Hanford workers new cancer package OK’d,

TriCity Herald (WA), 12/17/09
WASHINGTON — The federal secretary of Health and Human Services has agreed to expand automatic compensation of $150,000 to more Hanford workers who may have developed cancer because of exposure to radiation.
If Congress does not object, the decision by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius takes effect Jan. 10. The action was recommended in October by a federal advisory board.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, will review 340 pending claims of former Hanford workers, some filed by their survivors. The claims are for workers who had cancers covered under the automatic compensation program and who worked at Hanford during the years the new expanded rules would cover.
Those pending claims are in addition to hundreds of past claims that have been denied but would be reviewed by the Department of Labor to see if they now qualify for compensation under the eased rules. The new rules also could help some middle-aged Hanford workers and recent retirees who yet may develop cancer.

Department of Energy Office of Inspector General

Department of Energy Office of Inspector General


Recent reports:

• 2009-12-11- Audit Special Report MIG-0832*

Audit Special Report "Management Challenges at the Department of Energy" http://www.ig.energy.gov/documents/IG-0832.pdf

• 2009-12-07- Audit Special Report OAS-RA-10-03*

Audit Special Report "Selected Department of Energy Program Efforts to Implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" 
http://www.ig.energy.gov/documents/OAS-RA-10-03.pdf

•Semiannual Report to Congress*

for the Period of April 1, 2009 through September 30, 2009.
http://www.ig.energy.gov/documents/Semiannual_Report_to_Congress_4-09_to_9-09.pdf

The Buffalo Post » Blog Archive » Senators urged to approve settling of Indian case

The Buffalo Post » Blog Archive » Senators urged to approve settling of Indian case

Nuclear Site Finds Money Can Bring Headaches

By MICHAEL COOPER; Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting. /1340 words/13 December 2009/The New York Times/NYTF/Late Edition - Final/30/English/Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.

AIKEN, S.C. -- There is a phenomenon known as the lottery winner's curse, where those who suddenly strike it rich do not live happily ever after. If the experience at the Savannah River Site here is any guide, something like it may threaten the winners of stimulus bonanzas.
Earlier this year, the nuclear site won one of the biggest pots of stimulus money, $1.6 billion, to accelerate its cleanup of radioactive waste left behind after decades of producing materials for the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. But the pressure to spend the money quickly and effectively has led to a series of bitter disputes among officials that burst into public view this fall after the tensions reached critical mass.
At the heart of the dispute is the question of whether officials in Washington or at the site can do a better job managing the cleanup. The tensions have spurred a wide-ranging investigation by the Department of Energy's inspector general and a host of bitter accusations, including one that led to an inquiry into whether one stimulus official had really threatened another by saying she wanted to shoot him.
They have also raised questions not only about one of the biggest stimulus projects, but also about the oversight and operations at one of the country's biggest nuclear sites as it grapples with the complex question of the cleanup.

Nevada Officials See DOE Yucca Application Withdrawal By Late 2010

502 words\16 December 2009Energy Washington WeekIEPAVol. 6, No. 50EnglishCopyright © 2009, Inside Washington Publishers. All rights reserved. Also available in print and online as part of www.EnergyWashington.com.
Nevada officials closely tracking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's review of the DOE Yucca Mountain application review anticipate the department will extend the process well into 2010 but will withdraw the license some time after depositions begin in early February on the 225 contentions Nevada has brought against the Yucca waste site but before the late-2010 or early 2011 hearings start.
Since a DOE memo was leaked last month industry and Nevada officials have been anticipating DOE's withdrawal of its application to build a permanent waste facility in Nevada. The memo said that in December DOE would be ending all actions to defend Yucca Mountain against criticisms, prompting nuclear energy industry sources to expect that DOE would by now have announced its application withdrawal because it is getting late for any federal action, according to industry sources. The sources say the DOE memo leak and a lack of overall response by DOE on Yucca Mountain has created confusion among industry observers who hope that the department will provide clarification of its intended waste management strategy once the Yucca license is yanked.
Industry sources are also baffled by DOE and administration foot dragging on the formation of a blue-ribbon commission, which is seen as the federal government's process for defining a new nuclear waste strategy now that the administration has said Yucca Mountain is no longer an option.

NRC Will Likely Reject NEI Request To Redirect Yucca Review Funds

908 words/16 December 2009/Energy Washington Week/IEPA/Vol. 6, No. 50/English/
Copyright © 2009, Inside Washington Publishers. All rights reserved. Also available in print and online as part of www.EnergyWashington.com.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is likely to reject a nuclear industry request for the commission to use its limited fiscal year 2010 budget to expedite the NRC technical review for a permanent waste repository rather than spending money to fight Nevada's "contentions" against the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, according to Nevada state and congressional representatives. The request -- in a letter from Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) President Marvin Fertel to commission Chairman Greg Jaczko -- has provoked the ire of Nevada state officials and its legal counsel, who call the request unlawful, the sources say.
While NRC is still determining how it will respond to the letter, the commission is expected to respond soon and is likely to say "no," says a commission source. The almost certain negative response to the NEI proposal is expected because Nevada legal counsel believe Fertel's request to the commission is highly questionable, according to sources.
Commission sources say the NRC has received a detailed legal analysis of the request from Nevada's lawyers and are seriously considering the state's recommendations.

NUCLEAR WASTE; Tensions at nuclear site after increased stimulus oversight

267 words14 December 2009GreenwireGRWREnglish© 2009 E&E Publishing, LLC. All Rights Reserved
Pressure to see one of the country's largest single stimulus awards -- $1.6 billion given to the cleanup of the Savannah River nuclear site in South Carolina -- spent quickly and effectively have lead to a series of disputes between the project and its overseers at the Department of Energy.
During the cold war, Savannah River produced 40 percent of the plutonium in the nation's atomic stockpile. Today the site is part of DOE's long-term efforts to repair land damaged by the country's nuclear weapon complex, an effort that has lasted decades.
The lead contractor at Savannah has added more than 1,600 new jobs thanks to the stimulus award, but DOE officials warned that some of the site's stimulus proposals were vague, and instead redirected $200 million to a secondary contractor at Savannah that had an already active liquid-waste removal project. Local overseers at the site bristled against the interference.
The federal government took steps to make sure the program was on track to finish its work by the end of 2011, said Inés R. Triay, DOE's assistant secretary for environmental management.
"Every time that headquarters strengthens its oversight role, there's a tension that gets created between headquarters and the field site," Triay said. "That's a natural tension. It brings out the passion and commitment of all involved to get the job done."
DOE's inspector general is investigating what the stimulus funding has engendered at the site (Michael Cooper, New York Times, Dec. 13). -- PV

Nuclear’s next generation

2563 words/12 December 2009/The Economist/EC/ECN/English/(c) The Economist Newspaper Limited, London 2009. All rights reserved

Inside story: A group of six new blueprints for nuclear power-stations promise advances in safety and efficiency. How do they differ from existing designs?

DWIGHT EISENHOWER observed in his “Atoms for Peace” speech in 1953 that nuclear technology originally developed for military purposes could also be put to peaceful uses, namely generating electricity. His speech led to the dissemination of nuclear technology for civilian purposes, and the establishment of the first nuclear power-stations. Many of these early reactors, built during the cold war, made a virtue of the “dual use” nature of nuclear technology. Designs were favoured that could create weapons-grade material as well as electricity.
Today those priorities have been reversed. America and Russia are taking steps to reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons, and the international community is trying to prevent their acquisition by new states. Under America’s “Megatons to Megawatts” programme, weapons-grade material from retired warheads is being broken down to provide fuel for civilian nuclear power-stations. With 53 new reactors under construction around the world and dozens more planned, the main difficulties facing nuclear scientists now are to reduce the threat of proliferation, improve efficiency and do something about the growing stock of nuclear waste in indefinite temporary storage.
These new priorities favour new sorts of reactor. Taking the lead in the development of the next generation of reactors is an international programme called the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), a collaboration between the governments of America, Argentina, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Japan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and Switzerland, plus Euratom, the EU’s nuclear body. Established in 2001, the GIF has drawn up a shortlist of six of the most promising designs, which range from updated versions of existing reactors to radically different approaches.

Keep Hanford land options open, Doc says

Annette Cary;Herald staff writer /Cary Annette/483 words/11 December 2009/Tri-City Herald/TRIC/D1/English/(c) 2009 The Tri-City Herald. All Rights Reserved.

The federal government needs to keep all options open and prevent land from being locked up as cleanup is completed on parts of the Hanford nuclear reservation, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said Thursday.
He discussed the future and funding issues for Hanford and other Department of Energy sites in Washington, D.C., as the keynote speaker at the semi-annual meeting of the Energy Facilities Contractor Group.
DOE expects to have most of the cleanup along the Columbia River at Hanford completed by 2015, shrinking the contaminated portion of the nuclear reservation from 586 square miles to about 75 square miles at its center. In addition, much of $1.96 billion in federal economic stimulus money is being used to speed up cleanup and free up areas for other uses, such as a clean energy park to research and produce energy.
A top priority should be ensuring that local communities have a meaningful leadership role in determining their future with these lands, he said.
“It is critical that we remember the unique features of each site and each community,” he said.
Earlier this year he worked to get Hanford deleted from a bill that would have designated Hanford as a National Environmental Research Park, believing a designation that covered the entire site could have unintended consequences and reduce flexibility in making long-range land use plans.
Plans also are being made at Hanford’s historic B Reactor, where supporters have worked for years to have it preserved as a museum.

Hanford contract award for lab protested

Annette Cary;Herald staff writer /Cary Annette/390 words/10 December 2009/Tri-City Herald/TRIC/B6/
English/(c) 2009 The Tri-City Herald. All Rights Reserved.
A protest has been lodged in the Department of Energy’s $48.6 million award to Advanced Technologies and Laboratories International to operate Hanford’s 222-S Laboratory.
The Department of Energy will have 35 days to address the protest, which was filed with the agency’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center rather than the Government Accountability Office. The protest was filed Nov. 27.
Four bids were received for the small business contract, which DOE awarded Nov. 20. DOE declined to say who bid on the project or which bidder filed the protest.

Former Oak Ridge lab leader nominated to TVA board

BILL THEOBALD /264 words/10 December 2009/Gannett News Service/GNS/English/© 2009 Gannett News Service. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved. /By BILL THEOBALD/Gannett Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Marilyn A. Brown, who formerly managed the energy efficiency research and development program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was part of a committee that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, was nominated to the Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors on Thursday by President Barack Obama.
Brown's nomination is the fourth Obama has made to the TVA board this year. The nominees would fill out the nine-member board that oversees the nation's largest public utility.
Brown is a professor of energy policy at the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, where she joined the faculty in 2006. She was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with former Vice President Al Gore.
In 2006, Brown helped launch the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance. She serves on the board of the Alliance to Save Energy, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the National Commission on Energy Policy.
Brown remains a distinguished visiting scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She earned a Ph.D. in geography from Ohio State University, a master's in regional planning from the University of Massachusetts, and a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University.
Brown donated several times to Republican Rep. Zach Wamp of Chattanooga while she worked at Oak Ridge, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Her nomination must be approved by the Senate.

Debate over nuclear legal challenge heats up

1002 words/10 December 2009/European Daily Electricity Markets/EURODE/English/(c)2009 Heren Energy Ltd

A top energy lawyer has dismissed the possibility of a legal challenge against UK nuclear industry “subsidies”.
The anti-nuclear lobby in the UK has repeatedly raised the possibility of a legal challenge, with supporters including Liberal Democrats shadow energy secretary Simon Hughes, on the grounds that alleged financial assistance may be an infringement of EU competition laws (see EDEM 20 October 2009).
The seven areas of subsidy were identified in the report Nuclear Subsidies, published last month by the influential pressure group Energy Fair. These were:
limitations on liabilities
underwriting commercial risks
protection against terrorist attack
the cap on short- to medium-term costs of disposing of nuclear waste
a cap on long-term costs of disposing of nuclear waste
the cost of decommissioning nuclear plants being ring-fenced
institutional support for the nuclear industry.

Utah congressman's spokeswoman: DOE has decided to dispose of SC depleted uranium in Utah

By BROCK VERGAKIS /Associated Press Writer/143 words/10 December 2009/17:43/Associated Press Newswires/APRS/English/(c) 2009. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A spokeswoman for Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah says the Department of Energy has decided it will begin shipping thousands of drums of low-level radioactive waste from South Carolina for disposal in Utah.
Alyson Heyrend says the department informed Matheson's office of its decision Thursday.
Matheson had asked the agency to halt shipments of depleted uranium from the Savannah River Site until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission finalizes rules for how the material should be disposed of.
Depleted uranium is different from other low-level radioactive waste disposed of in Utah because it becomes more radioactive over time.
The regulatory commission isn't expected to finalize its rules until 2012 at the earliest.

DOE: Nevada not an option for SC depleted uranium

By BROCK VERGAKIS /Associated Press Writer/527 words/9 December 2009/17:07/Associated Press Newswires/APRS/English/(c) 2009. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Nevada has been ruled out as an alternative disposal site for low-level radioactive waste from South Carolina currently scheduled to come to Utah, a Department of Energy spokeswoman said Wednesday.
DOE spokeswoman Lauren Milone said nearly 15,000 drums of the material will either be disposed of in Utah or remain in South Carolina, and a final decision could come as early as next week.
She said the Nevada site about 65 miles north of Las Vegas is being excluded from discussions about the depleted uranium because the energy department agreed to conduct a statewide environmental impact statement before accepting new waste there. The review would take too long, probably at least a year, she said.
Disposal of the Savannah River Site waste is being funded through federal stimulus money, which is intended to quickly spur the economy.
The first shipments of depleted uranium were scheduled to leave South Carolina for Utah this month but the move was opposed by an environmental group and U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah.
Depleted uranium is different from other waste disposed at EnergySolutions Inc.'s facility 70 miles west of Salt Lake City because it becomes more radioactive over time, for up to 1 million years. The material is a by-product of the uranium enrichment process used to make nuclear weapons in the Cold War era.
EnergySolutions operates the country's largest and only privately owned low-level radioactive waste disposal site.

DOE; Staffing woes frustrate stimulus disbursement -- IG

Katherine Ling, E&E reporter /314 words/9 December 2009/Greenwire/GRWR/English/© 2009 E&E Publishing, LLC. All Rights Reserved

The Energy Department's ability to hire, train and retain a sufficient number of employees to disburse and monitor the almost $33 billion in stimulus funds remains a problem, DOE's inspector general said in a report released today.
The report found program staffing inadequate to ensure stimulus funds could be distributed in a timely manner and monitored for abuse or fraud. DOE has awarded almost $19 billion so far, of which $1.6 billion has been spent.
"While we recognize that it takes time to address inadequate staffing levels, we believe that this will continue to be a challenge encountered by most programs in the foreseeable future," the report says. "The effort to date has strained existing resources. As has been widely acknowledged, any effort to disburse massive additional funding and to expeditiously initiate and complete projects increases the risk of fraud, waste and abuse," it says.
The report acknowledged that DOE has made some progress in identifying risks and preparing mitigation plans by establishing the Risk Management Office within the Chief Financial Office. DOE also reported that programs are set to submit staffing requirement plans in January and have hired some contractors and reallocated personnel.
The report also recommends that performance measures be tied to accomplishing goals. "In this way, contractors' performance on Recovery Act projects may directly affect the fees they can earn," the report says.
DOE should also give extra scrutiny to larger projects -- for example, integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) projects for coal-fired power plants -- that include multiple partners, the report says. "Given the complexity and substantial costs of these projects, business arrangements between teaming partners should be subject to extensive coordination and rigorous Department review," it says.
DOE management generally concurred with the report's findings.

Domenici Nuclear Waste Proposal Would Likely Draw State Opposition

1111 words/ 9 December 2009/ Energy Washington Week/ IEPA/ Vol. 6, No. 49/ English/Copyright © 2009, Inside Washington Publishers. All rights reserved. Also available in print and online as part of www.EnergyWashington.com.

A proposal put forth last week by former Senate energy committee chief Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) for the U.S. to adopt nuclear waste recycling in light of the Yucca Mountain repository's demise as a waste management option has stirred discussion among lawmakers and others but if it is taken seriously will almost certainly encounter state utility regulators' resistance because it would entail diverting money from the $23 billion nuclear waste fund to build a recycling pilot plant and would abrogate DOE's obligations under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to transport and store the waste, according to industry sources.

The proposal was put forward by Domenici -- now a senior fellow with the influential Bipartisan Policy Center think tank -- in a Dec. 1 speech at an event sponsored by the U.S. Energy Association (USEA), a group of private and public energy officials, and has attracted attention among parties interested in nuclear policy. Domenici's proposal comes amid continued DOE inaction on Energy Secretary Steven Chu's announced intention to establish a "blue ribbon panel" to design a path forward on waste disposal now that the Obama administration has said the site DOE designated for storing high-level waste under the nuclear waste law -- Nevada's Yucca Mountain -- is no longer an option. For several months DOE has said that the formation of the blue ribbon panel is imminent.

A senior official with Areva, the French-based nuclear power company and one of the world's leading proponents of nuclear waste recycling, although interested in Domenici's proposal, sees significant hurdles in negotiating around the nuclear waste law unless a recycling program can ensure the removal of the waste by the government. The states are not likely to endorse the use of two decades of ratepayer fee collections plus earned interest to invest in what would essentially be a research and development program that would not fulfill DOE's obligations under the law, says the source.

Office of Waste Processing Technical Exchange May 2009

The presentation videos and slides are available at the following website.
http://srnl.doe.gov/owp_techex09/denver_webcast/presentations.htm

Poster presentations from the meeting are available at:
http://srnl.doe.gov/owp_techex09/denver_webcast/posters.htm

General Information about the meeting below.

Over the past seven years, personnel from the three sites, Savannah River/Hanford/Idaho along with others receiving funding from the Office of Environmental Management have met to exchange recent results of on-going field operations and technology development. The purpose of this exchange is to provide a forum for discussion of each Site’s efforts to accelerate cleanup operations. Keys to success and lessons learned are openly exchanged in a manner to allow for open discussion between operations, engineering and scientists to accelerate transition of technologies from concepts to field implementation.

Technical issues will include:

• Waste Retrieval
• Waste Form Development
• Pretreatment
• Facility Readiness and Startup
• Performance Assessment
• Tank Farm Operational Improvements
• Advance Stabilization

Special Features

• Technical presentations
• Technical Sessions (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)
• Technical poster session (Wednesday)
• ON-DEMAND Web Cast of recorded Technical Sessions

Experts Urge New Accounts for Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel

1095 words/1 December 2009/ENP Newswire/ENPNEW/English/(c) 2009, Electronic News Publishing. All Rights Reserved. /Release date - 30112009

With no long-term plan yet in sight for managing the more than 58,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel piling up at the nation’s nuclear reactors, a group of experts is urging the creation of escrow accounts for utilities to draw on as they store spent fuel on-site in large casks.
In effect, the group is calling on Congress and the U.S. government to recognize what already is happening-the storage of large amounts of spent fuel at reactor sites-and to come up with financial mechanisms to help ensure that the waste is kept secure for decades to come.
The expert group was organized by the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the cooperation of the AAAS Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy.
Under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the United States government was supposed to take title to the nation’s spent nuclear fuel and eventually dispose of it in a deep underground repository. The federal government has been collecting 1/10th of a cent on every kilowatt-hour of power generated by nuclear plants as a Nuclear Waste Fund to pay for the eventual shipping and burial of the spent fuel.
But the government failed to take title to the fuel in 1998 as scheduled and is unlikely to do so any time soon. The Obama administration recently eliminated further funding for the planned federal disposal site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and licensing of the project is virtually stalled.
The $23 billion currently in the Nuclear Waste Fund is not available to utilities for on-site storage of reactor waste. Given the impasse over long-term disposal of spent fuel, the expert group has concluded that the U.S. government should start placing spent fuel management charges into regulated escrow accounts that would be attached to each commercial nuclear plant. That money could then be used to help pay the cost of on-site storage of spent fuel in dry casks and the subsequent removal and management of the casks.
Clifford E. Singer, a professor in the department of nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering at the University of Illinois, discussed the group’s report, ‘‘Plan D’ for Spent Nuclear Fuel,’ at a 16 November Capitol Hill briefing for congressional staff and others.

Former Senator Pete Domenici Delivers Speech on Future of Global Nuclear Energy

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Former Senator Pete Domenici today delivered a speech outlining a 21st century framework for global nuclear power at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) and the United States Energy Association hosted the presentation by former Senator Domenici, now a Senior Fellow at the BPC.

In his speech, Senator Domenici argued that America's nuclear renaissance has stalled and, as a result, the United States is lagging in the development and deployment of new nuclear technologies. Senator Domenici called for effective implementation of the bipartisan Energy Policy Act of 2005 provisions to support nuclear growth in the U.S.

Senator Domenici also emphasized the need to chart a strategic path forward for domestic waste in order to meaningfully participate in the management of used nuclear fuel. He argued that the U.S. must take the lead in addressing the growing global challenges of waste management and non-proliferation.

Yucca Mountain Nuclear Disposal Site Is Dead, Says Longtime Advocate

December 2, 2009/ By PETER BEHR of ClimateWire

Former Sen. Pete Domenici, a longtime advocate of nuclear power, said yesterday that it is time to give up attempts to create a permanent disposal site for the nation's nuclear waste fuel at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. He urged the Obama administration to move ahead with a planned blue-ribbon commission to find an alternative.

"We need to be realistic here," the former New Mexico Republican legislator said in a speech in Washington. "Yucca Mountain, once chosen as the site for permanent disposal of nuclear waste, is dead."

President Obama has cut off Energy Department funding for the Yucca Mountain project, following through on a campaign commitment to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the project's powerful and implacable opponent.

DOE declined to comment last week on reports that the department would withdraw the project's permit application at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But DOE spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller said that "the president and Secretary [Steven] Chu have made it clear that nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain is not an option, period."

DOE Moving To Pull Yucca License Application—Sources

December 2, 2009, The Energy Daily/BY JEFF BEATTIE

Sources say the Energy Department may move as early as Friday or Monday to withdraw the Yucca Mountain license application currently before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a move that would appear to permanently bury the project.

Sources say DOE may submit a “motion to withdraw” the license application and announce the move at about the same time it names a long-awaited blue-ribbon panel to explore alternative plans for managing the nation’s high-level nuclear waste.

By announcing the expert panel in conjunction with withdrawing the Yucca license application, sources speculate, DOE could say it is still meeting its legal obligations to pursue solutions to the nation’s radioactive waste problem even while ending work on Yucca, which has been the planned disposal repository for U.S nuclear waste for more than 20 years.

Energy Secretary Chu and SC and GA Congressional Leadership Break Ground on New Renewable Energy Facility at SRS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE/(202) 586-4940 November 30, 2009/ (803) 952-7697


Aiken, SC – (November 30) Today Secretary of Energy Steven Chu was joined by South Carolina and Georgia Congressional delegation members to break ground on a new renewable energy fueled facility at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The new Biomass Cogeneration Facility replaces a deteriorating, inefficient coal powerhouse and oil-fired boilers at a savings of approximately $35 million a year in energy and operation and maintenance costs and reduces air emissions, including 100,000 tons per year of greenhouse gas emissions.
“"By investing in energy efficiency, we are creating good jobs that can’t be outsourced. This project will employ 800 workers during construction and about 25 people during permanent operations,” said Secretary Chu in addressing an audience of over 150 stakeholders and employees during the groundbreaking ceremony at SRS. “The money from those paychecks will go straight back into the local economy and drive even more economic recovery.” Joining Secretary Chu for the ceremonial groundbreaking were: South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (RSC); House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC); U.S. Representative Gresham Barrett (R-SC); U.S. Representative John Barrow (D-GA); U.S. Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC); DOE-Savannah River Manager Jeffrey Allison; DOE Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Dae Chung; and Ameresco President and CEO George Sakerallis.
Under the Department’s largest ever Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC), DOE contracted with Ameresco Federal Solutions, Inc. (Ameresco) to finance, design, construct, operate, maintain and fuel the new biomass facility over the term of the 20-year contract valued at $795 million.

Nuclear hearing delay sought

Keith Rogers /843 words/23 November 2009/The Las Vegas Review-Journal/LVGS/1B/English/© 2009 The Las Vegas Review-Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.
By KEITH ROGERS/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

In a surprise move, the nuclear power industry's lobbying arm has asked regulators to suspend hearings on a license to bury tens of thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste in Yucca Mountain.
The proposal by the Nuclear Energy Institute takes a step back from a 20-year goal to reach the first year of the hearing process. Institute officials say the move is necessary to make wise use of funds left in a Yucca Mountain budget slashed severely by the Obama administration.
Nevada opponents contend that suspending the hearings would hamper their efforts to achieve victory early in the process by denying the state an opportunity to offer evidence against the license application that shows the site is not suitable and the repository's design is fatally flawed.
In essence, energy lobbyists want to shift the process to one focused on safety research by the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which critics say is an end run attempt to get those agencies to sign off on a license approval for the repository without input by Yucca foes that would come during licensing hearings.
Citing an internal Energy Department memorandum that calls for ending the agency's defense of the license next month, officials for the institute suggest using the money instead for completing a review of safety issues about the planned repository site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

11/20/2009 - EM Update Newsletter - Issue 9

http://www.em.doe.gov/pdfs/11-20-09%20EM%20Update%20Newsletter.pdf

In This Issue

 Portsmouth Visit ..........................1
 All-Hands on Reorganization ......1
 In B rief .........................................1
 People ..........................................
 
All-Hands Meeting Set on  EM Reorganization
Assistant Secretary Triay will conduct an “all hands” meeting for all EM employees on Tuesday, December 1, to introduce the members of her new leadership team, share her vision of EM’s “Journey to Excellence” and outline the next steps for implementing EM’s reorganization and its new business model. The two-hour session will also include remarks from Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Dae Chung and Merle Sykes and Frank Marcinowski, the acting Chief Business and Technical Offi cers for EM. Barry Clark and Carolyn Haylock, the presidents of National Treasury Employees Union Chapters 213 and 228, respectively, will also speak. The meeting will take place via a video conference linking headquarters to 21 EM field offi ces. An audio hookup will also be available for those offi ces without video capability.

The first hour of the session will consist of remarks from Triay and other speakers. The second hour will be devoted to answering questions from EM employees. EM’s reorganization and new business model have been in development since last summer. The headquarters portion of the reorganization took effect last month after it had obtained all needed reviews and approvals. Its key features include a major shift in relationships between the fi eld and headquarters provides more operating authority to managers in the field, revamped roles and responsibilities for EM’s Deputy Assistant Secretaries and the creation of the Chief Business and Technical Offi cer positions.

Full implementation of the reorganization and the new business model will require setting the criteria EM must meet to become a highperforming organization, completing site and headquarters self-assessments and, ultimately, establishing a new organization-wide baseline for measuring EM’s future performance in areas such as project, contract and financial management, health and safety and quality assurance.