Update #1 July 27, 2012

DOE-EM

EMAB Meeting May 31, 2012
EM Risk and Cleanup Decision Making Presentation by Mark Gilbertson  (Includes slide on CRESP OR Prioritization)

EMAB Briefing on Capital Assets Projects and Operations Activities Presentation by Mark Gilbertson 

DOE EM ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

Updated July 2, 2012

Hanford

Event: PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD ON PROPOSED CLEANUP PLAN TO ADDRESS CONTAMINATED GROUNDWATER IN HANFORD’S CENTRAL AREA (Hanford Area 200-UP-1 OU).  

30-day public comment period on a Proposed Plan to clean up contaminated groundwater in the 200 UP-1 Groundwater Operable Unit (OU) located under the central part of the Hanford Site, about 20 miles north of Richland, Washington. The Proposed Plan describes the proposed cleanup options and identifies the preferred cleanup alternative. 

Time:       July 17, 2012 – August 16, 2012

See Fact sheet for a summary of plan and choices of action “Proposed cleanup plan to address contaminated groundwater in Hanford’s central area”     

See DOE plan: Proposed Plan for Remediation of the 200-UP-1 Groundwater Operable Unit

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WA state fines DOE over missed Hanford deadline

Published: July 19, 2012 By Tri-City Herald

RICHLAND — Washington state has fined the Department of Energy $5,000 after it missed a deadline to negotiate a schedule related to secondary waste at the Hanford vitrification plant. “The amount of the penalty isn’t large, but it emphasizes the state’s expectation that DOE honor its commitments at Hanford,” said John Price, who supervises the legally binding Tri-Party Agreement for the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program. The state is authorized by the Tri-Party Agreement to issue a penalty of up to $5,000 for the first week after a missed deadline and $10,000 per week after that until it is met.  DOE had until June 30 to complete negotiations on schedules for designing and building facilities to treat secondary wastes created as the vitrification plant glassifies up to 56 million gallons of radioactive waste now held in underground tanks. DOE requested a change in the deadline, but gave no firm date for restarting discussions, according to the state. The state of Washington filed a lawsuit against DOE in 2008 for missed deadlines to retrieve radioactive waste held in 149 leak-prone underground tanks and to complete construction of the vitrification plant. The secondary waste milestone was included in a 2010 settlement of the lawsuit. DOE will continue to work with the state to reach a mutually agreeable outcome on the issue, said DOE spokeswoman Lori Gamache.

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First of Hanford’s Highly Radioactive Sludge Moved Away from River- July 13, 2012

RICHLAND, Wash. – Workers have started moving highly radioactive material, called sludge, away from the Columbia River, marking a significant milestone in the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s cleanup of the Hanford Site in Washington State. Link.  Video

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Vit Plant employees work 12 million hours without a day-away-from-work injury

Todd A. Nelson, Bechtel National, Inc., (509) 371-2121

RICHLAND, Wash. — Employees working on the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant — better known as the Vit Plant — have worked more than 12 million hours without a day away from work due to an injury. July 16 marked two years since the last injury involving a day away from work. MORE

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EM CHIEF OF STAFF TO BE DETAILED TO OFFICE OF RIVER PROTECTION

Candice Trummell, chief of staff for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, is set to soon travel to Hanford to take a detail position with DOE’s Office of River Protection, according to a message DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga sent to employees yesterday. In her new position, set to go into effect in mid-to-late August, Trummell will aid ORP in “areas of significant importance, including the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) project replanning, continued safety culture improvements, and communicating the path forward for resolving the remaining technical issues in completing WTP,” Huizenga said. Replacing Trummell as acting EM chief of staff will be Joanne Lorence “Joanne has worked for the Department of Energy for over 20 years and for EM for nearly 4 years. She has broad experience at HQ and in the field,” Huizenga said, adding, “Joanne’s knowledge, dedication and collaborative nature will serve the front office well while Candice is on detail.”

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--Hanford Advisory Board

June 8, 2012 Letter to DOE  Re: Final Tank Closure and Waste Management Environmental Impact Statement

Board concerned DOE is now indicating that waste not scheduled to be treated in the LAW Vitrification Facility might be treated by some other process that will be decided at some later date. This change in direction is of great concern to the Hanford Advisory Board (HAB or Board). It was not supported by public comment during the review of the draft TC&WM EIS, and is not supported by the actual data in the EIS. It is also not supported by the cost analysis in the Kosson Report1 that demonstrated the alternate approaches to treatment of LAW are cost-equivalent. Letter

June 8, 2012   Letter to DOE   Re: 300 Area RI/FS and Proposed Plan

The Board finds the 300 Area RI/FS and Proposed Plan documents to be difficult to digest because they contain excess and unnecessary information, yet concurrently lack the detail and data that would help the reader understand the approach and the solution proposed. Letter

June 8, 2012   Letter to DOE    Re: Safety Culture at the Waste treatment and Immobilization Plant

This advice is in response to many reports, recommendations, investigations, action plans, and implementation plans related to the WTP that call in to question the WTP’s ability to work safely and effectively. The Board read reports by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Health, Safety and Security (DOE-HSS), and others who have looked into the role safety culture has played, and found a disconcerting link between the inability of employees to raise concerns and the existence of unresolved technical issues. Letter

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Oak Ridge

DOE appoints seven new members to advisory board - July 24, 2012 - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently appointed...  Story 

Larry Kelly selected as new manager of DOE's Oak Ridge Office

July 19, 2012 - OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – On July 19, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science named Larry Kelly the new manager of the Oak Ridge Office (ORO). Kelly most recently served as ORO's acting manager and previously served as the acting deputy manager and the assistant manager for Environment, Safety & Health (ES&H). Story 

EM Program Updates: EM, UCOR Quickly Reconcile Oak Ridge Cleanup Contract

by em-hq@em.doe.gov (DOE Environmental Management)

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – At a ceremony today, Oak Ridge’s Environmental Management (EM) program and its prime contractor, URS | CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC (UCOR), celebrated the completion of the site’s cleanup contract reconciliation. The newly aligned contract accurately specifies the projects and activities that the site’s cleanup contractor will perform... For additional information.

The sequel (unrated): Return of the MOA Posted by Frank Munger on July 25, 2012 at 1:52 PM

Department of Energy spokesman Mike Koentop said today that DOE's Oak Ridge office expects to send a revised version of the Memorandum of Agreement back to the Signatories either tomorrow or Friday. DOE's hope is to quickly gain the signatures of the historic preservation groups, wrapping up the agreement (with mitigation plans for tearing down the historic K-25 building) and paving the way for contractor to complete demolition of K-25.

DOE approves $511M plan to dispose of U-233

By Frank Munger  Friday, July 13, 2012

OAK RIDGE — The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge office has received approval to move forward with a new plan to process stocks of fissile uranium-233 stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and complete a long-running project that's now expected to cost $511 million. The new plan eliminates construction of a special processing building and instead will use an existing facility at ORNL, Building 2026, which has heavily shielded "hot cells," to perform the work.  Story

Savannah River Site

Citizens Advisory Board hopes Savannah River Site will not become interim spent fuel site

By Rob Pavey Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:13 PM Augusta Chronicle

Savannah River Site’s many roles should not include interim storage of spent nuclear fuel, according to a draft resolution under development by the site’s Citizens Advisory Board. More

SRS plutonium shipment to New Mexico postponed

By Rob Pave  July 25, 2012 Augusta Chronicle

A plan to demonstrate how some of Savannah River Site’s most contaminated Cold War plutonium waste could be sent to a disposal site in New Mexico will be postponed for several months.

The first transfer, which was to have occurred the week of June 25, is part of an effort to ship 5 kilograms of waste plutonium at a time to the De­partment of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, where lower-level “transuranic” waste is buried a half-mile beneath the Chihuahuan Desert. That shipment, however, was postponed after the DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office rescinded its approval of documents used to define the material. Those documents are under revision, and the delay is expected to be resolved soon, said Barbara Smoak, a spokeswoman for SRS contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions.

This is one of the classic security billboards from the World War II Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge. This photo was reportedly taken on New Year's Eve, Dec. 31, 1943. View photo

NRC

Nuclear Dump Dominates NRC Chief’s First Trip to Congress

By Kasia Klimasinska - Jul 24, 2012 Bloomberg

The new chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told Congress the U.S. needs a permanent site to store radioactive waste and declined to back Republican lawmakers who sought to restart the Yucca Mountain project. While Allison Macfarlane reiterated that picking a site wasn’t an NRC task, she said cash remains available to evaluate Yucca. She estimated the U.S. has spent $8 billion on the project. House Republicans, who were asking about the slow pace of work, put the cost at $15 billion. “No matter whether you go direct disposal of spent fuel or you recycle,” Macfarlane, in office for two weeks, said today at a hearing of two panels of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Washington, “you will need a final repository.” More

A Low-Key Debut for a New N.R.C. Leader

By Matthew L. Wald  NEW YORK TIMES

Cordial and generally noncommittal, Allison M. Macfarlane, the new chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, gave her first testimony before Congress on Tuesday without reiterating some of the positions she has taken in the past on nuclear waste……..In remarks to reporters after the hearing, she said, “As a commissioner on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, I just have to deal with the issues that come before us, and right now, there is not an issue before us” involving Yucca Mountain. . Link

Fukushima

"Radioactive Strontium From Fukushima Disaster Found in 10 Prefectures"

via SEJ RSS Feed by jdavis_sej on 7/26/12  "Radioactive strontium-90 from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has been detected for the first time in 10 prefectures outside Miyagi and Fukushima, the science ministry said July 24." Read more

$12.3 billion Hanford plant sees new costs, delays | Nation & World | The Seattle Times

$12.3 billion Hanford plant sees new costs, delays | Nation & World | The Seattle Times

Lessons learned in the aftermath of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident

Lessons learned in the aftermath of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident

Where to put nuclear waste: My backyard?

Where to put nuclear waste: My backyard?

Nuclear Energy

Updated: July 5, 2012 New York Times

Before the earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan in March 2011, nuclear energy had been making something of a comeback. Concerns about global warming had led a range of environmentalists to set aside their concerns and join in pushing for the revival of an industry whose growth had stalled after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. That was all changed by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, whose three active generators suffered meltdowns.

Remember Yucca?

July 4, 2012 New York Times Link to story Lawmakers and policy planners must revive the search for safe ways to store used fuel rods from nuclear power reactors. The long-term solution favored by most experts, which we endorse, is to bury the material in geologically stable formations capable of preventing leakage far into the future. But no politically acceptable site has yet been found, and leaving the used fuel rods at each reactor — more than 62,000 metric tons had accumulated across the country by the end of 2009 — seems increasingly problematic. At least nine states have banned the construction of new reactors until a permanent storage site is found or progress toward finding one is made. The only potential permanent storage site examined so far — at Yucca Mountain in Nevada — has been blocked for more than two decades by technical problems, legal challenges and political opposition from the state.

EM Convenes Historic Meeting with Leaders of Tribal Nations

by em-hq@em.doe.gov (DOE Environmental Management)
DENVER – EM made history on Tuesday by bringing together the leaders of eight Tribal Nations to discuss progress in the nuclear cleanup and build partnerships to better shape the future of DOE sites. The first-ever Tribal Leader Dialogue marked the largest gathering of leaders of Tribal Nations located near EM cleanup sites with senior DOE officials for a high-level discussion. Their meeting focused on enhancing the involvement of the Tribal Nations in decisions regarding EM’s cleanup mission and future initiatives at EM sites. In all, nine Tribal Nations were represented. “We want to listen to you today to hear what opportunities you think there are within the DOE complex and we’ll try our best to meet your needs,” said Senior Advisor for Environmental Management David Huizenga, who spoke about the importance of the Tribal Nations' involvement at DOE sites, including the exploration and growth of economic opportunities. “What you have from me and the site managers is a commitment to try to understand your issues,” Huizenga said

Cutting-Edge Savannah River Site Project Avoids Millions in Costs, Removes Chemical Solvents from Underground Project avoided costs totaling more than $15 million, removed tons of chemical solvents from beneath the Savannah River Site

by em-hq@em.doe.gov (DOE Environmental Management)
AIKEN, S.C. – Workers recently completed a multiyear project that removed more than 33,000 gallons of non-radioactive chemical solvents from beneath a portion of the Savannah River Site (SRS), preventing those pollutants from entering the local water table and helping the site avoid costs of more than $15 million. “This accomplishment highlights our success in developing and deploying innovative, cost-effective technology solutions to cleanup challenges," DOE-Savannah River Operations Office Manager Dr. David Moody said. "This is the type of innovative solution we think can prove valuable to other federal agencies and private industry.”

EM Publishes Federal Register Notice of Intent to Prepare Supplement to Long-Term Mercury Storage EIS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – EM on Tuesday published a notice of intent in the Federal Register to prepare a supplement to its January 2011 Environmental Impact Statement for the Long-Term Management and Storage of Elemental Mercury to analyze additional alternatives, in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. For more information, click here.

Wasteland: the 50-year battle to entomb our toxic nuclear remains In the desert and in Washington DC, a war still rages to find the one place in America that no one cares about

By Matt Stroud on June 14, 2012 11:41 am
http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/14/3038814/yucca-mountain-wipp-wasteland-battle-entomb-nuclear-waste

Idaho Waste Treatment Facility Startup Testing Suspended To Evaluate System

IDAHO FALLS, ID- On Saturday, June 16, startup testing was suspended at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) located at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho Site. Testing and plant heat-up was suspended to allow detailed evaluation of a system pressure event observed during testing on Saturday.
Facility startup testing has been ongoing for the past month, evaluating system and component operation and response during operating conditions. No radioactive or hazardous waste has been introduced into the facility, pending successful completion of startup testing. Safety systems functioned as designed, and the facility is currently in safe standby mode. The facility is expected to remain in safe standby condition for the next several weeks as the facts surrounding Saturday’s system pressure event are gathered and evaluated.
The IWTU was designed and constructed to treat 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste located at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center’s (INTEC) tank farm. The waste was generated during spent nuclear fuel reprocessing activities performed at INTEC from the 1950s until 1992. Treatment was expected to begin this month, but will be delayed for several weeks pending a thorough evaluation of system performance.
The State of Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, who has regulatory authority for oversight of the IWTU, has been notified.
Editorial Date June 21, 2012
By Brad Bugger
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IWTU testing suspended

By Staff Writer

POSTED: 05:24 PM MDT Jun 20, 2012 UPDATED: 05:31 PM MDT Jun 20, 2012 

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho -

The U.S. Department of Energy has suspended testing at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit on the Idaho National Laboratory reservation. A startup test was suspended Saturday after a "system pressure event," according to a news release. In a news release, DOE officials said facility startup testing has been under way for the past month, evaluating system and component operation and response during operating conditions. IWTU was designed and constructed to treat 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing waste located on the Idaho Nuclear and Technology and Engineering Center's tank farm. Although treatment was originally scheduled to begin this month, no radioactive or hazardous waste has been introduced into the facility, pending successful completion of startup testing. Treatment will be delayed for several weeks pending a thorough evaluation of system performance.

The waste was generated during spent nuclear fuel reprocessing activities performed at INTEC from the 1950's until 1992.  

The Twenty-Fourth Annual Weapons Complex Monitor Waste Management & Cleanup Decisionmakers’ Forum

October 15 - 18, 2012, Omni Amelia Island Plantation, Jacksonville, Florida

Keynote Speakers…

Thomas P. D'Agostino, Under Secretary for Nuclear Security, National Nuclear Security Administration

David G. Huizenga, Senior Advisor for Environmental Management, Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Dept. of Energy 
Mark Lesinski, Chief Operating Officer, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, United Kingdom
Matt Moury, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safety, Security and Quality, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Ken Picha, acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tank Waste and Nuclear Material, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Jack Surash, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Project Management, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Terry Tyborowski, acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Planning Budget, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Alice Williams, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Environmental Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy

FOR MORE INFORMATION

DOE dismissed from Hanford whistleblower lawsuit

By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
Posted: 12:00am on Jun 1, 2012; Modified: 7:34am on Jun 1, 2012
  
A federal judge has dismissed the Department of Energy from a federal lawsuit brought by Hanford whistleblower Walter Tamosaitis. Judge Lonny Suko in Eastern Washington U.S. District Court ruled that Tamosaitis could not make his case against DOE on any of three grounds. The ruling does not affect Tamosaitis' case against his employer, URS, which is part of the same lawsuit and will move forward.

U.S. Given Six Months To Justify Nuclear-Waste Fees

The U.S. Energy Department must justify the $750 million it collects annually from the atomic power industry for waste disposal given that it no longer plans to develop a depository at Yucca Mountain. A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today said the department’s 2010 fee determination was “legally defective” and ruled it has six months to evaluate whether collection of the fee will provide enough or too little revenue to offset costs of the nuclear-waste disposal program. “Long before the Yucca Mountain program was chosen, the secretary, as we have noted, ran rather sophisticated evaluations of the potential costs of a hypothetical repository as part of his policy of conducting a ‘thorough analysis,”’ the court said in its ruling. “His 2010 determination falls far below the department’s own previous standard.” Nuclear power plant owners sued the department seeking to have the fees be suspended until a new disposal program is begins. The case is National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners v. U.S. Department of Energy, 11-1066, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (Washington). To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Schoenberg in Washington attschoenberg@bloomberg.net.

New Nuclear Chief Can Act Fast on Yucca, Fukushima Fixes

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-30/new-nuclear-chief-can-act-fast-on-yucca-fukushima-fixes.html
Gregory Jaczko’s resignation as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission gives the agency a fresh chance to tackle two crucial issues: nuclear- plant safety and waste disposal. The U.S. nuclear-power industry is in turmoil, competing as it does with rock-bottom natural-gas prices. Even as most power companies wait to make new investments in nuclear, 104 existing reactors need close attention right away. Arguably the biggest item on the NRC’s to-do list is to carry out the recommendations of a task force that looked at how to avoid Fukushima-like problems in the U.S. It took until March, a year after the Japanese disaster, for the NRC to finally issue the first three orders to improve safety and preparedness. Plant owners must now have backup equipment to keep reactors and spent-fuel pools cool if the power goes out, improved venting systems to limit damage to the core, and better tools for monitoring the amount of water used to cool spent fuel.