CRESP Update #6 September 14, 2012

Hanford

Radioactive sludge from K Reactor basins at Hanford moved away from Columbia River

Published: September 14, 2012  By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald

Hanford workers gathered Thursday to watch the 394th, and final, special stainless-steel container being hauled away from the K Reactors area near the Columbia River. The canister held the last of the "knockout pot sludge," one of two types of highly radioactive sludge stored underwater in the K Reactor basins. The campaign to remove the sludge that began in mid-July was the first time highly radioactive sludge has been removed from underwater containers where it has been consolidated at the K West Reactor basin.

"This is a major step forward in protecting the river and a historic accomplishment in environmental cleanup," said Tom Teynor, DOE project director for sludge treatment. The next step will be removing the second type of sludge, which is held underwater in the K West Basin in engineered containers. Technology is being developed to remove that sludge, which accounts for the majority of the waste. After the Cold War, fuel irradiated to produce plutonium, but not yet processed to remove the plutonium, was stored in cooling basins attached to the K West and K East Basins. Link

One more tank down, 140 to goUpdated: Sep 06, 2012 8:38 PM EDT Tracci Dial, NBC News AnchorRICHLAND, Wash. - The cleanup of Hanford will go on for years but Thursday workers completed another step forward. Washington River Protection Solutions said crews removed all the radioactive and chemical waste in a ninth single shell tank in the C-Farm. This tank held 259,000 gallons of waste. It once had the second highest waste volume of all the single shell tanks in Hanford's C-Farm, including both plutonium and uranium. It took nearly two years to remove 99.5% of the waste from Tank C-104. One of 149 of the single shell tanks on the Hanford site. "Retrieving the waste from this tank reduces the risk posed by having the waste stored in these underground tanks," said Lori Gamache, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy. "So we're one step closer to meeting our regulatory requirements of completing the retrieval by September of 2014 of all the tanks in the C-Farm." Link

Waste-Plant Dispute Builds Safety and Design Concerns Slow Construction of Nuclear-Processing Facility

By ANDREW MORSE Wall Street Journal Sept 9, 2012

The U.S. Department of Energy is slowing construction of a facility to process the country's largest accumulation of radioactive waste, amid an increasingly acrimonious dispute about the design and safety of the $12.2 billion project. Energy Secretary Steven Chu visited the Hanford site in southeast Washington state last week, which department officials said was part of efforts to assess the safety of the nuclear-waste complex. Mr. Chu was accompanied by an expert panel he assembled following a trip in June to the plant after concerns were raised about the safety culture at the facility. Mr. Chu and the experts are reviewing the safety of rooms that will hold radioactive waste as it is processed at the vast complex, which will cover 65 acres and house four nuclear facilities, in addition to other components. Link

Highly Radioactive Sludge Removal Complete

Note: Video is available on YouTube at: http://ow.ly/dHmjZ; Photos are available on Hanford’s website at http://ow.ly/dHpGt.  DOE Press release September 13, 2012

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M HILL) announced today the removal of the first phase of highly radioactive sludge from under water storage in the K West Basin about 400 yards away from the Columbia River. Link

New Hanford Leak Raises Concerns

Posted: Sep 01, 2012 6:53 PM EDTUpdated: Sep 10, 2012 8:36 PM EDT

Breanna Gilroy, NBC News Anchor

The Department of Energy has found evidence that a tank at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation maybe leaking radioactive material. Unknown material has been found in a third place between the two shells of tank AY 102, which went into use in 1971. This increases concerns that the tank, one of Hanford's 28 double shell tanks, has a leak from its inner shell. The tanks are needed to hold high level radioactive waste for up to 40 more years, until the last of the waste can be treated for disposal. Link

Hanford Site Press Releases

PRESENTATION: Tank AY-102 Status Update - The latest information on the discovery of material found within the AY-102 annulus. Sep 11, 2012 Link

PRESENTATION: ORP Agency Update to the Hanford Advisory Board - ORP Deputy Manager, Stacy Charboneau, presented to the Hanford Advisory Board (HAB). Sep 6, 2012 Link

RETRIEVAL OF NINTH SINGLE-SHELL TANK COMPLETE September 6, 2012  Link

DOE finds more evidence of possible leak in Hanford double-shell tank

By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald

More evidence was discovered this week that might indicate that one of Hanford's double-shell tanks is deteriorating. In early August, radioactive material was found between the inner and outer walls of an underground tank at Hanford for the first time, raising concerns that waste may be leaking out of the inner shell of the tank. This week, more unusual material was found when a video camera inspected another part of the area between the inner and outer walls of Tank AY-102. It was the first additional area of the tank checked as an investigation was launched. Link

DOE Secretary Steven Chu keeps up work on Hanford vit plant

Published: September 8, 2012 By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald

Energy Secretary Steven Chu continued to work on Hanford vitrification plant issues through Friday evening in Richland. He arrived Wednesday with a team of independent scientists and engineers who he picked to take a fresh look at Hanford Waste Treatment Plant issues, specifically focusing on the plant's black cells. Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire's staff had tried to arrange a meeting between the governor and Chu while the energy secretary was in the Tri-Cities, but his schedule was too tight. The team was working long days, through meals and into the night, and has had extensive discussions and briefings with contractors and federal staff at meetings at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland. They officials also stayed at the lab, which has accommodations on campus for visitors. The group is working closely with Dave Huizenga, the senior advisor for DOE's Office of Environmental Management, and Scott Samuelson, the DOE Hanford Office of River Protection manager. 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 nuclear weapons program. It will turn waste 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. To eliminate the need for hands-on maintenance, pulse jet mixers without moving parts have been designed for tanks of high-level radioactive waste in the black cells. The mixers suck waste up and then shoot it back out to keep the waste well mixed and prevent particles from settling, which could cause problems that include a criticality. Chu and his team are looking at possible failures in the black cells. They're considering what the response would be and what can be done now to prevent or prepare for potential problems, said Stacy Charboneau, deputy manager for the DOE Hanford Office of River Protection, at the Hanford Advisory Board meeting.

Chu did not stop by that meeting Thursday and Friday in Kennewick, nor was he reported at any other events in the Tri-Cities this week. DOE staff had said before he arrived that he planned to focus exclusively on work with the team of experts looking at vitrification plant issues. The team, whose members were announced in early August, began work before the visit to the Tri-Cities. They're expected to continue work on the issue after leaving town. An overall review is expected to be made public after Chu and the team finish their work, according to DOE. Link

DOE wants changes to Hanford Advisory Board
Published: September 9, 2012  By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald

The Department of Energy is changing the rules for the Hanford Advisory Board, to the dismay or anger of most of its board members. Initially, that would include term limits for members representing some Hanford employees on the board and the general public. However, DOE Hanford officials and DOE Headquarters officials are continuing talks on additional changes to the board, with the wish for changes driven by officials in Washington, D.C., rather than at Hanford. DOE declined to say what other changes are being discussed. "A promise was made to the board four years ago. The promise was not kept," said Jeff Luke, who represents non-union, nonmanagement employees on the advisory board. Link

Oak Ridge

Will Y-12 security bungle hurt mercury cleanup?

There's a lot of mercury cleanup yet to be done at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, and I wonder whether the July 28 security breach and all the fallout from it will ultimately hurt near-term plans to get that started. Part of the preparation work for the planned multi-billion-dollar Uranium Processing Facility is to reduce the size of the plant's PIDAS (Perimeter Intrusion Detection and Assessment System), probably from 150 acres to about half of that. The PIDAS has been in the news a lot lately because of the break-in that penetrated three of the security fences. Link

SRS

Savannah River Site Reaches Significant Milestone with Waste Tank Closure

By: RANDY KEY | U.S. Department of Energy Published: September 13, 2012
The Savannah River Site (SRS) achieved a significant milestone this week with the operational closure of tanks 18 and 19, meeting a federal agreement before the December 31, 2012, deadline. Savannah River Remediation (SRR), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contractor that has the responsibility to close waste tanks, completed the operational closure of tanks 18 and 19 months ahead of the deadline by completing the grouting of the two tanks. The end of the projects meets a requirement of the Federal Facility Agreement or FFA between DOE, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Link

Grout seals Savannah River Site's C Reactor basin

Tuesday , Sept. 1 1 , 201 2 1 :1 5 PM August Chronicle

Contractors have completed placement of about 1,700 truckloads of concrete into Savannah River Site’s dormant C Reactor building that once served the nation’s Cold War nuclear weapons program. The reactor’s huge, below-ground disassembly basin – similar to a series of interconnected swimming pools – required more than 2.8 million gallons of grout designed to permanently seal the area. The once water-filled basin was used to cut and store irradiated fuel elements for the reactor, which was in use from 1955 to 1985 and helped produce weapons-grade plutonium. Before the area could be grouted, the contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, had to remove about 2 million gallons of water through an evaporation process, said Chris Bergren, the manager of area completion projects. “Due to C Reactor’s historical status, the rest of the building will not be filled with grout,” he said. “Our goal is to safely

eliminate a potential source of contamination while fully preserving the historical integrity of the building as a whole.” At peak operations, SRS maintained five productions reactors, beginning in the 1950s. The last, K Reactor, was shut down in 1992 and is still used for plutonium storage. Both P and R Reactors have been fully grouted and permanently sealed. L Reactor remains in use as a storage site for spent nuclear fuel. Link

 Idaho

Idaho Site Launches Corrective Actions Before Restarting Waste Treatment Facility IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – EM News Flash September 13, 2012

The Idaho site and its cleanup contractor have launched a series of corrective actions they will complete before safely resuming startup operations at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) following an incident in June that caused the new waste treatment facility to shut down. Startup of the facility was initiated this spring. IWTU is intended to process approximately 900,000 gallons of remaining liquid radioactive waste at the site into a solid form for disposal through a unique steam reforming process. The liquid waste is currently stored in underground tanks at a former Cold War spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility. “We are taking deliberate steps to safely startup the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit facility and promptly process the entire 900,000 gallons of liquid waste. We continue to discuss the status of this important project, our progress and plans in moving forward with the state of Idaho. Completing this project is very important to us, but we won’t compromise personnel safety or environmental protection,” said Jim Cooper, DOE-EM Manager for the Idaho Cleanup Project. The June incident did not release any radioactive material as the facility was in cold startup. Link

Who’s in charge? Regulators, waste firm too friendly

First Published Sep 13 2012 01:01 am • Last Updated Sep 13 2012 01:01 am

Senate President Mike Waddoups is angry over an audit of state regulators who should be, but apparently aren’t, protecting Utahns from illegal nuclear waste. His rage is justified. Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, rightly demanded better accountability from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and its director, Amanda Smith, and threatened a move to eliminate the agency and radiation-control officers along with it. But the strongest message that should be inferred from the Legislative Auditor General Office’s report criticizing a too-close relationship between EnergySolutions and the DEQ is that Gov. Gary Herbert never should have nominated an executive of the largest nuclear-waste company to the state’s new Radiation Control Board. Legislators should not confirm Dan Shrum’s nomination. Link

Michael Waddoups fumes over lack of radioactive waste oversight

By Amy Joi O'Donoghue , Deseret News Published: Tuesday, Sept. 11 2012 5:58 p.m. MDT      Energy Solutions crews work at the facility in Clive, Utah Aug. 19, 2011. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News archives) 

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups wondered aloud Tuesday if the state Department of Environmental Quality should be disbanded and its chief radiation control officer fired in the wake of a blistering audit that found little oversight over the radioactive waste buried in Tooele County. "I almost think that the Department of Environmental Quality should be disbanded and start over from scratch one," said Waddoups, a Republican from Taylorsville. "This is a terrible response" to the legislative audit released Tuesday. Waddoups said the agency's failure to carry out its regulatory duties is a bungle that eclipses even problems identified in previous audits of the state Department of Alcohol Beverage Control because of the public safety issues involved. In the aftermath of audits uncovering mismanagement in the alcohol agency, the department was overhauled in a legislative and gubernatorial fix that went into effect this year. During a Tuesday meeting of the Legislative Audit Subcommittee in which the report's findings were detailed, Waddoups sharply rebuked Department of Environmental Quality Director Amanda Smith, as well as director of the Division of Radiation Control, Rusty Lundberg. "(Your response) appears to be justifying errors and mistakes that were made," he said. Performed by the Office of the Legislative Auditor General, the report states that  regulators rely too heavily on EnergySolutions to police itself over the kind of radioactive waste buried at its western desert site in Clive, Tooele County, resulting in little assurance that prohibitions on "hotter" waste or foreign waste aren't being violated.

"As the oversight arm for radioactive waste disposal in Utah, the Division of Radiation Control is not exercising sufficient controls to detect radioactive waste banned by Utah statute," the legislative audit stated. Waddoups said that EnergySolutions is a "good corporate citizen," and it is the division that has fallen down on its job, adding that the division has a "responsibility to do better and do more." "I think the problem here is the Division of Radiation Control," he said. "You have to tell me, Ms. Smith, why Mr. Lundberg shouldn't be terminated." The performance audit recommends state regulators go beyond the so-called traditional honor system of the industry self-reporting waste disposal shipments because of Utah's unique ban and its relationship with the private company. State regulators, however, fired back that while they are willing to institute additional layers of oversight, they don't believe the costs of such a program would make the disposal site any safer than it already is or go beyond the steps it has taken to assure protection of public health. "The audit recommendations are heavily based on policy implementation, whereas the existing regulatory framework is founded on protecting public health and safety and is fully consistent with other environmental regulatory programs," wrote Lundberg, division director. But the audit noted that while the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission told auditors the division has the authority to sample incoming waste, regulators have "chosen to not exercise this authority because of the regulatory model they follow." Instead, the audit stressed, the division "continues to compare itself against other states, federal rules and environmental programs that do not address the unique restrictions that are important to the Utah site." The audit said the lack of regulatory oversight has fostered an environment that allowed documented instances of waste being accepted by EnergySolutions in violation of state law. "While these documented cases are concerning, we are more concerned the Division of Radiation Control's lack of independent oversight could allow many more shipments of greater than Class A waste to be disposed of at the site and never detected," the audit stated.

Among the "internal control weaknesses" identified in government oversight are:

• EnergySolutions polices its own waste disposal operations.

• The division has no independent controls over classification of containerized waste.

• The division's permit program lacks independent review of waste generators, giving rise to questions about the origin and nature of the waste, including if it comes from foreign countries.

"We questioned how the Division of Radiation Control and EnergySolutions can really know what it is in the containers if it is not independently verified," the audit noted. "We were told that they can only trust that the generators and brokers are honest and accurate with their waste classifications reported on the shipping manifest." Smith said regulators are willing to institute additional safeguards for a more robust system, but it comes down to cost and policy considerations. "All of our divisions and all of our programs are based on self-regulation. That is the way it is done across the board," she said. "The audit is really focused on because of those differences in our state and does it justify greater regulatory practices than what is found in our other programs."

Such a rigorous system of assuring waste classification prior to disposal would mean that "EnergySolutions should be regulated differently, differently than any other entity in the country that does business," she said. Smith said such a system could ultimately give greater assurance on adherence to state and policy restrictions, but she questioned how much it would enhance the division's ultimate goal of protection of public health. "Because we have a policy of no greater than Class A waste, the audit says we should be tracking that backward and having more independent oversight," Smith said, "but that is not based on protecting public health, but on making sure the policy is followed."  She added, too, that the federal regulatory system of waste classification is based on a robust framework that Utah participates in, and checking the waste on site, prior to disposal, is more complicated than "just popping the lid."

"The problem is that is not how it is done," Smith said. "You're exposing workers to an unnecessary amount of radiation." The audit gave critics of the radioactive waste industry and EnergySolutions ample ammunition to fire off another complaint that the industry gets away with too much in the state.

"There is no accountability for EnergySolutions," said HEAL Utah Executive Director Christopher Thomas. "The system is broken, and it's the Utah public who is paying the price." link

 

Senate postpones vote after group questions appointment of EnergySolutions executive

By Amy Joi O'Donoghue , Deseret News Published: Wednesday, Aug. 15 2012 4:12 p.m. MDT

SALT LAKE CITY — Anti-nuclear critics of EnergySolutions say having one of the company's corporate executives sit on Utah's board that regulates radioactive waste is akin to having the fox guarding the hen house.  The concerns voiced by HEAL Utah were enough to at least temporarily delay the appointment of Dan Shrum to the Utah Radiation Control Board. His name, as well as the nomination of Sarah Fields, did not come up for a vote before the full Senate Wednesday. Instead, the nominees will be reviewed by a Senate confirmation committee in the next several weeks. Sen. Ralph Okerlund, chairman of that Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Nominating Committee, said initially there were no concerns about the two nominees but that changed later on during the day. "In the interest of openness and transparency, we thought we should hold a hearing," he said. If Shrum's consideration to the board was going to be subject to delayed action, Okerlund said it was only fair to conduct a similar inquiry into Fields, who is an outspoken critic of nuclear power or associated waste industries. Link

 

NRC

NRC staff to review nuclear reactor waste storage rules

Thu, Sep 6 2012

(Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) directed its staff on Thursday to start an environmental review into the temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel, following a court ruling that led the agency to stop issuing new reactor licenses. The NRC did not say when it would start issuing new reactor licenses again. The NRC has more than a dozen reactor operating license renewal applications and a dozen new reactor license applications pending. The NRC said it told its staff to develop an environmental impact statement and a revised waste confidence decision and to rule on the temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel. The environmental statement and rule, which are in response to a June 8 ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, are to be completed within 24 months, the NRC said. The Appeals Court ruled that the NRC should have considered the potential environmental effects in the event a permanent repository for disposing of spent fuel - like the long-delayed Yucca Mountain proposal - is never built, among other things. "Resolving this issue successfully is a Commission priority," NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane said in a statement.

"Waste confidence plays a core role in many major licensing actions, such as new reactors and license renewals," she said. The NRC said "waste confidence" means that spent nuclear fuel can be safely stored for decades beyond the licensed operating life of a reactor, without significant environmental effects. It enables the NRC to license reactors or renew their licenses without examining the effects of extended waste storage for each individual site pending ultimate disposal. On August 7, the Commission issued an order that the NRC will not issue licenses dependent on the waste confidence rule - such as new reactors and renewal of existing reactor operating licenses - until the Court's demand is appropriately addressed. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Bernadette Baum) Link

 

Misc

Nuclear Industry Encourages Changes to Nuclear Waste Reform Proposals

NEI September 12, 2012

To successfully fix the federal government’s moribund program for managing used nuclear fuel, newly proposed legislation requires a more comprehensive framework, a nuclear energy industry leader told a U.S. Senate committee today. Link

 

Addressing a Gap in Nuclear Regulation

By MATTHEW L. WALD New York Times September 11, 2012

Some officials and critics suggest that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's rules do not adequately address land contamination from an accident, as opposed to a human radiation dose. Link

 

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board

September 6, 2012, Department letter requesting an additional 60-day extension to respond to Board letter of June 18, 2012, concerning the approved safety basis for the Plutonium Facility (PF-4) at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This letter also indicates that NNSA will provide a revised project execution plan for seismically-related upgrades to PF-4 within 90 days of completion of the final report for the current scope of non-linear static seismic analyses. [PDF]

 

Congress

Murkowski presses Obama official on late nuclear waste plan

By Zack Colman - 09/12/12 12:50 PM ET The Hills Energy and Environment Blog

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) pressed an Energy Department (DOE) official Wednesday for answers on why the Obama administration missed a summer deadline for finalizing a nuclear waste storage plan. “The government’s failure to address our nuclear waste issues is damaging to the development of future nuclear power and simultaneously worsening our nation’s financial situation,” Murkowski said during opening remarks at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. “We need to act, and we need to act soon.” The administration did not meet a scheduled July 31 deadline to complete its nuclear waste storage plan.  Peter Lyons, DOE assistant secretary for nuclear energy, told the Senate committee the administration is uncertain when the plan will be ready. That plan is supposed to design a way to implement recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, a group formed by President Obama in 2009 to evaluate the nation’s handling of nuclear waste. “That work does continue and is nearing, I think, a conclusion,” Lyons said. “The matter is very much ongoing.” When Murkowski asked Lyons to clarify whether a plan would be ready in a month, six months or a year, Lyons said he did not have enough specifics to comment. Link to story