ECA Update: August 12, 2013
Published: Mon, 08/12/13
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US NRC approves publication of draft waste confidence rule
Platts
August 6, 2013
Platts
August 6, 2013
The five-member US Nuclear Regulatory Commission unanimously approved Monday the publication for public comment of a draft proposed waste confidence rule.
NRC staff's proposed rule does not limit the agency's judgment of how long spent nuclear fuel can be stored safely and says a repository is expected to be operational within 60 years after a nuclear power reactor's license expires. Waste confidence reflects the commission's belief spent fuel can be safely stored until it is disposed of and is central to licensing new reactors and renewing the operating licenses of existing ones.
The commission said in a memorandum to NRC staff Monday that publication of the proposed rule should request public comments on, among other issues, "whether specific policy statements regarding the timeline for repository availability should be removed from the rule text" and "whether specific policy statements regarding the safety of continued spent fuel storage should be made in the rule text given the expansive and detailed information" in a draft environmental impact statement on the subject.
In comments attached to their vote sheets, released by NRC on Monday, the commissioners disagreed on the question of whether the proposed rule should address when a repository might become available.
NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane said the rule should not include language on that issue, because "[t]he timing of a repository is based on policy decisions and societal factors that are beyond the authority and control of the Commission."
Commissioner William Magwood agreed with that position in his comments.
Macfarlane emphasized, however, that "the best way to ensure long-term isolation of high-level waste from the environment is emplacement of that material in a deep geological repository. A policy of indefinite storage relies upon active controls and maintenance that will be an increasingly costly burden to our society."
Commissioner Kristine Svinicki disagreed with Macfarlane and Magwood, saying use of a repository time frame in the draft EIS "for analytical purposes" is "both reasonable and appropriate."
Commissioner William Ostendorff said he agrees with staff "that it is feasible that a repository can be available within 60 years following the licensed life for reactor operation."
Commissioner George Apostolakis said he prefers to resolve the issue after public comments are received.
NRC staff said in a June 7 proposed rule, made public June 24, that the environmental impacts of storing spent fuel would be small even if that fuel were to be stored indefinitely because spent fuel canisters, storage casks and dry transfer systems would be replaced every 100 years. Staff also said the repository timeline is consistent with DOE's goal of having a disposal facility operational by 2048.
If approved by the commission and finalized, the proposed rule would replace a 2010 NRC waste confidence decision and spent fuel storage rule that the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated last year and remanded to the agency to be redone. The commission has said it will take no final action to issue licenses to build and operate new nuclear power reactors, or to renew the operating licenses of existing reactors, until the revised waste confidence rule is finalized, which is expected in summer 2014.
Insiders Offer Glimmers of Hope for Avoiding a Government Shutdown
Charles S. Clark, Government Executive
August 9, 2013
This August's $1 billion question in Washington continues to be whether the government is heading for a shutdown. The conundrum embroils the two parties in internecine battles, pits spending priorities against political tactics and leaves the affected federal workforce to largely watch from the sidelines.
Interviews with Washington insiders show all agree the prospects for a shutdown are real. Congress left town for its August recess, leaving only nine legislative days in the session before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. No appropriations bills have reached President Obama's desk--the House has voted only on five, the Senate only on one.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has sworn off talk of a "grand bargain" to resolve the fiscal stalemate, and Obama Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, while conducting an outreach blitz on Capitol Hill, has reported no word of progress on a concrete budget deal.
What is different this go-round, observers agree, is that experienced dealmaker Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appears too preoccupied with a reelection challenge (both in his party's primary from the right and in the general election) to climb to a summit with Democrats. Also, the ongoing disputes over taxes, appropriations and entitlements have been overshadowed in recent weeks by a rump group of Republicans who see this fall as their "last chance" to repeal Obama's signature achievement, the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
"In September, Congress will have the opportunity to defund Obamacare -- the disastrous health care law, which is killing jobs and hurting the health care system," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in an Aug. 5 radio broadcast aimed at mobilizing a "grass-roots army" to take advantage of the fall budget climax. "The only way we can win this debate is if the American people rise up and demand it," said Cruz, who has joined with Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, and a host of Tea Party and other rightist groups such as the Club for Growth and Freedom Works.
"The way things stand right now, it's very likely we will have a government shutdown," said Dan Holler, communications director for Heritage Action for America, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation. "We're seeing a growing number of House Republicans since they've been back home saying there's a need to use the year-end spending bill to stop implementation of Obamacare. Some want to defund it, others want delay, but the consensus is there has to be action."
But the coming clash, Holler cautions, is not all the Republicans' making. "Democrats aren't happy with the spending levels and want more" than is called for in the 2011 Budget Control Act, he said.
Yet, many Republicans consider a shutdown over Obamacare political suicide. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- the GOP presidential standard-bearer just nine months ago -- on Aug. 6 warned the crowd at a New Hampshire Republican donor event against the strategy. "I badly want Obamacare to go away, and stripping it of funds has appeal," he said, according to the Associated Press. "But we need to exercise great care about any talk of shutting down government. What would come next when soldiers aren't paid, when seniors fear for their Medicare and Social Security, and when the FBI is off duty?"
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in late July released results of a Congressional Research Service legal study he requested concluding that "if the government were shut down, funding for Obamacare would still continue. In other words, shutting down the federal government does not shut down Obamacare."
Several Republican governors are equally wary. "I have made the case that Obamacare is not good for the economy," Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told the National Governors Association last weekend. "But I have some real concerns about potentially doing something that would have a negative impact on the economy just for the short term -- I think there are other ways to pursue this," he said, according to The New York Times.
"The House Republican leadership wants to avoid a shutdown," said Michael Barone, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and columnist for the Washington Examiner. He noted that some conservative commentators have divided the Republicans into the "suicide caucus" and the "surrender caucus." Sen. Cruz, he said, feels the urgency because he believes once the law's subsidies kick in, "no one will ever get rid of it," which may or may not be true.
"I don't think a shutdown will happen," said Grover Norquist, president of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform. "I'm a strong supporter of an emerging consensus that it is reasonable to ask for a year's delay" in Obamacare, a position that many Democrats, such as Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, favor.
"I can see the president signing a bill that delays it because he's already delayed the law's mandates for larger businesses," Norquist said. "For Republicans, a delay would be an implicit statement that the law doesn't work, and for Democrats -- do they really want to go into the 2014 elections with Obamacare in place?" The president will never sign a bill defunding health reform, Norquist said, so "it's a mistake for Republicans to make it a nonnegotiable demand and try to humiliate Obama by asking him to give up the crown jewels and admit he's been wrong."
Longtime Congress-watcher Norman Ornstein, also of AEI, was less optimistic about avoiding a shutdown. "I don't see a grand bargain, though one would be nice," he said in an interview. "Who's going to do the bargain? Mitch McConnell is not in any way shape or form going to play the role he did in [last December's] fiscal cliff talks, and there's nobody in the House capable of doing anything." Many Republicans who were in Congress during the 1994-1995 government shutdown -- Coburn and Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., for instance -- "have all called the shutdown idea insanity," Ornstein noted, "but others [lack] the basic level of rationality or sanity" to head it off.
The only hope in Ornstein's view is "Obi-Wan McCain," or Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who might find 12 or 20 Republicans in the Senate to join Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in a "short-term extension" of a continuing resolution to keep the funding going. "If the Senate puts enough pressure on the House, maybe Boehner takes the leap and it limps through with mostly Democrats," Ornstein said. "But as for what is the most likely outcome, you lose me."
A short-term extension of an omnibus spending bill, perhaps two to three months, is the likely outcome predicted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, according to longtime Senate Republican budget aide Steve Bell.
"But people who think this is easy to do underestimate the extreme splits in both parties and both chambers," he said, splits that worsen, he noted, every time a so-called "gang of eight" tries to reach a deal out of view of the rank and file members.
Such an extension, Bell said, would give lawmakers time to also complete a deal on extending unemployment insurance and food stamps, both programs that expire Oct. 1.
The August recess will not, Bell added, bring much progress because during town halls and meetings with constituents in their home districts, lawmakers "simply appeal to their base voters, who are the ones who show up to vote in a nonpresidential year."
Bell also confessed that he doesn't "really know how it's going to turn out. But neither do they."
Interviews with Washington insiders show all agree the prospects for a shutdown are real. Congress left town for its August recess, leaving only nine legislative days in the session before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. No appropriations bills have reached President Obama's desk--the House has voted only on five, the Senate only on one.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has sworn off talk of a "grand bargain" to resolve the fiscal stalemate, and Obama Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, while conducting an outreach blitz on Capitol Hill, has reported no word of progress on a concrete budget deal.
What is different this go-round, observers agree, is that experienced dealmaker Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appears too preoccupied with a reelection challenge (both in his party's primary from the right and in the general election) to climb to a summit with Democrats. Also, the ongoing disputes over taxes, appropriations and entitlements have been overshadowed in recent weeks by a rump group of Republicans who see this fall as their "last chance" to repeal Obama's signature achievement, the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
"In September, Congress will have the opportunity to defund Obamacare -- the disastrous health care law, which is killing jobs and hurting the health care system," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in an Aug. 5 radio broadcast aimed at mobilizing a "grass-roots army" to take advantage of the fall budget climax. "The only way we can win this debate is if the American people rise up and demand it," said Cruz, who has joined with Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, and a host of Tea Party and other rightist groups such as the Club for Growth and Freedom Works.
"The way things stand right now, it's very likely we will have a government shutdown," said Dan Holler, communications director for Heritage Action for America, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation. "We're seeing a growing number of House Republicans since they've been back home saying there's a need to use the year-end spending bill to stop implementation of Obamacare. Some want to defund it, others want delay, but the consensus is there has to be action."
But the coming clash, Holler cautions, is not all the Republicans' making. "Democrats aren't happy with the spending levels and want more" than is called for in the 2011 Budget Control Act, he said.
Yet, many Republicans consider a shutdown over Obamacare political suicide. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- the GOP presidential standard-bearer just nine months ago -- on Aug. 6 warned the crowd at a New Hampshire Republican donor event against the strategy. "I badly want Obamacare to go away, and stripping it of funds has appeal," he said, according to the Associated Press. "But we need to exercise great care about any talk of shutting down government. What would come next when soldiers aren't paid, when seniors fear for their Medicare and Social Security, and when the FBI is off duty?"
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in late July released results of a Congressional Research Service legal study he requested concluding that "if the government were shut down, funding for Obamacare would still continue. In other words, shutting down the federal government does not shut down Obamacare."
Several Republican governors are equally wary. "I have made the case that Obamacare is not good for the economy," Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told the National Governors Association last weekend. "But I have some real concerns about potentially doing something that would have a negative impact on the economy just for the short term -- I think there are other ways to pursue this," he said, according to The New York Times.
"The House Republican leadership wants to avoid a shutdown," said Michael Barone, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and columnist for the Washington Examiner. He noted that some conservative commentators have divided the Republicans into the "suicide caucus" and the "surrender caucus." Sen. Cruz, he said, feels the urgency because he believes once the law's subsidies kick in, "no one will ever get rid of it," which may or may not be true.
"I don't think a shutdown will happen," said Grover Norquist, president of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform. "I'm a strong supporter of an emerging consensus that it is reasonable to ask for a year's delay" in Obamacare, a position that many Democrats, such as Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, favor.
"I can see the president signing a bill that delays it because he's already delayed the law's mandates for larger businesses," Norquist said. "For Republicans, a delay would be an implicit statement that the law doesn't work, and for Democrats -- do they really want to go into the 2014 elections with Obamacare in place?" The president will never sign a bill defunding health reform, Norquist said, so "it's a mistake for Republicans to make it a nonnegotiable demand and try to humiliate Obama by asking him to give up the crown jewels and admit he's been wrong."
Longtime Congress-watcher Norman Ornstein, also of AEI, was less optimistic about avoiding a shutdown. "I don't see a grand bargain, though one would be nice," he said in an interview. "Who's going to do the bargain? Mitch McConnell is not in any way shape or form going to play the role he did in [last December's] fiscal cliff talks, and there's nobody in the House capable of doing anything." Many Republicans who were in Congress during the 1994-1995 government shutdown -- Coburn and Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., for instance -- "have all called the shutdown idea insanity," Ornstein noted, "but others [lack] the basic level of rationality or sanity" to head it off.
The only hope in Ornstein's view is "Obi-Wan McCain," or Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who might find 12 or 20 Republicans in the Senate to join Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in a "short-term extension" of a continuing resolution to keep the funding going. "If the Senate puts enough pressure on the House, maybe Boehner takes the leap and it limps through with mostly Democrats," Ornstein said. "But as for what is the most likely outcome, you lose me."
A short-term extension of an omnibus spending bill, perhaps two to three months, is the likely outcome predicted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, according to longtime Senate Republican budget aide Steve Bell.
"But people who think this is easy to do underestimate the extreme splits in both parties and both chambers," he said, splits that worsen, he noted, every time a so-called "gang of eight" tries to reach a deal out of view of the rank and file members.
Such an extension, Bell said, would give lawmakers time to also complete a deal on extending unemployment insurance and food stamps, both programs that expire Oct. 1.
The August recess will not, Bell added, bring much progress because during town halls and meetings with constituents in their home districts, lawmakers "simply appeal to their base voters, who are the ones who show up to vote in a nonpresidential year."
Bell also confessed that he doesn't "really know how it's going to turn out. But neither do they."
Mixed-oxide fuel plant layoffs to top 500
GSA Business
August 8, 2013
Aiken County is being hit with a wave of layoffs in the government-funded and private sectors, the largest and latest of which will be more than 500 layoffs at the Savannah River Site's mixed-oxide fuel plant, currently under construction.
According to notices filed under the requirements of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988, the following 60-day notifications have been issued for Aiken County:
The MOX project has been hit by cuts in an upcoming round of federal spending. U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, South Carolina's most senior member of the House of Representatives, has been a strong advocate of Savannah River Site operations, and funding for the MOX project in particular.
"Budget cuts are affecting federal projects nationwide," Clyburn said. "While the MOX facility is not exempt from those cuts, this project is still vital and will continue to be a priority for me and I hope for the entire South Carolina delegation."
In 1999, the National Nuclear Security Administration signed a contract with a consortium, now called Shaw Areva MOX Services LLC, to design, build and operate a mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility. This facility was conceived to become a major component in the United States' program to dispose of surplus weapons-grade plutonium.
The facility is designed to take surplus weapons-grade plutonium, remove impurities and mix it with uranium oxide to form MOX fuel pellets for reactor fuel assemblies, according to Shaw Areva. These assemblies would be used as fuel in commercial nuclear power reactors.
MOX layoffs to cut $42 million from local payroll
Derrek Asberry, Aiken Standard
August 9, 2013
The projected 500 layoffs at MOX could strip $42 million from the annual payroll in five local counties.
The multimillion-dollar figure comes from an economic impact study commissioned by the Savannah River Site Community Reuse Organization. The five counties mentioned in the study are: Allendale, Barnwell, and Aiken counties in South Carolina, and Richmond and Columbia counties in Georgia.
"We never like to lose a single job in Aiken County," said J. David Jameson, the president and CEO of the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce. "Many folks are working behind the scenes to fight to keep these jobs and potentially grow the job market of highly skilled and talented workers."
"We never like to lose a single job in Aiken County," said J. David Jameson, the president and CEO of the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce. "Many folks are working behind the scenes to fight to keep these jobs and potentially grow the job market of highly skilled and talented workers."
"We will continue looking for ways to help these people find manufacturing job opportunities," added Will Williams, director of the Economic Development Partnership.
In response to proposed federal budget cuts, MOX issued layoff notices 60 days in advance to allow workers time to seek other employment opportunities.
In addition, MOX has assisted workers in pursuing employment.
"To assist these employees in their search for employment, the MOX project organized a job fair in July with 22 companies participating," wrote Sen. Tom Young, R-S.C., in a letter to his constituents. "Additionally, Shaw/Areva is working with the Secretary of Energy (Dr. Ernest Moniz) and one of his senior advisors on funding for the project. Our local state legislative delegation continues to monitor this issue and how we can assist."
Through all of the efforts to assist workers, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C, as well as Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C. remain two of the MOX project's biggest supporters. Both expressed their support of the facility in the aftermath of the layoff announcement.
In addition, MOX has assisted workers in pursuing employment.
"To assist these employees in their search for employment, the MOX project organized a job fair in July with 22 companies participating," wrote Sen. Tom Young, R-S.C., in a letter to his constituents. "Additionally, Shaw/Areva is working with the Secretary of Energy (Dr. Ernest Moniz) and one of his senior advisors on funding for the project. Our local state legislative delegation continues to monitor this issue and how we can assist."
Through all of the efforts to assist workers, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C, as well as Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C. remain two of the MOX project's biggest supporters. Both expressed their support of the facility in the aftermath of the layoff announcement.
"The Obama administration needs to realize that completing the facility and letting folks get to work is the most effective use of taxpayer dollars when it comes to upholding our standing agreement with Russia to dispose of nuclear material," Scott said. "I will continue carrying this message to the federal government at every opportunity."
"I was pleased to include a provision in the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act that urges the Department of Energy to continue with the project," reads a statement from Rep. Wilson's office. "I will remain the Site's largest advocate and fight to keep construction of the MOX facility alive with a full workforce."
Layoffs at MOX will continue over the next two months, ending on Oct. 1, which marks the date of the federal government's new fiscal year.
Layoffs at MOX will continue over the next two months, ending on Oct. 1, which marks the date of the federal government's new fiscal year.
The MOX plant currently employs approximately 1,900 workers, and is designed to turn weapons-grade plutonium into nuclear reactor fuel. Its work is part of a nonproliferation effort between the United States and Russia to dispose of at least 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium.
The project has undergone years of cost overruns and delays. The Government Accountability Office reported in June that the plant is $3 billion over budget, costing an estimated $7.7 billion.
Derrek Asberry is a beat reporter with the Aiken Standard news team and joined the paper in June. He is originally from Vidalia, Ga., and graduated from Georgia Southern University with a journalism degree in May 2012.
The project has undergone years of cost overruns and delays. The Government Accountability Office reported in June that the plant is $3 billion over budget, costing an estimated $7.7 billion.
Derrek Asberry is a beat reporter with the Aiken Standard news team and joined the paper in June. He is originally from Vidalia, Ga., and graduated from Georgia Southern University with a journalism degree in May 2012.
Cleaning Up America [see image at link]
Larry Buchanan and Allison McCann, Bloomberg Businessweek
August 1, 2013
When the Atomic Age ends and the plutonium mills go quiet, cleanup duty falls to the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management. It in turn doles out billions to a select group of contractors, including CH2M Hill, that specialize in mega-scale decontamination. The Plutonium Finishing Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington State supplied fissile material for the Manhattan Project and the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Now it will require decades of fastidious unbuilding; the workers are tearing down facilities that some of their grandfathers erected in the 1940s. Roll over the circles to see just how long and how much it's going to cost to clean up America.
Stories from the Secret City: Institute for Nuclear Security Brown Bag Series -- Featuring Ray Smith
Event Date: August 30, 2013
Pack a lunch and join us for a discussion of hot topics in nuclear and global security! This month's joint INS and Baker Center Global Security Brown Bag featured speaker is Ray Smith, the Y-12 National Security Complex's historian. Ray's talk is "Stories from the Secret City," and will be at noon on August 30, 2013, in the Baker Center.
About Ray Smith
With 42 years of experience at the Y-12 National Security Complex, Ray has developed an extensive understanding and appreciation of the heritage of Y-12's history. Having served for 16 years in ever increasing levels of management responsibility, he has learned all the buildings on the site and their history. He has co-produced the award-winning and highly acclaimed Secret City DVD set that has become the definitive history of Oak Ridge. Ray can be found at the Y-12 History Center where he routinely provides tours of Y-12 and continues to advance the knowledge of Y-12's unique history for visitors and the public.
He has produced several Y-12 History videos including the multiple award-winning Our Hidden Past series. Ray has written eight books, published five photo books and created one audio book. He also publishes two weekly Oak Ridge history newspaper columns, Historically Speaking and Y-12: Local Treasure and National Resource.
Ray's most recent major project, a four episode television series of 30 minute programs on the history of Y-12, A Nuclear Family, has also won two platinum Remi awards in the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. He plans to compile a book on Y-12 history using the Y-12: Local Treasure and National Resource newspaper columns he has written over the last five years. At the East Tennessee Historical Society's 2013 annual meeting, Ray was awarded a first ever double award, Professional Achievement and Community History.
With 42 years of experience at the Y-12 National Security Complex, Ray has developed an extensive understanding and appreciation of the heritage of Y-12's history. Having served for 16 years in ever increasing levels of management responsibility, he has learned all the buildings on the site and their history. He has co-produced the award-winning and highly acclaimed Secret City DVD set that has become the definitive history of Oak Ridge. Ray can be found at the Y-12 History Center where he routinely provides tours of Y-12 and continues to advance the knowledge of Y-12's unique history for visitors and the public.
He has produced several Y-12 History videos including the multiple award-winning Our Hidden Past series. Ray has written eight books, published five photo books and created one audio book. He also publishes two weekly Oak Ridge history newspaper columns, Historically Speaking and Y-12: Local Treasure and National Resource.
Ray's most recent major project, a four episode television series of 30 minute programs on the history of Y-12, A Nuclear Family, has also won two platinum Remi awards in the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. He plans to compile a book on Y-12 history using the Y-12: Local Treasure and National Resource newspaper columns he has written over the last five years. At the East Tennessee Historical Society's 2013 annual meeting, Ray was awarded a first ever double award, Professional Achievement and Community History.
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