By Rob Pavey, The Augusta Chronicle, Ga. /McClatchy-Tribune Regional News/394 words/15 April 2010/The Augusta Chronicle (MCT)/KRTAG/English/Distributed by McClatchy - Tribune Information Services /
Apr. 15--The amount of plutonium in high-level waste converted to glass at Savannah River Site will nearly triple this year as a consequence of the U.S. Energy Department's decision to abandon its Yucca Mountain waste repository. The SRS-based Defense Waste Processing Facility uses a process called vitrification to convert liquid radioactive wastes into a solid glass form suitable for long-term storage and permanent disposal. Plutonium is among many dangerous materials in the 36 million gallons of waste left behind at SRS by decades of nuclear weapons production. In 2008, as the department prepared its application to license the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada -- where vitrified waste was to be buried -- SRS lowered plutonium levels in vitrified waste from 2,500 grams per cubic meter to 897 grams per cubic meter. The reduction would allow SRS waste to meet Yucca Mountain's acceptance criteria -- but would have increased the number of canisters needed to hold the remaining vitrified waste from 4,000 to 9,000, according to a 2008 memo. Once the Energy Department made the decision to stop work on Yucca Mountain, the plutonium levels were restored to the higher concentrations in hopes of reducing the need for so many canisters, according to site officials.
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.
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Showing posts with label Savannah River Site. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Savannah River Site. Show all posts
Monday, April 19, 2010
Tests show DOE waste meets state standards
By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune/619 words/5 April 2010/The Salt Lake Tribune
SLTR/English
© 2010 The Salt Lake Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Samples of the depleted uranium waste from a government cleanup in South Carolina show that it meets a key safety limit, said the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
State regulators heard about the test results Monday from a Tennessee laboratory, which sampled 171 of the 5,400 drums sent most recently to Utah from the Savannah River Project cleanup for technetium-99, a waste product of reprocessing.
SLTR/English
© 2010 The Salt Lake Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Samples of the depleted uranium waste from a government cleanup in South Carolina show that it meets a key safety limit, said the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
State regulators heard about the test results Monday from a Tennessee laboratory, which sampled 171 of the 5,400 drums sent most recently to Utah from the Savannah River Project cleanup for technetium-99, a waste product of reprocessing.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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.
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.
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
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
Thursday, November 19, 2009
A mountain of a problem
537 words/13 November 2009/Augusta Chronicle/AGCR/All/A6/English/© 2009 Augusta Chronicle. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.
No one signed up for this.
While the federal government does its best to get into an area it doesn't belong - your health care - it is retreating from one of its most solemn and necessary national security obligations: storage of nuclear waste.
Now, after the investment of more than 20 years, some $13 billion - and study after study, expert after expert - the Obama administration has decided the federal government won't have a national nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
Scientists long ago studied several dozen possible sites for a nuclear waste repository and decided on Yucca Mountain - largely because it is geologically the safest site.
It is also a national security issue, in that Yucca would have provided one secure location for storage of nuclear waste, instead of dozens of sites throughout the states.
But perhaps to assuage Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada - who is facing a tough re-election battle next year - the Obama administration has announced it is abandoning Yucca.
There are a great number of problems with that - not the least of which is the fact that the country has no Plan B.
No one signed up for this.
While the federal government does its best to get into an area it doesn't belong - your health care - it is retreating from one of its most solemn and necessary national security obligations: storage of nuclear waste.
Now, after the investment of more than 20 years, some $13 billion - and study after study, expert after expert - the Obama administration has decided the federal government won't have a national nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
Scientists long ago studied several dozen possible sites for a nuclear waste repository and decided on Yucca Mountain - largely because it is geologically the safest site.
It is also a national security issue, in that Yucca would have provided one secure location for storage of nuclear waste, instead of dozens of sites throughout the states.
But perhaps to assuage Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada - who is facing a tough re-election battle next year - the Obama administration has announced it is abandoning Yucca.
There are a great number of problems with that - not the least of which is the fact that the country has no Plan B.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Different disposal plan may be needed
By Rob Pavey, The Augusta Chronicle, Ga. /McClatchy-Tribune Regional News/594 words/10 November 2009/The Augusta Chronicle (MCT)/KRTAG/English/Distributed by McClatchy - Tribune Information Services
Nov. 10--If the nation's primary option for permanent disposal of nuclear waste doesn't materialize, communities across South Carolina and Georgia must mobilize to determine a path for its nuclear waste, according to an economic development group hoping to stir more interest in the topic.
Savannah River Site's Community Reuse Organization, in a paper unveiled Monday, calls for more dialogue and interest in a topic its vice chairman, David Jameson, believes will have lingering implications for the Aiken-Augusta community.
"The government's about-face on this critical issue leaves state and local leaders with more questions than answers," he said in a statement Monday. "The Federal government has broken faith with communities across the nation. It has violated its promise to provide permanent storage of nuclear waste. As a result, we must come to terms with our own lingering -- perhaps permanent -- role as caretaker for a large part of the nation's highly radioactive defense waste."
Nov. 10--If the nation's primary option for permanent disposal of nuclear waste doesn't materialize, communities across South Carolina and Georgia must mobilize to determine a path for its nuclear waste, according to an economic development group hoping to stir more interest in the topic.
Savannah River Site's Community Reuse Organization, in a paper unveiled Monday, calls for more dialogue and interest in a topic its vice chairman, David Jameson, believes will have lingering implications for the Aiken-Augusta community.
"The government's about-face on this critical issue leaves state and local leaders with more questions than answers," he said in a statement Monday. "The Federal government has broken faith with communities across the nation. It has violated its promise to provide permanent storage of nuclear waste. As a result, we must come to terms with our own lingering -- perhaps permanent -- role as caretaker for a large part of the nation's highly radioactive defense waste."
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Faces of the Recovery Act: Jobs at Savannah River Site
YOUTUBE Video From: US Department of Energy October 30, 2009
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