Badger Engineer
Works to Create New Environmental Legacy- Mark Gilbertson
Mark Gilbertson (BS,
CBE ’81) did not set out to play a key role in cleaning up some of the world’s
largest environmental disasters, but if you ask him how it all began, he’ll
tell you it started with a chemical engineering degree from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. “The UW engineering curriculum prepares you well for
tackling tough challenges that face the country,” he says. “One thing that made
me successful was reaching across various programs at UW. I took courses in
civil, biology, toxicology and limnology. The ability to work with others in
other disciplines has served me well over the years.” Link
Revitalized
Board Lays Out New Path amid EM’s Recent Underground Tank Waste Successes IDAHO
FALLS, Idaho
EM News Flash
august 20 2012
A
board charged with advancing the cleanup of underground waste storage tanks met
this month to establish new working groups and draw lessons from recent
successes at the Savannah River and Idaho sites. It was the first time the EM
Tank Waste Corporate Board met since EM reorganized under a matrix structure
earlier this year to better align the program and achieve mission success.
Originally formed in the early 1990s, the board revised its charter this year
to align with the new organization, which is centered around Mission Units with
a program perspective. One of those units develops strategies to plan and
optimize tank waste processing. The board will help EM move forward with
processing highly radioactive liquid waste, which is among EM’s greatest
challenges requiring innovative technical solutions and scientific approaches.
EM set the stabilization, treatment and disposal of tank waste as one of its
core priorities. More than 240 tanks containing 90 million gallons of waste are
located in the EM complex at the Hanford, Idaho, West Valley and Savannah River
sites (SRS). Link
Hanford
Bechtel Response to DOE Engineering MemoIn the interest of transparency, the Bechtel response to the DOE Engineering Memo is provided.Link
Bechtel responds to DOE internal memo regarding safety of waste treatment plant design
RESTON,
VA, August 29, 2012— Bechtel today
responded to a memo that questions the company’s ability to safely design the
Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), also known as the Vit Plant.
The facility will treat 56 million gallons of radioactive waste currently
stored in underground tanks in Washington state. “Everyone who works on this
project knows that at the end of the day, this plant has to work safely and
effectively because we are dealing with radioactive waste. We will get it right because people’s lives
and the environment depend on it. That’s
a responsibility I don’t take lightly, nor do the 3,000 people who work on this
project,” said Frank Russo, Bechtel’s project director at WTP. Russo went on to
stress that the company has carefully reviewed the comments in the memo and
found that the issues date as far back as 10 years and have long since been
resolved in concert with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). He added, “There is no question that the Vit
Plant project represents a major design and engineering challenge, and I am the
first to acknowledge there is still a handful of questions that must be
answered before the entire plant can be completed.” Bechtel National, Inc.
(BNI) is designing and building WTP for DOE. The project is more than
60-percent complete, and the site recently announced its achievement of 12
million safe work hours without a lost work-day injury. “I am confident Bechtel
has the depth of talent and the expertise necessary to deliver a completed Vit
Plant that will address the very real and present threat posed by the waste in
the Hanford tanks. We respect and
welcome the opinions of others and will continue to rely on prudent science to
move forward with this increasingly important mission,” Russo added. A leader
in environmental cleanup and restoration of former nuclear weapon production
sites. BNI’s experience includes the cleanup, remediation, and closure of
high-level nuclear waste facilities in Washington state, New Mexico, and South
Carolina. Link
IG audit finds challenges in getting waste to vit plantPublished:
August 29, 2012 By Annette Cary, Tri-City HeraldChallenges
remain for completing a system to deliver and feed radioactive waste to the
Hanford vitrification plant, according to an audit released Tuesday by the
Department of Energy Office of Inspector General. But overall, DOE has made
progress in completing the system that will allow the vitrification plant now
under construction to eventually begin operating, the audit concluded. "We
found the department completed a number of waste feed delivery sub-projects
earlier than planned and was on track to complete other critical path
activities," the audit concluded. The $12.2 billion vitrification plant is
planned to turn up to 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical
waste now held in underground tanks into a stable glass form for disposal. The
waste is left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's weapons
program. The waste will be staged at double shell tanks nearest the
vitrification plant that will serve as feeder tanks. There, the waste will be
mixed to make sure that it can be delivered in consistent batches and then
piped to the vitrification plant's Pretreatment Facility. The waste will be
sampled in the transfer lines. However, the criteria the waste must meet to be
treated in the plant have yet to be set, and uncertainties with tank waste
mixing and sampling also could affect the delivery of the waste to the
vitrification plant, the audit said. LinkComments still being taken on Hanford permitPublished: August 30, 2012 By the Tri-City HeraldRICHLAND, Wash. -- The comment period has been extended for the Washington State Department of Ecology's draft sitewide Hanford permit for dangerous waste. The last day to comment has been moved from Sept. 30 to Oct. 22 to allow more time to comment after the final public meeting on the issue. Two public hearings have been held in Richland and public hearings are planned Sept. 13 in Portland and Sept. 19 in Seattle. Comments may be emailed to hanford@ecy.wa.gov or mailed to Andrea Prignano, Department of Ecology, 3100 Port of Benton Blvd., Richland, WA, 99354. Information is posted at www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/nwp under the permitting section. In response to DOE memo, Bechtel confident of safe operation at vit plant
In response to DOE memo, Bechtel confident of safe operation at vit plant
Published:
August 29, 2012 Updated 1 hour ago By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
No
matter how hard engineers and scientists work on the Hanford vitrification
plant, it will never be perfect, said Frank Russo, Bechtel National project
director. But he is confident that the plant will operate safely and
efficiently while protecting the public, the environment and the employees who
operate the plant, he said. His comments were in response to an internal
Department of Energy memo made public Monday, in which DOE's engineering
division director for the project criticized Bechtel's performance. The memo
called for Bechtel to immediately be removed as the design authority
responsible for establishing the design requirements. Bechtel also is designing
and building the $12.2 billion plant to turn up to 56 million gallons of
radioactive waste left from weapons plutonium production into a stable glass
form for disposal. Link
FSummary of Actions and Design Outcomes that Erode Confidence in the
ability of Bechtel National Inc. to complete their assigned role as Design
Authority for the WTP
Memo TO: Scott L. Samuelson, Manager, Office of River Protection/Acting Federal Project Director for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant Delmar L. Noyes, Deputy Federal Project Director, Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant Link
Federal memo criticizes nuclear cleanup contractor
By
SHANNON DININNY The News Tribune Published: Aug. 28, 2012 at 3:33
p.m. PDT — Updated: Aug. 28, 2012 at 5:09
p.m. PDT
Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/08/28/v-lite/2271357/memo-raises-more-concerns-about.html#storylink=cpy
Energy Secretary Steven Chu to visit Tri-CitiesBy Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald Published: August 28, 2012 Energy Secretary Steven Chu is tentatively expected to spend much of next week in the Tri-Cities, holed up with a group of hand-picked experts. Chu and his team plan to take a fresh look at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, focusing specifically on its black cells. The vitrification plant is being built to treat up to 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's weapons program. It will be turned into a stable glass form for disposal. The plant is planned to have 18 black cells -- enclosed concrete rooms with tanks and piping that are designed to have no worker access during the 40 years the plant operates because of high levels of radioactivity. The review will look at the plant's capability to detect equipment failure and to repair failed equipment within the black cells. Changes to the design or operation plan of the plant could be proposed. Link
What's Inside The Suspect Nuclear Waste Tank At Hanford?
Forbes TECH 8/27/2012 @ 9:03AM |3,316 views
When
news broke last week that radioactive material had been found outside of the
inner containment wall of a double-hulled tank at the nuclear waste cleanup
site in Hanford, Wa, most reports characterized the contents of the tank as
“radioactive waste.” But that’s more a category than a description. The Energy
Department has been eager to find out exactly what’s in the tank, which
received wastes from leaky single-walled tanks and from more than a half dozen
facilities at the Hanford site, including nuclear reactors, plutonium
processing plants, a PUREX plant, and laboratories. DOE funded many studies to
analyze the chemical compounds in the tank, determine whether they could
corrode the stainless-steel walls, and to anticipate the effects of a spill.
Here’s some of what those studies found: Hanford tank AY-102 contains 857,000
gallons of waste in the form of a brown sludge stewing from the heat of its own
decay in a translucent yellow liquid at 110 to 135 degrees. LINK
RICHLAND, Washington, August 20, 2012 (ENS) – For the first time, a leak of highly radioactive waste has been detected from a double-shelled tank at the Hanford Nuclear Site in central Washington state.
Environment
News Service (http://s.tt/1lgXd)
Link
By
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald Published: August 18, 2012 Radioactive
material has been found between the inner and outer walls of an underground
double-shell tank at Hanford for the first time. The discovery increases the
concern that the inner shell of the tank may have leaked, indicating the
deterioration of at least one of the 28 double-shell tanks that are needed to
hold millions of gallons of waste for decades to come. LinkOak Ridge
IG finds
'troubling displays of ineptitude' at Y-12, multiple system breakdowns, poor
leadership
The
U.S. Departmemt of Energy's Office of Inspector General today released a
scathing 18-page special report addressing some of the problems identified in
the July 28 security breach at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. Here's an
excerpt from the summary:"Our review found that the Y-12 security incident
represented multiple system failures on several levels. We identified troubling
displays of ineptitude in responding to alarms, failures to maintain critical
security equipment, over reliance on compensatory measures, misunderstanding of
security protocols, poor communications, and weaknesses in contract and
resource management. Contractor governance and Federal oversight failed to
identify and correct early indicators of these multiple system
breakdowns." Link
Hints that ORNL's
radioactive waste may be moving under Clinch River, but tests not conclusive
Posted by Frank Munger on August 27, 2012 at 11:39 AM
There is evidence that isuggests radioactive
wastes from Oak Ridge National Laboratory's old burial ground may be migrating
under the Clinch River to groundwater on the other side. But, so far, the tests
are not conclusive. Link.
High-rad surprises expand ORNL cleanup project,
put other nuke rehabs on the shelf
Posted by Frank Munger on August 26, 2012
at 6:09 PM
The
cleanup of old hot cells at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of the big
efforts funded with Recovery Act money, has been a devil from the beginning --
with higher radiation fields than expected and more legacy nuclear materials
than detailed in the original scope of work awarded to Safety and Ecology Corp.
(now a subsdiary of Perma-Fix). Indeed, after some of the initial discoveries,
the old cells had to be weather-proofed with a special coating to keep the
radioactive material from spreading with the rad, which created a look that
some folks suggested was a Radioactive Stonehenge. The original SEC contract,
which included a number of cleanup tasks for the U.S. Department of Energy, has
had to be revisited on a couple of occasions because of problem sightings and
added costs, especially the work involving Building 3026 at ORNL. "The
original task order included options to remove and disposition contaminants
from Building 3517 and D&D of Buildings 3038 and 2026," Mike Koentop,
a spokesman in DOE's Oak Ridge office, said. "We were able to complete cleanout
of material from Building 3038, which was part of the original task
order." But the big rad discoveries unbelted the other plans. Link
DOE's across-the-river project
Posted by Frank Munger on August 22, 2012
at 7:21 PM
As
I noted in an earlier post, it's still an open question whether the radioactive
wastes in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory burial grounds are somehow seeping
via rock formations, etc., to groundwater on private property on the other side
of the Clinch River. It's been looked at for a few years, but there's still no
conclusive answer. After the issue was raised a few years ago, with the possibility
that wells on the other side of the river might be contaminated with ORNL
stuff, the U.S. Department of Energy started paying to have potable water
brought to residents so they could discontinue using their wells for drinking
water. And then DOE paid to have city water lines brought to the residences
along the river and is still footing those bills.
SRS
First
Weapons-Grade Plutonium Shipped from Savannah River Site to New Mexico Disposal
Site
By Thomas Clements | Aug 30, 2012 The Aiken Leader
Shipment Reaffirms Need for
New Analysis for Options to Dispose of Plutonium as WasteColumbia, SC --
Affirming that surplus weapons plutonium can be disposed of as waste, the
Department of Energy has confirmed that the first shipment of contaminated weapons-grade
plutonium has been transported from the Savannah River Site (SRS) to the Waste
Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The long-delayed plutonium shipment
took place on August 16, as stated at an SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB)
meeting on August 28. A written
presentation at that CAB meeting also affirmed that SRS “recently made the
first shipment to WIPP.” Link
Misc
Glass Offers
Improved Means of Storing Nuclear Waste, Researchers Say
ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2012)
— University of Sheffield researchers have shown, for the first time, that a
method of storing nuclear waste normally used only for High Level Waste (HLW),
could provide a safer, more efficient, and potentially cheaper, solution for
the storage and ultimate disposal of Intermediate Level Waste (ILW). Link
How Climate Change May Affect Nuclear
Power Plants
Posted August 29, 2012 The
Energy Collective
Many nuclear power plants
rely heavily on access to nearby sources of cold water to keep the system cool.
Many of these power plants were built several decades ago and some of them are
not well prepared for the warmer weather we are now experiencing.
At a twin-unit nuclear power
plant in Illinois, temperatures exceeded what is allowed with current
regulations by four degrees Fahrenheit. Link
Yucca Mountain
Most of last jobs at Yucca Mountain project expire next month
BY
KEITH ROGERS LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Posted: Aug. 21, 2012 | 6:23 p.m.
Sources
close to the beleaguered Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project said Tuesday that
jobs will expire in September for the last two dozen workers who transferred to
another Department of Energy program amid hundreds of layoffs in 2010.
That
would leave only 20 former Yucca Mountain Project workers - 15 at the Energy
Department's North Las Vegas facility and five in the Washington, D.C., area -
working on nuclear waste site options other than the mountain, 100 miles
northwest of Las Vegas, said one source who spoke on the condition of
anonymity. "There was a small group who got positions for two years,"
the source said, referring to former Yucca Mountain Project workers who took
jobs working on grant awards for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,
which President Barack Obama signed in 2009. Link
No comments:
Post a Comment