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DENVER – EM made history on Tuesday by bringing together the leaders of eight Tribal Nations to discuss progress in the nuclear cleanup and build partnerships to better shape the future of DOE sites. The first-ever Tribal Leader Dialogue marked the largest gathering of leaders of Tribal Nations located near EM cleanup sites with senior DOE officials for a high-level discussion. Their meeting focused on enhancing the involvement of the Tribal Nations in decisions regarding EM’s cleanup mission and future initiatives at EM sites. In all, nine Tribal Nations were represented. “We want to listen to you today to hear what opportunities you think there are within the DOE complex and we’ll try our best to meet your needs,” said Senior Advisor for Environmental Management David Huizenga, who spoke about the importance of the Tribal Nations' involvement at DOE sites, including the exploration and growth of economic opportunities. “What you have from me and the site managers is a commitment to try to understand your issues,” Huizenga said
CRESP Newstories and Links related to risk-based cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons production facility waste sites and cost-effective, risk-based management of potential future nuclear sites and wastes. CRESP seeks to improve the scientific and technical basis for environmental management decisions by the Department of Energy (DOE) and by fostering public participation in that search.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Cutting-Edge Savannah River Site Project Avoids Millions in Costs, Removes Chemical Solvents from Underground Project avoided costs totaling more than $15 million, removed tons of chemical solvents from beneath the Savannah River Site
by em-hq@em.doe.gov (DOE Environmental Management)
AIKEN, S.C. – Workers recently completed a multiyear project that removed more than 33,000 gallons of non-radioactive chemical solvents from beneath a portion of the Savannah River Site (SRS), preventing those pollutants from entering the local water table and helping the site avoid costs of more than $15 million. “This accomplishment highlights our success in developing and deploying innovative, cost-effective technology solutions to cleanup challenges," DOE-Savannah River Operations Office Manager Dr. David Moody said. "This is the type of innovative solution we think can prove valuable to other federal agencies and private industry.”
AIKEN, S.C. – Workers recently completed a multiyear project that removed more than 33,000 gallons of non-radioactive chemical solvents from beneath a portion of the Savannah River Site (SRS), preventing those pollutants from entering the local water table and helping the site avoid costs of more than $15 million. “This accomplishment highlights our success in developing and deploying innovative, cost-effective technology solutions to cleanup challenges," DOE-Savannah River Operations Office Manager Dr. David Moody said. "This is the type of innovative solution we think can prove valuable to other federal agencies and private industry.”
EM Publishes Federal Register Notice of Intent to Prepare Supplement to Long-Term Mercury Storage EIS
WASHINGTON, D.C. – EM on Tuesday published a notice of intent in the Federal Register to prepare a supplement to its January 2011 Environmental Impact Statement for the Long-Term Management and Storage of Elemental Mercury to analyze additional alternatives, in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. For more information, click here.
Wasteland: the 50-year battle to entomb our toxic nuclear remains In the desert and in Washington DC, a war still rages to find the one place in America that no one cares about
By Matt Stroud on June 14, 2012 11:41 am
http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/14/3038814/yucca-mountain-wipp-wasteland-battle-entomb-nuclear-waste
http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/14/3038814/yucca-mountain-wipp-wasteland-battle-entomb-nuclear-waste
Idaho Waste Treatment Facility Startup Testing Suspended To Evaluate System
IDAHO FALLS, ID- On Saturday, June 16, startup testing was
suspended at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) located at the U.S.
Department of Energy’s Idaho Site. Testing and plant heat-up was suspended to
allow detailed evaluation of a system pressure event observed during testing on
Saturday.
Facility startup testing has been ongoing for the past month, evaluating system and component operation and response during operating conditions. No radioactive or hazardous waste has been introduced into the facility, pending successful completion of startup testing. Safety systems functioned as designed, and the facility is currently in safe standby mode. The facility is expected to remain in safe standby condition for the next several weeks as the facts surrounding Saturday’s system pressure event are gathered and evaluated.
The IWTU was designed and constructed to treat 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste located at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center’s (INTEC) tank farm. The waste was generated during spent nuclear fuel reprocessing activities performed at INTEC from the 1950s until 1992. Treatment was expected to begin this month, but will be delayed for several weeks pending a thorough evaluation of system performance.
The State of Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, who has regulatory authority for oversight of the IWTU, has been notified.
Editorial Date June 21, 2012
By Brad Bugger
=============================================================================
IWTU testing suspended
Facility startup testing has been ongoing for the past month, evaluating system and component operation and response during operating conditions. No radioactive or hazardous waste has been introduced into the facility, pending successful completion of startup testing. Safety systems functioned as designed, and the facility is currently in safe standby mode. The facility is expected to remain in safe standby condition for the next several weeks as the facts surrounding Saturday’s system pressure event are gathered and evaluated.
The IWTU was designed and constructed to treat 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste located at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center’s (INTEC) tank farm. The waste was generated during spent nuclear fuel reprocessing activities performed at INTEC from the 1950s until 1992. Treatment was expected to begin this month, but will be delayed for several weeks pending a thorough evaluation of system performance.
The State of Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, who has regulatory authority for oversight of the IWTU, has been notified.
Editorial Date June 21, 2012
By Brad Bugger
=============================================================================
IWTU testing suspended
POSTED: 05:24 PM MDT Jun 20, 2012 UPDATED: 05:31 PM MDT Jun 20, 2012
IDAHO FALLS,
Idaho -
The U.S. Department of Energy has suspended
testing at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit on the Idaho National Laboratory
reservation. A startup test was suspended Saturday after a "system
pressure event," according to a news release. In a news release, DOE
officials said facility startup testing has been under way for the past month,
evaluating system and component operation and response during operating
conditions. IWTU was designed and constructed to treat 900,000 gallons of
liquid sodium-bearing waste located on the Idaho Nuclear and Technology and
Engineering Center's tank farm. Although treatment was originally scheduled to
begin this month, no radioactive or hazardous waste has been introduced into
the facility, pending successful completion of startup testing. Treatment will
be delayed for several weeks pending a thorough evaluation of system
performance.
The waste was generated during spent nuclear fuel
reprocessing activities performed at INTEC from the 1950's until 1992.
Monday, June 25, 2012
The Twenty-Fourth Annual Weapons Complex Monitor Waste Management & Cleanup Decisionmakers’ Forum
October 15 - 18, 2012, Omni Amelia Island Plantation, Jacksonville, Florida
Keynote Speakers…
Thomas P. D'Agostino, Under Secretary for Nuclear Security, National Nuclear Security Administration
David G. Huizenga, Senior Advisor for Environmental Management, Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Mark Lesinski, Chief Operating Officer, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, United Kingdom
Matt Moury, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safety, Security and Quality, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Ken Picha, acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tank Waste and Nuclear Material, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Jack Surash, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Project Management, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Terry Tyborowski, acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Planning Budget, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Alice Williams, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Mark Lesinski, Chief Operating Officer, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, United Kingdom
Matt Moury, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safety, Security and Quality, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Ken Picha, acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tank Waste and Nuclear Material, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Jack Surash, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Project Management, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Terry Tyborowski, acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Planning Budget, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Alice Williams, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Friday, June 1, 2012
DOE dismissed from Hanford whistleblower lawsuit
By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
Posted: 12:00am on Jun 1, 2012; Modified: 7:34am on Jun 1, 2012
A federal judge has dismissed the Department of Energy from a federal lawsuit brought by Hanford whistleblower Walter Tamosaitis. Judge Lonny Suko in Eastern Washington U.S. District Court ruled that Tamosaitis could not make his case against DOE on any of three grounds. The ruling does not affect Tamosaitis' case against his employer, URS, which is part of the same lawsuit and will move forward.
Posted: 12:00am on Jun 1, 2012; Modified: 7:34am on Jun 1, 2012
A federal judge has dismissed the Department of Energy from a federal lawsuit brought by Hanford whistleblower Walter Tamosaitis. Judge Lonny Suko in Eastern Washington U.S. District Court ruled that Tamosaitis could not make his case against DOE on any of three grounds. The ruling does not affect Tamosaitis' case against his employer, URS, which is part of the same lawsuit and will move forward.
U.S. Given Six Months To Justify Nuclear-Waste Fees
The U.S. Energy Department must justify the $750 million it collects annually from the atomic power industry for waste disposal given that it no longer plans to develop a depository at Yucca Mountain. A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today said the department’s 2010 fee determination was “legally defective” and ruled it has six months to evaluate whether collection of the fee will provide enough or too little revenue to offset costs of the nuclear-waste disposal program. “Long before the Yucca Mountain program was chosen, the secretary, as we have noted, ran rather sophisticated evaluations of the potential costs of a hypothetical repository as part of his policy of conducting a ‘thorough analysis,”’ the court said in its ruling. “His 2010 determination falls far below the department’s own previous standard.” Nuclear power plant owners sued the department seeking to have the fees be suspended until a new disposal program is begins. The case is National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners v. U.S. Department of Energy, 11-1066, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (Washington). To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Schoenberg in Washington attschoenberg@bloomberg.net.
New Nuclear Chief Can Act Fast on Yucca, Fukushima Fixes
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-30/new-nuclear-chief-can-act-fast-on-yucca-fukushima-fixes.html
Gregory Jaczko’s resignation as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission gives the agency a fresh chance to tackle two crucial issues: nuclear- plant safety and waste disposal. The U.S. nuclear-power industry is in turmoil, competing as it does with rock-bottom natural-gas prices. Even as most power companies wait to make new investments in nuclear, 104 existing reactors need close attention right away. Arguably the biggest item on the NRC’s to-do list is to carry out the recommendations of a task force that looked at how to avoid Fukushima-like problems in the U.S. It took until March, a year after the Japanese disaster, for the NRC to finally issue the first three orders to improve safety and preparedness. Plant owners must now have backup equipment to keep reactors and spent-fuel pools cool if the power goes out, improved venting systems to limit damage to the core, and better tools for monitoring the amount of water used to cool spent fuel.
Gregory Jaczko’s resignation as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission gives the agency a fresh chance to tackle two crucial issues: nuclear- plant safety and waste disposal. The U.S. nuclear-power industry is in turmoil, competing as it does with rock-bottom natural-gas prices. Even as most power companies wait to make new investments in nuclear, 104 existing reactors need close attention right away. Arguably the biggest item on the NRC’s to-do list is to carry out the recommendations of a task force that looked at how to avoid Fukushima-like problems in the U.S. It took until March, a year after the Japanese disaster, for the NRC to finally issue the first three orders to improve safety and preparedness. Plant owners must now have backup equipment to keep reactors and spent-fuel pools cool if the power goes out, improved venting systems to limit damage to the core, and better tools for monitoring the amount of water used to cool spent fuel.