weeks evaluating mistakes made during two accidents last week. Among them, a 3,000-pound piece of a metal shutter shield fell from a crane near an employee.

The mishaps weren’t on the cleanup side, but it has faced its own occasional setbacks. Also last week, retrieval of transuranic waste resumed after a nearly two-year hiatus. The work suspension came in 2010 after about 20 workers were exposed to radioactive waste when a plywood box broke open, though site managers said the doses were below acceptable levels. A new contractor, a consortium led by Babcock and Wilcox and URS Corp., has since taken over the contract for the transuranic waste from former contractor Bechtel BWXT Idaho.

— Wire reports

Read more: http://magicvalley.com/news/local/state-and-regional/the-public-opinion-tide-is-turning-for-idaho-national-laboratory/article_d6e0a035-1710-58ba-815c-a33ef2919be1.html#ixzz1tXrxHEiC

Congress Goes Nuclear

ENERGY  | 4/28/2012 @ 11:09PM |1,376 views

So much for the notion that Congress can’t do anything right.  The thoughtful and smart actions of Senators Murkowski and Landrieu, working with Senators Feinstein, Alexander and Bingaman, produced a bill out of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee last Tuesday, approved Thursday by the full Committee, that took the first step to solving our nation’s nuclear waste problem. I’ve been waiting my entire career for this to happen. In fact, this first step is so significant that I’m having trouble catching my breath!

If you remember, the Yucca Mountain Project, the nation’s first selected nuclear disposal site, was recently scrapped for being not workable and the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future was appointed to find another path forward. After reviewing the last 60 years of frustrated science and policy, in February the BRC released a number of very good recommendations addressing nuclear in general, but three specific ones were critical to actually dealing with high-level nuclear waste and managing spent nuclear fuel for the next hundred years. They were:

1) executing interim storage for spent nuclear fuel, 2) resuming the site selection process for a second repository (Yucca being the first, the massive salts being the best), and 3) forming a quasi-government entity, or FedCorp, to execute the program and take control of the Nuclear Waste Fund in order to do so.

The first recommendation separates fuel from real waste, allowing storage of still-usable spent nuclear fuel from reactor sites either to be used in future reactors or eventually disposed, without needing to retrieve it from deep in the earth as is presently the Law. The second recommendation allows us to choose the best geology for the permanent disposal of actual high-level waste that has no value since it is the waste from reprocessing old fuel. This real waste needs to be disposed of promptly, not just looked at for another few decades. It has cost billions to manage this waste in places that were always meant to be temporary. The third recommendation controls cost and administration, because, duh, we’re broke.

Tuesday’s bill starts the ball rolling by implementing the first recommendation, authorizing “the Secretary of Energy to site, construct, and operate consolidated storage facilities to provide storage as needed for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.” – IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES—112th Cong., 2d Sess.

The short version is this bill is consent-based, meaning the Feds can’t just pick a site and force it down a State’s throat, but have to wait for someone to bid for it and requires approval of the Governor, any affected Tribes, and the local representatives of that State. Plus, it authorizes the Nuclear Waste Fund to be used for what it always was intended. And DOE has only 120 days from passage to begin accepting proposals so it won’t languish for years. This bill breaks the nuclear waste logjam. It’s simple, it’s the right thing to do, it will save lots of money, it’s the best thing for the environment, and it’s a win-win, so how did the Senate do this? And so fast!

Now it’s up to the House to maintain the do-nothing image of Congress, kill this bill, and let us get back to wasting billions of dollars looking at the problem for 30 more years.

House committee finds $8M more for Hanford tank farms

By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald April 27, 2012

The House Appropriations Committee has found $8 million more for the latest version of its Hanford tank farms budget for next year. The committee also removed criticism of Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant from the report accompanying the appropriations bill. That puts the House version of the Hanford budget for the tank farms at $473 million, which is $6 million above the amount estimated to be needed to do work required by a court-enforced consent decree. It also brings it closer to the Senate version of the Hanford budget, as marked up by a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday. That Senate version includes $482 million for the tank farms, matching the Obama administration's request for Congress. Although lower, the Republican-controlled House number still is about $28 million more than the current budget for the tank farms.

FY13 DOE EM Documents

FY 2013 DOE Budget Request to Congress 
FY 2013 EM Budget Rollout Presentation 
FY 2013 Environmental Management Budget Request to Congress 

New Approach to Assess Volatile Contamination in Vadose Zone Provides Path Forward for Site Closure

EM Technology Program Update | April 24 | RICHLAND, Wash. and LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – Through the Deep Vadose Zone-Applied Field Research Initiative (DVZ-AFRI), scientists and engineers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company, federal agencies, and the scientific community are collaborating to develop effective, science-based solutions for remediating, characterizing, monitoring, and predicting the behavior and fate of deep vadose zone contamination. DVZ-AFRI is supported through a memorandum of understanding with EM’s Office of Soil and Groundwater Remediation and the Richland Operations Office. This partnership is maximizing resources to facilitate development of the scientific and technical foundation and technologies needed to make sound and defensible remedial decisions that will successfully meet target cleanup goals. Soil vapor extraction (SVE) is a baseline remediation approach applied at many sites to remove volatile contaminants from the vadose zone. While SVE generally removes contaminants from most parts of the vadose zone, many sites have low-permeability heterogeneities that limit the ability of SVE remediation and leave residual, persistent zones of contamination. Under these conditions, a risk informed evaluation of SVE performance should determine if the system needs to be optimized, terminated, or transitioned to another approach. See Deep Vadose Zone–
Applied Field Research Initiative Fiscal Year 2011 Annual Report at http://www.pnnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-20757.pdf

NEI Commends Senate Appropriations Panel’s Used Fuel Management Proposal

For Release: April 24, 2012 WASHINGTON, D.C., April 24, 2012—The Senate Energy and Water Development Subcommittee marked up its appropriations bill for fiscal year 2013 today. The markup includes language supporting consolidation of used nuclear fuel at one or more storage sites. It also mimics the House by rejecting the administration’s attempt to impose new charges on nuclear energy for the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning fund. Marvin Fertel, the Nuclear Energy Institute’s president and chief executive officer, made the following remarks in reaction to the markup.

“The Nuclear Energy Institute commends the subcommittee for taking seriously the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future to begin moving used nuclear fuel from nuclear plant sites into consolidated storage facilities. Doing so is an important first step to meet the federal government’s contractual obligation to remove used reactor fuel from decommissioned and operating nuclear power plants as the government was required to begin by 1998.

“The nuclear industry has long supported consolidated storage in a supportive community as part of a national used-fuel management program. While important, consolidated storage is only part of a comprehensive used fuel program.

“NEI urges others in Congress to consider broader legislation recommended by the Blue Ribbon Commission, including our continued need for geologic disposal. In that regard, NEI continues to support licensing work on the Yucca Mountain repository.

“Equally importantly, the subcommittee acted fairly and did not follow the administration’s request to levy another tax on nuclear energy companies that have already met their legal obligation in funding the Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund program. It is patently unfair for the administration to try to re-impose this tax on the industry

Leveraging New Media and Internet for Nuclear Education

IAEA Opens Multi-Network Platform for Enhanced Communication and Training

Seven Networks are currently being sponsored by the IAEA and managed by the Department of Nuclear Energy, with support from the Technical Cooperation program and funding from the European Commission. These networks range from nuclear knowledge management, implementation of nuclear technology, radioactive waste management, decommissioning and environmental remediation across the globe.The IAEA has long been a champion of the concept and use of professional networks to advance best practices in diverse areas of nuclear technology. Through inter-departmental initiatives, the Agency has set up a number of networks to encourage experts to contribute and share their knowledge and resources with peers, as well as with other professionals with limited resources.To further enhance these centers of collaboration, the IAEA has built a web platform that inter-connects these networks and their participating institutions and experts. Known by the acronym CONNECT, for Connecting the Network of Networks for Enhanced Communications and Training, this platform uses new media and web technologies to enable increased participation from individuals and organizations involved.

Statement of David Huizenga Senior Advisor for Environmental Management United States Department of Energy

Before the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Committee on Armed Services United States House of Representatives April 17, 2012
http://www.em.doe.gov/pdfs/4-17-12%20Final%20HASC%20Strategic%20Forces%20Written%20Testimony.pdf

US House spending bill would cut DOE renewables, boost nuclear

Washington (Platts)--25Apr2012/429 pm EDT/2029 GMT

The US House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday passed on to the full chamber a Department of Energy spending bill that would cut $345 million from the agency's fiscal 2013 budget, providing it with $26.1 billion, and would shift emphasis from renewable energy and energy efficiency to fossil fuels and nuclear power. "While the decisions involved were difficult ... I am proud that this committee will be the tip of the spear in helping to restore sustainability to the agency budgets within this bill," said Representative Hal Rogers, the committee chairman and a Kentucky Republican. The committee passed the energy and water appropriations bill in a voice vote. The bill must still be taken up by the full House. No votes in the full chamber are planned, but few in Washington believe Congress will pass any annual appropriations bills before the presidential election in November. In his budget request to Congress in February, Obama moved to cut about $88 million from spending on nuclear power research and development, a 10% cut, and about $105 million from the fossil energy R&D, primarily from coal-related research. But the House Appropriations committee aims to make up for those declines by refusing the Obama request and funding nuclear power at 2012 levels, instead providing flat funding for DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy at $765 million. Republicans on the committee also said the bill would help bring down gasoline prices in the long run and that they have devoted $1.1 billion in their proposal for the effort. Among other things, this includes $25 million for a new shale oil research program, $34 million for other fossil energy research aimed at increasing domestic oil supplies, $500 million for applied advanced biofuels research and $195 million for electric vehicle research. While these total about $36 million above what Congress gave DOE in 2012, they are about $92 million less than what Obama requested.

SCHEDULES OF KEY ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS

This document graphically displays the milestone dates and projected schedules of key Environmental Impact Statements (updated monthly). This chart represents anticipated activity and is not a commitment for documentation or date. Last Revised: 4/13/12  KeyEISSchedule_April2012.pdf 

• Tank Closure and Waste Management for the Hanford Site, Richland, WA (DOE/EIS-0391)
• Disposal of Greater-Than-Class C Low-Level Radioactive Waste (DOE/EIS-0375)
• Storage and Management of Elemental Mercury (DOE/EIS-0423)

EM Technology Program Update: New Approach to Assess Volatile Contamination in Vadose Zone Provides Path Forward for Site Closure

April 24, 2012 RICHLAND, Wash. and LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – Through the Deep Vadose Zone-Applied Field Research Initiative (DVZ-AFRI), scientists and engineers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company, federal agencies, and the scientific community are collaborating to develop effective, science-based solutions for remediating, characterizing, monitoring, and predicting the behavior and fate of deep vadose zone contamination. DVZ-AFRI is supported through a memorandum of understanding with EM’s Office of Soil and Groundwater Remediation and the Richland Operations Office. This partnership is maximizing resources to facilitate development of the scientific and technical foundation and technologies needed to make sound and defensible remedial decisions that will successfully meet target cleanup goals. Soil vapor extraction (SVE) is a baseline remediation approach applied at many sites to remove volatile contaminants from the vadose zone. While SVE generally removes contaminants from most parts of the vadose zone, many sites have low-permeability heterogeneities that limit the ability of SVE remediation and leave residual, persistent zones of contamination. Under these conditions, a risk informed evaluation of SVE performance should determine if the system needs to be optimized, terminated, or transitioned to another approach.

Green: A Very Long Road for Military Nuclear Waste

SCIENCE New York Times

By By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: March 29, 2012

The Department of Energy says it has mostly emptied and closed two more of the 51 underground tanks containing liquid nuclear waste from cold-war weapons production at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Yet tens of thousands of gallons still potentially remain in those two tanks. See link http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/a-very-long-road-for-military-nuclear-waste/

Senate Panel Advances Bill for Temporary Nuclear Storage Sites

By Jim Snyder on April 24, 2012 (Bloomberg News)

A Senate committee proposed letting U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu begin the process to build temporary storage sites for nuclear waste in communities that seek such a facility. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said the provision in the legislation adopted the “consent-based” recommendation of a presidential commission that studied the disposal of used fuel rods now stored at 104 U.S. nuclear plants. The measure is “one small step forward,” she said. “It’s imperative to begin to address the issue of spent nuclear fuel,” Feinstein said today at a hearing on energy and water development spending starting Oct. 1. The measure approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee panel on energy creates a program to license, build and operate one or more “consolidated storage facilities,” Feinstein said.

Why is DOE collecting fees for 'program that isn't doing very much'? -- judge

Lawrence Hurley and Hannah Northey, E&E reporters

Greenwire: Friday, April 20, 2012

A federal appeals court today raised serious questions about whether the Department of Energy should continue to collect fees for its nuclear waste fund despite the fact that there is still no national repository in place.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, the Nuclear Energy Institute and various energy companies want the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to put an end to the payments.

During today's arguments in NARUC v. DOE, two of the three judges seemed sympathetic to the petitioners, although it seems most likely that the court would remand the case to DOE in the first instance before potentially taking the more dramatic step of terminating the fees altogether.

On remand, Energy Secretary Steven Chu would likely have to explain why DOE thinks it can continue to collect the fees despite no national waste program being in place. The fund could surpass $26 billion this year.

Blue Ribbon Commission Final Reports

The final reports of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future can be found online at http://brc.gov/

Final Updated Report of the Disposal Subcommittee to the Full...

Final Updated Report of the Reactor & Fuel Cycle Technology...

Final Updated Report of the Transportation & Storage...

BRC Report to the Secretary of Energy - January 2012

BRC Letter to President Barack Obama - December 12, 2011

Hanford Youtube Channel

This is the official YouTube Channel of the Department of Energy Richland Operations Office. For more information go to: www.hanford.gov http://www.youtube.com/user/HanfordSite
Some examples of stories available:

The Hanford Story: Overview

The Hanford Story: Tank Waste Cleanup

The Hanford Story: Groundwater

The Hanford Story: Recovery Act

Hanford Public Involvement Plan

DOERiverProtection@RiverProtection Department of Energy's Office of River Protection at Hanford. Richland, WA - See DOE's Twitter feed

Major Cold War Cleanup Milestone Reached at the Savannah River Site

March 29, 2012 - 10:37am

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WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Energy Department announced it has reached a major milestone in the Department’s efforts to clean up the Cold War legacy at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, laying the groundwork for closing two underground storage tanks that previously held radioactive liquid waste from nuclear weapons production at SRS.  The determination signed by Energy Secretary Steven Chu paves the way for SRS to begin closing the massive tanks that make up the F Tank Farm.  The site will start this year by closing two tanks that pose the greatest risk to the environment - Tanks 18 and 19.  These tank closures will be the first DOE tanks closed nationwide since 2007, the first closed at SRS in 15 years, and some of the largest underground storage tanks closed by the Department to date. Under Secretary for Nuclear Security at the Department of Energy Thomas D’Agostino made the announcement on a press conference call today with Karen Patterson, Chair of the South Carolina Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council. “Today, we are able to announce a major milestone as we continue to clean up the legacy of the Cold War at the Savannah River Site and work to meet our responsibility to the citizens of South Carolina,” said Secretary Chu. “The Department of Energy, federal and state regulators, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the local community all played a key role in arriving at this important decision. As a result of these efforts and significant collaboration over many years, we are now able to move forward to safely, effectively and efficiently clean up and close these massive tanks.” “South Carolina has looked forward to this day for a long time. We appreciate the dedication of everyone involved with the project, and the positive working relationships among all the entities – without genuine dedication and a positive approach, success would have been much more difficult. We also greatly appreciate that South Carolina and local stakeholders were included in all aspects of the process. The result is a good decision that we hope means many more successful tank closures in the near future,” said Chairwoman Patterson. About 70 SRS, contractor, and construction employees are working on the final closing of Tanks 18 and 19, which is expected to take about five months. The work will include up to six cement trucks an hour, working eight hours a day, five days a week, pouring more than 3 million gallons of grout to fill the waste tanks.  Each tank originally held about 1.3 million gallons of radioactive hazardous waste, or enough to fill nearly two Olympic-sized swimming pools.  Workers have removed more than 99 percent of the liquid waste in the tanks.  Tanks 18 and 19 will now be grouted, or filled with a cement-like material, to ensure the remaining residual waste film is immobilized and poses little to no future risk to the environment or the public. SRS was constructed in the early 1950s to produce basic materials used in the fabrication of nuclear weapons in support of our nation's defense programs.  Tanks 18 and 19, two of the many nuclear facilities constructed at the site to support the United States Cold War effort, were built in the late 1950s to store radioactive liquid waste generated through the site’s nuclear weapons material processing. The determination announced today allows SRS to complete cleanup and closure of Tanks 18 and 19 by the end of this year and the remaining 18 tanks in the F Tank Farm over the next several years as they are emptied and cleaned.  Prior to the decision, the Department and SRS conducted extensive technical environmental analysis, public review and comment, and consultation with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The state of South Carolina and the Environmental Protection Agency were also included in and supportive of the decision to close the tanks. The SRS FTF 3116 Waste Determination, its Basis, and the Supplement Analysis can be viewedHERE.

Hanford workers still fear reprisal for safety complaints: DOE official 

News; Environmental Management | Derek Sands | 706 words | 26 March 2012 | Inside Energy

Workers at the site of the biggest nuclear-waste cleanup in the US still cannot report safety risks to their managers without fear of reprisal, despite recent attempts by the Energy Department to give them that assurance, the head of DOE's health and safety office said last week. Glenn Podonski told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development that Energy Secretary Steven Chu and his senior management have taken a number of steps to address the problem at the Hanford Site in Washington State. "But the proof is in the pudding," Podonsky said. "The workers have to believe that they can raise issues without concern of reprisal, without fear of retaliation, and that is a tall order for this department." Concerns over the safety culture at Hanford became clearer than ever to top DOE management last year, when the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board released a scathing report regarding the site's $12.3 billion Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. The report said DOE and its contractors for the project lacked an effective process for workers to raise safety issues.