ECA Update: February 7, 2014
Published: Fri, 02/07/14
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Updated Hotel Information for ECA Peer Exchange: DOE Moving Forward
Washington, D.C.
February 27-28, 2014
REGISTRATION
Washington, D.C.
February 27-28, 2014
REGISTRATION
Check out the program of events for the upcoming ECA Peer Exchange at the links above. Read on to find out how to book your hotel and register for the meeting.
Hotel Reservations
There are no more rooms available at the Liaison Hotel. ECA has acquired additional rooms at the Phoenix Hotel. A room block for February 26th and 27th has been reserved at the government rate of $219.00. Space is limited, so we suggest you make your reservations as soon as possible. Below is the information to make reservations online or to call.
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Group name: Energy Communities Alliance
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Group code number: 18636
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For online reservations click here
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Phone number for direct reservations: 1-877-237-2082 or 202-638-6900
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Deadline date for call-in and online reservations: February 7, 2014
Meeting Reservations
Participants must register online at our Eventbrite page. The link to register is here.
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ECA Members, Government and Public Sector Participants--$200.00
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Private Sector Participants--$495.00
Energy world reshuffling in Baucus's wake
The Hill
February 6, 2014
With the confirmation of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to be ambassador to China on Thursday, Senate committees will begin a reshuffling of the upper brass.
With Baucus out as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) will take the helm, which opens up the top post on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
This ushers in what could be a new style of leadership from Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who will take Wyden's seat as the chairwoman of the committee.
Landrieu and ranking member Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) tend to find themselves on the same side of energy battles in Congress. Two big ones to watch out for: Keystone XL and crude oil exports.
U.S. NWTRB March Meeting to Focus on DOE R&D Related to Salt as a Geologic Medium for Disposal of SNF and HLW
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
February 3, 2014
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
February 3, 2014
The U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board will hold a public meeting in Albuquerque, NM, on Wednesday, March 19, 2014. The main topic of the meeting is the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research and development (R&D) activities related to salt as a geologic medium for disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW). Speakers from the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy will present work on a range of studies, including performance assessment modeling of a generic salt disposal system for SNF and HLW, coupled models for thermal-hydrological-chemical and thermal-hydrological-mechanical processes in a salt repository, and brine migration experimental studies for salt repositories. The Board also will hear a presentation on DOE activities related to resumption of NRC work on the Yucca Mountain License Application. In addition, a speaker from the DOE Office of Environmental Management will describe relevant lessons learned from managing remote-handled radioactive wastes at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, NM.
The meeting will begin at 8:00 a.m. and will be held at the Marriott Hotel, 2101 Louisiana Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Tel. 505-881-6800, Fax 505-888-2982. A block of rooms has been reserved at the hotel for meeting attendees. Reservations can be made online at the following link: Marriott -- NWTRB, or by calling 800-228-9290. The online reservations link can also be found at the Board website calendar page (www.nwtrb.gov/calendar/calendar.html). Reservations must be made by Sunday, March 2, 2014, to ensure receiving the meeting rate.
A detailed agenda will be available on the Board's website at www.nwtrb.gov approximately one week before the meeting. The meeting will be open to the public, and opportunities for public comment will be provided at the end of the day. Those wanting to speak are encouraged to sign the "Public Comment Register" at the check-in table. A time limit may need to be set for individual remarks, but written comments of any length may be submitted for the record. Transcripts of the meeting will be available on the Board's website after April 21, 2014.
The Board was established in the 1987 amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy (NWPA) as an independent agency in the Executive Branch to perform an ongoing objective evaluation of the technical validity of activities undertaken by the DOE related to implementing the NWPA. Board members are experts in their fields and are appointed by the President from a list of candidates submitted by the National Academy of Sciences. The Board is required to report its findings, conclusions, and recommendations to Congress and the Secretary of Energy. Board reports, correspondence, congressional testimony, and meeting transcripts and materials are posted on the Board's website.
For information on the meeting, contact Karyn Severson at
Nuclear board delays decision on operating license for MOX facility
Aiken Standard
February 2, 2014
The board in charge of deciding whether or not the MOX facility under construction at the Savannah River Site should be issued an operating license has delayed its judgment until late February.
The Atomic Safety Licensing Board falls under the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Atomic Safety Licensing Board falls under the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The board was slated to make a decision in January, but decided to wait.
"For a number of reasons, the preparation of that lengthy and complex decision has taken longer than anticipated," the licensing board wrote in a document released on Jan. 24. "As a result, the Board now expects its initial decision to be deferred until the latter part of February 2014."
The term "initial decision" is used because the licensing board does not actually grant the license.
The term "initial decision" is used because the licensing board does not actually grant the license.
Commission public affairs representative Maureen Conley said the board's role is to evaluate issues raised by interested parties to determine whether the parties have "standing" and whether the issues are relevant to the licensing proceeding.
"Their initial decision, now expected next month, will address the admitted contentions and whether the NRC staff adequately addressed the issues in their review," Conley said.
Conley said the decision could be appealed by any member of the Commission.
Only once that process has played out, she said, will the Commission staff issue a license.
Shaw AREVA MOX Services - the contractor in charge of constructing the MOX facility - has authorization to construct the facility, but does not yet have a license to operate it. The contractor has been seeking an operating license since 2006. The contractor directed comments on the issue to the Commission.
Conley said the decision could be appealed by any member of the Commission.
Only once that process has played out, she said, will the Commission staff issue a license.
Shaw AREVA MOX Services - the contractor in charge of constructing the MOX facility - has authorization to construct the facility, but does not yet have a license to operate it. The contractor has been seeking an operating license since 2006. The contractor directed comments on the issue to the Commission.
When asked why the decision is being delayed, Conley said the licensing board has not provided any insights into what it is thinking or why it is taking an additional month to issue a decision.
"Keep in mind that this (licensing board) hearing process has taken several years, so, in that context, one month is not a long delay," she said. "It is not unprecedented for the (board) to delay its decisions, so I would not read anything into the simple fact that this decision is delayed by one month."
The MOX facility 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 facility is about 60 percent complete, but 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.
"Keep in mind that this (licensing board) hearing process has taken several years, so, in that context, one month is not a long delay," she said. "It is not unprecedented for the (board) to delay its decisions, so I would not read anything into the simple fact that this decision is delayed by one month."
The MOX facility 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 facility is about 60 percent complete, but 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.
DOE proposal would treat contaminated [Hanford] water at new plant
Tri-City Herald
February 2, 2014
The Department of Energy is proposing pumping and trucking some underground contaminated water at Hanford to a new groundwater treatment center in central Hanford.
Some of the contaminated water already has been cleaned in a successful test at Hanford's Effluent Treatment Facility. But the cost of cleaning the water there is about $3 a gallon.
Treating it at the 200 West Pump and Treat Facility at Hanford, which began operating about two years ago, would cost less than 2 cents a gallon, according to a DOE engineering evaluation and cost analysis.
However, the pump and treat plant is not equipped to remove the uranium contamination in the water.
Under the proposal, which has agreement from Hanford regulators, the water would continue to be treated at the Effluent Treatment Facility until the new pump and treat facility's capabilities could be expanded to include uranium. That is expected by 2015.
The water at issue, about 2 million gallons that has collected or "perched" in the soil above the water table in central Hanford, is contaminated with uranium, radioactive technetium 99 and nitrate. Technetium 99 and nitrate are among the contaminants the 200 West Pump and Treat Facility now can clean from groundwater.
The water being considered for treatment moves downward through the soil until the movement slows and water builds up in a perched layer that is above the groundwater.
"The perched water is believed to be slowly entering the aquifer and contributing to groundwater contamination," according to the engineering evaluation.
Contamination in the perched water comes from liquid waste disposed of in the ground during the World War II and Cold War years when Hanford was producing plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.
Radioactive contamination also came from a spill in 1951 when one of the central Hanford waste storage tanks, Tank BX-102, was overfilled.
When a treatment test of the perched water was started at the Effluent Treatment Facility, the plant was the only technically sound and cost-effective way to treat it, according to the evaluation. About 150,000 gallons were treated over two years.
The perched water also has to be trucked to the Effluent Treatment Facility after it is collected in wells. The facility treats up to 28 million gallons of waste water a year, including waste water collected beneath Hanford's lined landfill for low-level radioactive waste and other Hanford environmental cleanup activities.
The drive to the 200 West Pump and Treat Facility is about seven miles longer, which would increase costs by about $780 per year.
However, DOE still calculates that treating waste water at the newer facility would drop the cost from $6.4 million to about $1.6 million.
The uranium treatment capabilities are planned to be added to the pump and treat plant for groundwater treatment whether or not the perched water is treated there. The plant is planned to treat 25 billion gallons of contaminated water pumped from the ground over its lifetime.
The public may comment on the proposed plan from Feb. 3 until March 3 by emailing Kimberly.ballinger@rl.gov or mailing Kim Ballinger, Department of Energy Richland Operations Office, P.O. Box 550, A7-75, Richland, WA 99352.
Workers Released from Hospital, WIPP Waste Site Safe After Truck Fire
Nuclear Street
February 7, 2014
Nuclear Street
February 7, 2014
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has temporarily stopped accepting waste but remained secure following a fire underground.
At about 11 a.m., Wednesday, a truck hauling salt from a new sector of the facility caught fire. There was no waste stored nearby, according to a Department of Energy release, and all personnel working in the repository were evacuated to the surface. That evening, the DOE reported a mine rescue team had confirmed the fire was out and the air was safe to breathe.
WIPP stores transuranic defense waste in a salt formation 2,150 feet below the surface of the New Mexico desert. It is managed by Nuclear Waste Partnership, a consortium of URS Corp. and Babcock & Wilcox, with Areva as a major subcontractor.
DOE officials said shipments to the site had been stopped, according to the Carlsbad Current-Argus. Six workers who were taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation have been released. The newspaper quoted a DOE spokesman as describing the incident as the most serious fire the site has experienced below ground.
NNSA confirms uranium incident at Y-12; top official coming to Oak Ridge to address situation
Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground
January 31, 2014
The National Nuclear Security Administration this evening confirmed there was a recent incident involving a "small amount" of uranium oxide at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, and it apparently was serious enough that Acting Administrator Bruce Held is coming to Y-12 on Tuesday to meet with plant officials and hold an all-hands meeting with employees.
The incident was first reported by Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor, a Washington-based subscription newsletter.
"NNSA is aware of an incident involving a small amount of uranium oxide (U308) at the Y-12 National Security Complex earlier this month," federal spokesman Steven Wyatt said via email. "There was never a threat to public health or safety."
He added: "Because safety and security are our highest priorities, the NNSA and other appropriate authorities continue to investigate."
Wyatt said Held will meet with plant management and speak with employees about the issue.
"At this time, we will have no further comment," he said.
Wyatt declined to comment on whether the uranium involved in the incident was highly enriched. Even the smallest amounts of bomb-grade uranium are monitored closely at the Oak Ridge plant, with recycling processes used to retain particles left on clothing or captured on process filters.
Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor reported that a scientist at Y-12 inadvertently left a sample of the material in his work clothing, which was discovered en route to being laundered.
This will be the third time that Held has come to Oak Ridge to meet with Y-12 employees over the past year. His initial visit was in late-July 2013, close to the one-year anniversary of the 2012 security breach involving peace activists. He also came to Y-12 in December after speaking to a field hearing of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in Knoxville.
Y-12"s is the designated Uranium Center of Excellence in the U.S., and houses the nation's primary stockpile of weapons-grade uranium.
The incident was first reported by Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor, a Washington-based subscription newsletter.
"NNSA is aware of an incident involving a small amount of uranium oxide (U308) at the Y-12 National Security Complex earlier this month," federal spokesman Steven Wyatt said via email. "There was never a threat to public health or safety."
He added: "Because safety and security are our highest priorities, the NNSA and other appropriate authorities continue to investigate."
Wyatt said Held will meet with plant management and speak with employees about the issue.
"At this time, we will have no further comment," he said.
Wyatt declined to comment on whether the uranium involved in the incident was highly enriched. Even the smallest amounts of bomb-grade uranium are monitored closely at the Oak Ridge plant, with recycling processes used to retain particles left on clothing or captured on process filters.
Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor reported that a scientist at Y-12 inadvertently left a sample of the material in his work clothing, which was discovered en route to being laundered.
This will be the third time that Held has come to Oak Ridge to meet with Y-12 employees over the past year. His initial visit was in late-July 2013, close to the one-year anniversary of the 2012 security breach involving peace activists. He also came to Y-12 in December after speaking to a field hearing of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in Knoxville.
Y-12"s is the designated Uranium Center of Excellence in the U.S., and houses the nation's primary stockpile of weapons-grade uranium.
House spending panel shuffles members
The Hill
January 29, 2014
The powerful House Appropriations Committee announced Wednesday that it has re-allocated membership in its subcommittees, bringing new faces and new priorities to crucial panels such as the one overseeing defense spending.
Membership on the Appropriations subcommittees is more important this year given the likelihood that Congress will for the first time since 1994 pass all 12 individual spending bills by the start of fiscal 2015 on Oct. 1.
"Our members each have priorities and concerns that are unique to them and their districts, but we are united behind the common goal of protecting the prosperity of our nation, providing the federal government with responsible levels of discretionary funding, and doing so under regular order," Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said in a statement.
New to the Defense panel are Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) and John Carter (R-Texas). They will fill the slots formerly held by Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), who retired from Congress last year, and former Chairman Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), who passed away.
In other shifts, long-time Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) joins the Transportation and Housing subcommittee and Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) joins the State and Foreign Operations panel.
Reps. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) will shift to the Energy and Water panel, which oversees massive infrastructure spending.
There are three new members of the Appropriations panel this year, and they learned of their assignments late Tuesday.
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) was assigned to the Interior and Environment subcommittee, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies panel and the Legislative Branch panel.
"My experience ... has been dealing with the EPA, ozone regulations, Clean Air, and Clean Water Act," Stewart said in an interview.
He noted that he ran a business for 12 years that dealt with Environmental Protection Agency permitting and is keen on dealing with energy issues.
Stewart, a former Air Force pilot, said he wants to serve on Defense one day, but realizes a spot there generally goes to more senior members.
Stewart said he is "optimistic" the Appropriations Committee can complete all 12 bills.
"I don't want to sound naïve and I understand that the precedent of these last years may wall up against us. I think that things are genuinely different now, with all that we have gone through in that last few months, including the shutdown," he said.
Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) will serve on the Veteran's Affairs panel, the panel overseeing labor, health and education spending and the Legislative Branch panel.
Roby said in an interview that she has "one of the highest veterans populations in the country" in her district, making veterans a top priority for her.
In her time on the Education and Workforce Committee, Roby has worked to try to enact a bill giving workers paid time off or comp time in lieu of overtime pay, so work on the Labor/HHS subcommittee is a fit.
Roby said she is excited to work to put the 12 spending bills into law this year.
"None of the new members since 2010 have seen regular order," she noted. "I'm hopeful."
Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) will serve on the Commerce, Justice, Science panel as well as the Financial Services panel and the Legislative Branch.
The Legislative Branch panel has the smallest slice of the $1 trillion budget and is often given to new appropriators.
"Our members each have priorities and concerns that are unique to them and their districts, but we are united behind the common goal of protecting the prosperity of our nation, providing the federal government with responsible levels of discretionary funding, and doing so under regular order," Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said in a statement.
New to the Defense panel are Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) and John Carter (R-Texas). They will fill the slots formerly held by Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), who retired from Congress last year, and former Chairman Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), who passed away.
In other shifts, long-time Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) joins the Transportation and Housing subcommittee and Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) joins the State and Foreign Operations panel.
Reps. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) will shift to the Energy and Water panel, which oversees massive infrastructure spending.
There are three new members of the Appropriations panel this year, and they learned of their assignments late Tuesday.
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) was assigned to the Interior and Environment subcommittee, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies panel and the Legislative Branch panel.
"My experience ... has been dealing with the EPA, ozone regulations, Clean Air, and Clean Water Act," Stewart said in an interview.
He noted that he ran a business for 12 years that dealt with Environmental Protection Agency permitting and is keen on dealing with energy issues.
Stewart, a former Air Force pilot, said he wants to serve on Defense one day, but realizes a spot there generally goes to more senior members.
Stewart said he is "optimistic" the Appropriations Committee can complete all 12 bills.
"I don't want to sound naïve and I understand that the precedent of these last years may wall up against us. I think that things are genuinely different now, with all that we have gone through in that last few months, including the shutdown," he said.
Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) will serve on the Veteran's Affairs panel, the panel overseeing labor, health and education spending and the Legislative Branch panel.
Roby said in an interview that she has "one of the highest veterans populations in the country" in her district, making veterans a top priority for her.
In her time on the Education and Workforce Committee, Roby has worked to try to enact a bill giving workers paid time off or comp time in lieu of overtime pay, so work on the Labor/HHS subcommittee is a fit.
Roby said she is excited to work to put the 12 spending bills into law this year.
"None of the new members since 2010 have seen regular order," she noted. "I'm hopeful."
Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) will serve on the Commerce, Justice, Science panel as well as the Financial Services panel and the Legislative Branch.
The Legislative Branch panel has the smallest slice of the $1 trillion budget and is often given to new appropriators.
Whatever Happened to Gregory Jaczko?
National Journal
January 29, 2014
As a Senate committee Thursday assesses how U.S. regulators have responded since Japan's nuclear-reactor disaster nearly three years ago, a central figure in the post-Fukushima era at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is unlikely to even be mentioned.
Gregory Jaczko, who resigned as NRC chairman in 2012 due to a roiling controversy over his management style, has been an outspoken critic of nuclear safety in this country, but is no longer working full-time on industry issues. It might even be said that when the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meets with the five-member NRC on Thursday morning, Jaczko will be persona non grata.
Jaczko, who declined to be interviewed this week, has kept a low profile. A former aide to Sen. Harry Reid, Jaczko was appointed last spring by the majority leader to a new congressional advisory panel established under the 2013 defense authorization bill to assess the effectiveness of the National Nuclear Security Administration, an Energy Department agency that manages America's nuclear weapons. But nearly a year later, there is no record that the panel has met, nor will anyone at the NNSA or the Energy Department comment about its work.
Indeed, Jaczko has surfaced publicly only a few times since leaving the NRC in June 2012 after more than seven years as a commissioner and three years as chairman. In each instance, the Cornell University graduate with a doctorate in particle physics blasted the nuclear industry for ignoring safety issues and economic problems.
"I think it's time that we need to reconsider prolonging the lifetime of many of these reactors," Jaczko said last summer at a conference on nuclear safety in San Diego, where he also expressed little confidence that a nuclear plant run by Southern California Edison could be reopened safely after it was shut down following a radioactive leak and other problems.
"I've never seen a movie that's set 200 years in the future and the planet is being powered by fission reactors--that's nobody's vision of the future," he said in an October interview with IEEE Spectrum, a publication for electrical engineers. "This is not a future technology. It's an old technology, and it serves a useful purpose. But that purpose is running its course."
Jaczko added: "The industry is going away. Four reactors are being built, but there's absolutely no money and no desire to finance more plants than that. So in 20 or 30 years we're going to have very few nuclear power plants in this country--that's just a fact."
Jaczko's comments have earned him scorn from supporters of the nuclear industry. "He has spent at least a decade and a half misusing his apparently impressive brain power in destructive ways by focusing it on halting the beneficial use of nuclear energy," wrote Rod Adams, a former nuclear plant operator, in a blog called Atomic Insights.
Critics of the industry consider Jaczko something of a hero for his willingness to challenge the status quo at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "The reality is Jaczko was only one voice among five," said Tim Judson, acting executive director of the Nuclear Information and Research Service, a watchdog group based in Takoma Park, Md. "He was a voice in the wilderness at the NRC."
Unfortunately for him, Jaczko's voice can apparently be grating to some. His downfall at the NRC began with reports that he was abusive to staffers, particularly women, and failed to communicate well with fellow commissioners. At the height of the controversy about his tenure, Jaczko called an impromptu news conference and adamantly denied allegations that his management had resulted in a dysfunctional NRC. "I want to assure you that none of these issues are a distraction to the agency," he said. He also said charges that he was abusive were "categorically untrue," a phrase he repeated numerous times during a 30-minute meeting with the media.
He never said so, but Jaczko may have felt isolated for voicing concerns about the nuclear industry. Twice he was the only dissenting vote when the commission approved permits for four new reactors in the South, and he openly expressed anxiety about reactor safety following the Fukushima meltdown in March 2011, triggered by the one-two punch of an earthquake and tsunami. Defenders of the U.S. industry insist that such a rare natural disaster could not occur in North America, and regardless, U.S. safety standards for reactors are far more stringent than those in Japan.
Jaczko also suffered from the perception that he was on the NRC to do Reid's bidding and kill plans for a nuclear-waste depository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Not long after Jaczko became chairman, President Obama put the long-planned project on ice.
After six months of turmoil, Jaczko announced in May 2012 that he would step down when his replacement was confirmed, and in June he turned over the NRC gavel to Allison Macfarlane, a geologist and former professor of environmental science at George Mason University.
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