ECA Update: July 8, 2013
Published: Mon, 07/08/13
|
House to consider energy and water appropriations bill
Ramsey Cox, The Hill
July 3, 2013
Ramsey Cox, The Hill
July 3, 2013
The House will consider a bill next week that would appropriate spending on energy and water projects.
On Monday evening, the House Rules Committee will meet to consider what amendments to the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act might get votes later that week.
H.R. 2609 provides annual funding for national defense nuclear weapons activities, the Army Corps of Engineers and various programs under the Department of Energy for fiscal 2014.
The $30.4 billion bill cuts $2.9 billion from the previous year -- $4.1 billion below President Obama's budget request and $700 million below the sequestration level.
"This bill reflects the difficult but crucial balance between fiscal responsibility, and essential infrastructure and security programs," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.). "This bill gets back to the basics -- protecting our national defense, and investing in the infrastructure that is the foundation of a thriving American economy and critical to the safety of our people."
Energy and Water subcommittee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) introduced the bill, which the House Appropriations Committee cleared last month on a 28-21 vote.
"This is a fiscally conservative bill that funds critical national security, jobs, and infrastructure programs," Frelinghuysen said. "In a challenging fiscal environment, we have to prioritize funding, and the subcommittee chose to address the readiness and safety of the nation's nuclear stockpile and to invest in critical infrastructure projects to protect lives and property and support economic growth."
In committee, an amendment from Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.), which would prohibit funding for the Army Corps of Engineers to enforce a ban on firearms on Corps land, was adopted on a vote of 32-17.
U.S. Department of Energy Launches the Asset Revitalization Initiative Website
Office of Environmental Management
July 2, 2013
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched a website for the Asset Revitalization Initiative (ARI), a DOE-wide effort to advance the beneficial reuse of its unique and diverse mix of assets, including land, facilities, infrastructure, equipment, technologies, natural resources and a highly skilled workforce.
ARI promotes a more efficient business environment to encourage collaboration between public and private resources. ARI efforts will maximize benefits to achieve energy and environmental goals as well as to stimulate and diversify regional economies. ARI helps communities to transition existing assets to future beneficial uses thus enhancing their local and regional communities and economies.
The key to success of ARI is effective communication and cross-functional coordination that includes both field and headquarters components. The ARI Task Force is organized into five teams led by a steering committee which identifies, prioritizes, and resolves issues for effective site revitalization, addresses crosscutting issues, and incorporates ARI's mission into programmatic business practices. The five teams include diversification, real property and assets, modernization, energy, and communications.
The website will be easily accessible to users. The Office of Legacy Management, Environmental Management, Science, and the National Nuclear Security Administration will have links to the ARI website. Please take a moment to visit http://energy.gov/ari. DOE welcomes your feedback.
Energy's Environmental Management office still struggling to manage contracts
Federal News Radio
July 1, 2013
The Department of Energy is struggling to resolve major issues in managing contracts, especially within the Office of Environmental Management (EM).
Representatives from large contracting companies, including Bechtel, CH2M HILL and Parsons Corporation said in a hearing Thursday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight that EM needs to better define the true scope of its projects.
"This is an area of contract management that has not received enough attention from Congress ... When hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are at stake, we need to make sure that those dollars aren't just being squandered," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, (D-Mo.), chairwoman of the subcommittee.
The Office of Environmental Management relies mainly on contractors to meet its mission, which is to safely clean up nuclear waste after decades of nuclear weapons research and development. DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman said more than 40 prime contractors are involved in carrying out EM activities and that those contracts total more than $90 billion. McCaskill said the plans for these activities stretch into the future, beyond 2087.
Jack Surash, deputy assistant secretary of acquisition and project management at EM, said the waste treatment plant (WTP) at Hanford, Wash., and the salt-waste processing facility (SWPF) at Savannah River, S.C., have been two of EM's challenging projects.
Both sites experienced cost overruns in the billions. At Hanford, EM's spending increased by more than $10 billion, while at Savannah River, costs soared by more than $700 million. Much of the trouble in EM contracts comes from the large costs associated with different components that affect nuclear clean-up projects -- safety, oversight and technology development, the witnesses said.
"We're dealing with are very complex, first-of-a-kind plants. Nobody's ever built these before. Nobody's ever put the components together," Surash said.
Surash said Energy needs to improve in upfront planning and address technology requirements before it begins a project. The difficulty arises when EM begins projects before they can learn everything about the technologies involved, Surash said. He added because the technology develops quickly, driving the cost of the project way over the projected baseline.
Surash said this has been a recurring problem within EM.
"This is part of this tug on getting on with work vs. doing it right. A pilot plant will actually cost a little bit more money upfront, it will take more time, but we've learned the hard way for first of a kind, nuclear, very complicated projects that we really need to do this or were asking for trouble-we're rolling the dice down the road," Surash said.
McCaskill said EM's heavy reliance on contracting is troubling, because DoE has been on the Government Accountability Office's High Risk List for contract management since 1990.
She said that though the cost-based contracts EM uses now are an improvement over large management and operation (O&M) contracts the department used to use, the cost overruns can be extensive. McCaskill said these contracts can be very risky because the government is responsible for cost overruns. EM's environmental cleanup is currently expected to cost $270 billion over the next several decades, McCaskill said.
Surash, Friedman and Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board member Joseph Bader agreed improvements must be made.
"Unfortunately for the taxpayer, for EM's large contracts, cost over-runs, schedule delays and technical failures are the rule, not the exception," McCaskill said. "We need to find a better way to do this, because we can't just afford the status quo anymore."
Witnesses from Bechtel, Parsons Corp. and CH2M HILL said they believe that EM has the internal expertise to oversee contracts effectively. Surash said EM will continue to learn from each project, and makes improvements along the way.
Group to explore position on bringing nuclear waste to SRS
Rob Pavey, The Augusta Cronicle
July 3, 2013
Savannah River Site's Citizens Advisory Board appears divided over whether to oppose or support any plan to bring spent nuclear fuel to the area for storage and possible reprocessing.
In May, the group discussed a draft recommendation that opposed using the site to store any commercial nuclear waste. Now there are two draft statements, with one offering conditional support for such efforts.
"There are two general positions the CAB can take and each has support of a segment of the community," Ed Burke, who heads the group's waste management committee, wrote in an e-mail to members.
One position is not to support bringing commercial waste to the site, while the other would support the idea if communities can participate through "consent-based siting," and if "proper incentives" were provided, Burke said.
"The CAB can only support one position since these positions are diametrically opposed to each other," Burke wrote. "The CAB can also choose to support neither of these positions."
The group has scheduled a meeting at 6 p.m. July 15 to discuss the different versions of the draft statement.
Though there is no formal plan to bring spent commercial reactor fuel to the site, the demise of the government's Yucca Mountain project in Nevada left the nation without options for the 75,000 tons of radioactive spent fuel accumulating at commercial nuclear plants.
A blue-ribbon committee formed to explore alternatives suggested "consolidated, interim storage" of the dangerous material until a better solution can be found. The committee did not make site recommendations, but officials say it would be difficult to explore those options without considering SRS, which has nuclear waste experience and infrastructure and is in the South, which has many commercial nuclear plants.
In March, consultants hired by the SRS Community Reuse Organization - an economic development consortium - unveiled a $200,000 study concluding that the site's H Canyon processing facilities and history of nuclear involvement make it suitable for such storage.
"Consolidated storage would start with the spent nuclear fuel currently in South Carolina and Georgia and, if successful, could expand to include the remainder of the 20,000 metric tons of spent fuel in the southeastern U.S.," the report said. Subsequent phases could accommodate spent fuel from Virginia and the Northeast.
Though the project would bring money and jobs to the area, it would require broad community support to be successful, the study said, noting that storage could also lead to a reprocessing complex at SRS.
Sen. Scott talks security in visit to SRS
Derrek Asberry, Aiken Standard
July 3, 2013
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., expressed his support of MOX and the Savannah River Site's security efforts during his trip to the site on Wednesday.
Scott visited the site as part of his multiple-county tour of the state this week. The senator is speaking in 10 counties throughout the state in a three-day period, with today marking his last stops in Edgefield and Saluda counties.
As Scott stated during the meeting, part of Savannah River's responsibility is ensuring that MOX progresses toward completion. The senator showed his support of MOX by outlining its importance to SRS, with another emphasis on the country's agreement to Russia.
"MOX is an important part of the equation when understanding our agreement with Russia," Scott said. "As we continue to watch the process of the MOX facility being constructed and finished, we have great aspirations and hope that it will have multiple uses in the future."
Scott also spoke about federal funding of Savannah River Site, the commitment that the United States has made to Russia to dispose of the plutonium that is currently housed on the Site, and the commitment that the federal government has made to the state of South Carolina. He stressed the nations' efforts to meet these responsibilities en route to expressing his full support of the Site.
"We understand the impact of some of the funding scenarios outlined by the federal government, and we should be concerned," he said. "With that funding in place, I think we'll meet the objectives of the U.S.-Russian agreement, and we'll also be in a position to see more happen to keep our country safe because of this facility."
Salt waste facility sets record processing mark
Aiken Standard
July 5, 2013
The Interim Salt Waste Disposition Process at the Savannah River Site surpassed the 1-million gallon per year mark in salt waste processing for a second time in its five-year history.
The record processing mark, met recently, sets the stage for the Interim Salt Waste Disposition Process to continue to support salt processing program objectives beyond its first five years of operations, which began in April 2008.
Terrel Spears, assistant manager for the Waste Disposition Project, U.S. Department of Energy-Savannah River Operations Office, called the achievement further evidence that salt disposition processes operated by Savannah River Remediation, SRS's liquid waste contractor, are working.
"Processing salt waste is essential for us and our mission to operationally close waste tanks and reduce risk," Spears said. "Salt processing technologies being utilized by SRR have proven very effective in removing the radioactive constituents from salt waste."
The radioactive constituents removed through the Interim Salt Waste Disposition Process include cesium, plutonium and strontium. These radionuclides are transferred to the Defense Waste Processing Facility, where they are mixed with molten glass and placed in stainless steel canisters awaiting permanent storage.
The remaining low-level salt solution is converted into a grout-cement mixture at the Saltstone facilities and pumped into concrete disposal units for permanent disposal.
According to Stuart MacVean, Savannah River Remediation interim president and project manager, the Interim Salt Waste Disposition Process is expected to surpass the fiscal year record set in 2011.
"The ISDP will be in a planned outage later this year so we can implement new technology called the 'next generation solvent,' which will enhance the processes' ability to extract cesium," MacVean said. "I expect to reach production targets prior to entering the outage."
There are approximately 36 million gallons of waste being stored in underground waste tanks at SRS. The waste is a by-product of the nation's Cold War weapons production program. About 90 percent, or 33 million gallons, is liquid salt waste.
Processing and disposing of the waste is essential for SRR to complete its mission of operationally closing the waste tanks. Waste in the tanks has been labeled as the single-greatest environmental risk in the state by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
 |
|
More Information |
|
To help ensure that you receive all email with images correctly displayed, please add ecabulletin@aweber.com to your address book or contact list |
|
to the ECA Email Server |
|
If you have trouble viewing this email, view the online version |