LAST CHANCE TO JOIN ECA AND DOE TO DISCUSS COAL TO NUCLEAR TRANSITION
As part of
ECA’s New Nuclear Initiative, participants will join a discussion with DOE-NE on the feasibility of converting the nation’s retiring coal plants to nuclear power plants. By leveraging the existing workforce and some of the infrastructure in coal communities the transition from coal-to-nuclear could preserve hundreds of jobs, while creating new jobs and economic opportunities. Register for the webinar here! Please submit any questions you ay have beforehand to Faith Sanchez, Energy Communities Alliance, faiths@energyca.org.
NUCLEAR NEWSWIRE - ECA WARNS OF DELAY TO DOE’s INTERPRETATION OF HLW
The Energy Communities Alliance (ECA), which advocates for communities adjacent to or impacted
by Department of Energy sites, is asking the department to conduct an independent analysis evaluating the impacts of delaying the implementation of its statutory interpretation of high-level radioactive waste, which holds that some waste from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel may be classified as non-HLW. The ECA’s request was part of comments the organization made in response to a settlement agreement signed in April by the DOE, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the cleanup of radioactive liquid tank waste at the DOE’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash. The agreement proposes new and revised cleanup deadlines. The ECA expressed concern about the agreement’s “forbearance provision,” in
which the DOE commits to refrain from applying its HLW interpretation when disposing of treated waste or closing tank systems at Hanford. The DOE affirmed its HLW interpretation with a notice published in the Federal Register in December 2021. The concerns: In a September 3 letter to Ecology’s Daina McFadden, ECA chair Brent Gerry noted that the DOE’s HLW
interpretation has the potential to reduce cleanup costs and increase the safety of workers, host communities, and the environment by reducing the length of time that radioactive waste is stored at DOE sites. “We are concerned that further delay in implementing the HLW interpretation at Hanford has a cost and potential impact to the health and safety of the community,” Gerry wrote. “We understand that the state has been
against the use, but the local community has supported the use—as they are the impacted communities.” Gerry, who is also the mayor of West Richland, Wash., added that the DOE should proceed with the HLW interpretation on the basis of recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office; the National Academy of Sciences, and the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. “If the interpretation is not applied, what is the cost to the whole [DOE Office of Environmental Management] cleanup program, and is this safer for human health and the environment than a decision to use the HLW interpretation?” Gerry wrote. TBI demonstration: In his letter to Ecology, Gerry also said the HLW interpretation was consistent with the implementation of
the DOE’s Test Bed Initiative (TBI) demonstration at Hanford, in which 2,000 gallons of tank waste will be treated and shipped to facilities in Utah (EnergySolutions) and Texas (Waste Control Specialists), where it will be immobilized in grout and disposed. In 2023, the DOE determined that the TBI demonstration waste “is incidental to the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, is not high-level radioactive waste, and will be
managed as low-level radioactive waste.” On August 6, the DOE announced that as part of the TBI demonstration, workers at Hanford had begun installing equipment to retrieve and treat low-activity waste from Tank SY-101, a double-shell tank in Hanford’s 200 West Area. According to the DOE, workers will install and test the equipment through September,
with treatment operations set to take place by the end of the year. The DOE plans to ship the treated waste in fiscal year 2025 after laboratory testing ensures it meets requirements. Ecology issued a research, development, and demonstration permit for the TBI demonstration earlier this year. Read the original article here.
September 16-18, 2024| Crystal Gateway Marriott | Arlington, VA Join us for the 10th Annual National Cleanup Workshop!
Hear from senior DOE leaders, local government officials, and industry leaders about DOE's cleanup priorities, the future of the workforce, and more.
Featured Speakers: - The Honorable Jennifer M. Granholm, Secretary of U.S. Department of Energy
- Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (TN-03), Chairman, House Appropriations Energy and Water Development
Subcommittee
- Candice Robertson, Senior Advisor, DOE-EM
- Jeff Avery, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, DOE-EM
- Greg Sosson, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations, DOE-EM
- Kristen Ellis, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regulatory and Policy Affairs, DOE-EM
- Dae Chung, Associate Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Corporate Services, DOE-EM
- James McConnell, Associate Principal Deputy Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration
- Brent Gerry, Mayor, City of West Richland, WA; Chair, ECA and
Hosted by ECA with the cooperation of the Energy Facility Contractors Group and DOE-EM, the workshop brings together more than 800 senior DOE executives, officials from DOE sites, industry leaders,
local elected officials, contractors and community stakeholders to discuss EM’s progress to address the environmental legacy of the Manhattan Project and Cold War-era U.S. nuclear weapons program.
HOW WILL YOUR SITE/COMMUNITY BE AFFECTED BY THE REPRIORITIZATION OF WASTE SHIPMENTS AT WIPP?
In order to get as much of your input as possible into the prioritization of the source of TRU waste that is being disposed at WIPP from DOE generator sites, ECA has decided to extend the deadline of the survey until September 18. We would appreciate if you could complete the survey at your earliest convenience and share the survey with members of your community. WIPP (DOE EM), as a requirement under DOE’s state permit, is developing a new “Waste Isolation Pilot (“WIPP”) Legacy TRU Waste Disposal Plan” (the “Plan”). Your input will help ECA and other organizations identify and advise the prioritization of the source of the TRU waste that is being disposed at WIPP from DOE generator sites. Please reach out to us if you have any questions about the survey, or if you have any thoughts on who else we can send the survey to. Your input and support are important to making this survey an informative tool for WIPP,
and it is greatly appreciated. ECA is asking for feedback from the citizens, local, state and Tribal governments and others on the issues. ECA will post the results of the survey on our web page after the survey results are recorded. Please provide your input before the survey closes on September
18.
For more on the survey, or if you have any questions, please contact Andres Ridge at ajr@energyca.org
Small-scale nuclear reactor concept resurfaces in Umatilla County An Eastern Oregon county is trying to introduce nuclear power to the region through a concept that’s taken some hits in recent years. At an August meeting, the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners enthusiastically approved a $30,000 contract with Portland law firm Tonkon Torp to help the county draft legislation that would allow it to site small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs, in Umatilla County. The commissioners believe the reactors
could provide low-carbon energy to county residents, but the move comes after one of SMRs’ biggest backers scuttled a high-profile project. Read the full
story Oracle is designing a data center that would be powered by three small nuclear reactors Oracle is designing a data center that would require more than a gigawatt of power, chairman and co-founder Larry Ellison said. The data center would be powered by three small modular nuclear reactors, Ellison told investors this week. Small modular reactors are next-generation designs that promise to speed the deployment of reliable, carbon-free power — but they face challenges reaching the
commercial stage Read the full story GE Hitachi signs four MoUs focusing on UK SMR plans The UK aims to grow nuclear energy capacity to 24 GW by 2050, with a mix of
traditional large-scale power plants and small modular reactors (SMRs). Last year, the Great British Nuclear arms-length body, set up to help deliver that extra capacity, began the selection process for which SMR technology to use. There are now five left - GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH), Holtec, NuScale Power, Rolls-Royce SMR and Westinghouse - who have been invited to bid for UK government contracts in the next stage of the process. Read the full story
PROVIDE YOUR INPUT - OPEN REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION Opportunity: DOE Package Performance Demonstration DOE intends to establish a consolidated interim storage facility for storage of spent nuclear fuel until a permanent repository is available. DOE is performing this market research to gather information from all interested parties that will help formulate the actual solicitation. The first RFI is working to establish the market boundaries that can best fulfill the needs of the CISF program. This RFI works to answer the best contract
strategy and contract type, the ability of commercial businesses to support and fulfill CISF requirements & to what capacity small businesses can support CISF requirements. Response Due: September 30 2024, 7:00 pm EST |
|
Gone Fission Nuclear Report: Oak Ridge Vision: A Cleanup Milestone Completed August 26, 2024 | S4 E15 Each year, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management publishes a list of cleanup priorities for its sites around the country. Progress in the cleanup program is measured by how well these milestones are met. This week, the Gone Fission Nuclear Report is celebrating the completion of a major cleanup goal on DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.
It’s a comprehensive soil remediation project that DOE calls “Vision 2024.” Our guest is Joanna Hardin, DOE Federal Project Director for the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge. She talks with host Michael Butler about what it took to remediate more than a half million cubic yards of contaminated soil as the site becomes home to new nuclear-related businesses.
Hanford Advisory Board Meeting September 10-11, 2024 | Centennial Hotel (Spokane, WA) More Info Here Coal-To-Nuclear Transition Webinar September 11, 2024 | 1:00 - 2:30pm ET Register now! 2024 National Cleanup Workshop September 16-18, 2024 | Crystal Gateway Marriott (Arlington, VA) Register now!
|
|
