ECA Update: August 18, 2014
Published: Mon, 08/18/14
Secretary Moniz to Speak at Intermountain Energy Summit This Week
This week, the City of Idaho Falls will host the Intermountain Energy Summit at the Shilo Inn & Convention Center. The Summit begins tomorrow and will focus on "supporting a coherent, coordinated, sustained and balanced approach to energy in the Intermountain Region." Featured speakers include Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, NRC Commissioner Kristine L. Svinicki, Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter, Representative Mike Simpson, Senator Mike Crap, Senator James Risch, and Mayor Rebecca Casper.
For more information on the meeting, please visit http://www.intermountainenergysummit.com/.
WIPP employee sues over respiratory issues Albuquerque Journal
August 14, 2014
In the first personal injury lawsuit to come to light since a fire and radiation leak hit a southeast New Mexico nuclear waste repository, a worker is suing the contractor in charge for alleged negligence and injuries resulting from smoke inhalation.
William Utter, a waste handler for contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership, filed the lawsuit in Santa Fe in May seeking unspecified compensation and punitive damages for a litany of injuries, including smoke and toxin inhalation, and mental and emotional distress.
His wife, Amada, and 10-year-old son are also party to the case.
Utter evacuated the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant salt mine along with 85 other workers on Feb. 5 after a salt haul truck caught fire some 2,150 feet below the surface. He was among the 13 workers treated for smoke inhalation and among the six sent to the hospital that day for further treatment.
Attorney Justin Rodriguez said Utter has been making regular trips to Albuquerque and Denver to see respiratory specialists recommended to him by NWP's insurance carrier due to the injury; the lawsuit does not specify the diagnosis. Utter has been receiving workers' compensation disability payments since the summer, Rodriguez said.
The business registrations of NWP along with parent URS Energy and Construction Inc., also named in the lawsuit, are in Santa Fe.
NWP spokesman Donavan Mager said the company does not comment on pending litigation.
Citing "employee privacy issues," Mager also declined to say how many workers, if any, were receiving disability payments in connection with either the fire or radiation leak.
In a court document, NWP attorneys refuted Utter's claims, saying the "defendants do not believe that the complaint states a legally sufficient cause of action."
The Department of Energy and NWP have maintained since the beginning that no workers were seriously injured in either of the February incidents. On a WIPP website, the DOE says "one employee continues to be treated for smoke inhalation as a result of the fire."
In addition to the workers treated for smoke inhalation following the fire, 22 workers tested positive for radiation contamination after the Feb. 14 radiation leak at levels deemed unharmful to health.
The lawsuit draws heavily on a March accident investigation report on the fire that outlines in detail dozens of problems in safety and maintenance at the repository - deficiencies that included an ineffective fire suppression system on the truck, inoperable mine phones and ineffective emergency response training.
The report concluded the accident could have been prevented.
WIPP employs more than 1,000 workers, including both contractor and DOE employees. NWP employees are not permitted to speak to the news media.
Utter has worked for NWP for eight years and is a member of the Carlsbad chapter of the United Steelworkers union.
He declined to be interviewed by the Journal but shared through his attorney a recorded interview with a doctor in which he details the health issues he has faced since escaping the mine fire. Rodriguez said the video was prepared in conjunction with the lawsuit.
Choking back a constant, persistent cough, Utter's voice is hoarse as he answers questions asked by a person off-camera.
"I get tired," he said. "I start coughing real hard. I start vomiting. ... It's just like this all the time."
Hearings have not yet been scheduled in the case.
Report highlights ongoing concerns with aging SRS infrastructure
The Augusta Chronicle
August 16, 2014
The report, compiled in June by site management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, highlights ongoing concerns with aging nuclear facilities at SRS, most of which were built more than 60 years ago. The deteriorating infrastructure, which the report said has hindered the site's operational capabilities, needs significant reinvestment to safely support current and future missions.
Funds have been prioritized to support mission activities while the infrastructure continued to decline, according to the report. Safety issues related to the crumbling infrastructure have been identified by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board at H-Canyon processing facilities, high-level radioactive waste storage tanks and with fire protection water supply systems in A-area.
"As a result, cannibalization of parts, costly piecemeal maintenance, temporary modifications and in some cases workarounds have been performed in order to sustain functional performance of many facilities, equipment and systems," the report says.
Energy Department spokesman Jim Giusti said in an e-mail to site stakeholders Tuesday that SRS is participating in a federal infrastructure assessment that will analyze infrastructure condition and functionality.
The report lists 39 priority infrastructure needs for the next two years, including replacing power supplies, upgrading fire water supplies, restoring leaking roofs, replacing and upgrading various components in H-Area and H-Canyon and upgrading air, steam, electrical and well water piping.
Rick McLeod, the executive director of the Savannah River Site Community Reuse Organization, said the Energy Department's Office of Environmental Management has focused on waste cleanup missions at the site at the expense of maintaining facilities. The site's future largely depends on investing in infrastructure, he said.
"If the site needs to be a long-term mission and not a closure site, we need to keep investing in the infrastructure," McLeod said.
Many of the facilities built to support nuclear weapons production during the Cold War still have usable technology, he said. For instance, McLeod said H-Canyon could support future work, including an Energy Department proposal to accept German spent nuclear fuel shipments at SRS.
"There are issues out there that are 60 years old that need to be addressed, but it's not the major facilities," McLeod said, adding that new facilities are being built, such as the Salt Waste Processing Facility and mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility.
Tom Clements, an anti-nuclear activist and the director of the government watchdog group SRS Watch, said budget constraints aren't easing, and securing money to maintain degrading infrastructure is not likely.
"Any problems they identify now, or in general, are just going to continue to get worse," he said. "They are just running in place to keep things operable."
Deferring maintenance puts site workers on the front line of associated safety issues, Clements said. As the site continues to age, environmental problems are also likely, he said.
"If the infrastructure continues to degrade, it will make it difficult to attract good missions to the site," Clements said.
DOE plan gives MOX update, outlines SRS funding woes
Aiken Standard
August 13, 2014
The plan states the National Nuclear Security Administration's Fissile Materials Disposition Program may be impacted due to the federal budget request's attempt to place the MOX project in a cold stand-by.
"However, neither formal approvals have been received nor has contract direction been given to commence cold standby as of this report," officials added in the report.
Reports surfaced earlier this year that the National Nuclear Security Administration, or NNSA, would be working with the MOX contractor during the current fiscal year to implement a cold stand-by during the next fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1.
DOE spokesman Jim Giusti said as of today, he is not aware of any changes to the June report that states there is no direction on entering a cold stand-by. The Aiken Standard also attempted to contact NNSA to retrieve an update on the status of the cold stand-by implementation but did not hear back from the agency before press time.
In addition to MOX, the Ten Year Site Plan Update referenced several other Site concerns including the lack of funding and delays on waste cleanup and tank closures, the Site's aging workforce and the need to update the aging infrastructure.
With infrastructure, the report states that cannibalization of parts, costly piecemeal maintenance and temporary modifications have been performed in order to sustain functional performance of many facilities, equipment and systems.
"This has resulted in an excessive, expensive and inefficient utilization of resources and increased the cost of future capital infrastructure investment," officials wrote.
Giusti added in an email that SRS is participating in the DOE infrastructure assessment which will provide a thorough analysis of infrastructure condition and functionality.
DOE responds to SSAB's waste disposal recommendation
Oak Ridge Today
August 14, 2014
The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management has responded to a recommendation made earlier this year by the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board.
In May, the federally appointed citizens' panel recommended that DOE continue to plan for additional on-site waste disposal capacity on the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation, or ORR, for low-level radioactive and chemically hazardous waste.
DOE currently operates the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility, or EMWMF, a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Bear Creek Valley near the Y-12 National Security Complex. When the facility began accepting waste in 2002, it was expected to handle all projected low-level waste from cleanup operations on the ORR. However, with the amount of demolition and work left to complete, EM requires additional disposal capacity onsite.
DOE has conducted a study to develop, screen, and evaluate alternatives for an additional waste disposal facility, with a working name of EM Disposal Facility, or EMDF. ORSSAB's recommendation encouraged the agency to continue working toward adding disposal capacity and proposed recommendations for a new facility.
The ORSSAB encouraged DOE to minimize the need for additional on-site capacity when possible. In its response, DOE said it was examining the final cover design of the EMWMF to allow for extended capacity. The waste acceptance criteria for other so-called "sanitary landfills" on Chestnut Ridge are being evaluated for possible modifications to allow a wider variety of waste.
DOE also said it has practices in place to minimize disposal volumes. The agency uses a hierarchy for dispositioning waste that includes reusing or recycling where possible, followed by the use of the sanitary landfills, the EMWMF, and off-site disposal facilities.
The ORSSAB also recommended that the EMDF have sufficient capacity to accept all future waste generated by DOE cleanup of the ORR. DOE's planning for the EMDF includes projected future remediation waste, plus an additional 25 percent contingency for any uncertainties in volume projections.
The board recommended that the proposed disposal area be engineered to operate safely and block migration of contaminants into adjacent groundwater, soil, and air. DOE said the facility design will undergo modeling and third-party review to demonstrate regulatory compliance and provide the necessary protection of the environment and human health.
The ORSSAB asked that the facility be located in proximity to existing waste burial sites. DOE said the proposed site is near EMWMF and other waste burial grounds. It said locating the EMDF near other disposal areas consolidates the burial sites for long-term stewardship purposes, improves cost benefits, and maintains current greenfield land for unrestricted use.
Finally, the board requested that DOE establish a trust fund for the EMDF similar to one in place for EMWMF. DOE said the expense of a trust fund for long-term stewardship is incorporated in the feasibility study for the facility's life-cycle. The continuation of the trust fund concept is contingent on the State of Tennessee accepting such an agreement, but DOE will be responsible for the long-term stewardship of EMDF either through a trust fund or independently by DOE.
The complete text of the recommendation and DOE's response is available online at http://energy.gov/orem/downloads/recommendation-223-recommendations-additional-waste-disposal-capacity.
Why small towns want nuclear waste dumps
The Washington Post
August 13, 2014
A nuclear-waste disposal site in New Mexico closed in February after a radiation leak forced an evacuation.
Yet residents near the site want it reopened.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz promised Monday he would get the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad up and running again, the Associated Press reported. Community members welcomed Moniz and voiced their support despite potential danger.
Investigations into the accident at WIPP uncovered a culture of unsafe practices at the site, including a history of irregular inspections. Days before the contamination at WIPP, a 29-year-old truck caught fire underground at the site. Ted Wyka, an Energy Department official leading the investigation, called the accident "preventable."
So why does Carlsbad want nuclear waste? Because it's worth big money.
Through WIPP -- which accepts only low-level radioactive waste such as gloves and tools from nuclear research -- more than a thousand jobs were created for the town. According to the Alamogordo News, its annual budget is more than $200 million, which mostly covers wages. Still, that's just a fraction of what the U.S. Energy Department has dumped into the facility.
The site cost about $2.5 billion to open, and the federal government has spent more than $6 billion on WIPP since its inception, the Albuquerque Journal reported in June. Filling the site will cost tens of billions more. And that spells job security for Carlsbad workers.
Carlsbad isn't alone. Officials in Loving County, Tex., which has just 95 people, hope to persuade the government to spend $28 billion to dispose of high-level radioactive waste there.
"We could build some roads," said Skeet Jones, a county judge, told the New York Times. "We could bring in some more water. We could have a town that's incorporated, have a city council, maybe even start a school."
There's no shortage of nuclear waste to spur such dreams. In 2011, the United States had nearly 72,000 tons of the radioactive junk but few places to put it, the Associated Press reported.
Finding new places to dump waste has proved difficult because parsing out how to store it properly takes a long time. So the waste sits on sites where it is created.
Loving and Carlsbad aside, not everyone wants a dump -- the preferred term is a "repository" -- nearby. A lot of Nevadans were happy to see the Obama administration pull the plug on a dump site for high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain.
After all, waste can remain radioactive for a quarter of a billion years. Officials can't be sure what happens to it -- or how to warn visitors away.
A sign might not help. As a 99% Invisible podcast pointed out in May, "language, like radioactive materials, has a half life." What's understandable today -- say, the symbol for radioactivity -- won't be in a thousand years.
One proposal suggested marking sites with Edvard Munch's "The Scream."
Roman Mars, host of the podcast, concluded: "I'm all for taking care of people 10,000 years in the future, but I think the best way to do that is to start taking care of people who are alive today."
DNSFB Public Meeting to Address Safety Culture at DOE Defense Nuclear Facilities
Federal Register
August 14, 2014
This public meeting and hearing is the second in a series of three hearings the Board will convene to address safety culture at Department of Energy defense nuclear facilities and the Board's Recommendation 2011-1, Safety Culture at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. The third hearing will be announced by a separate notice at a future date. In the first hearing, convened on May 28, 2014, the Board received testimony from recognized industry and federal government experts in the field of safety culture, with a focus on the tools used for assessing safety culture, approaches for interpreting the assessment results, and how results can be used for improving safety culture. This second hearing will also address important safety culture topics and will occur in two sessions. In the morning session, the Board will hear from a panel of current and former United States Navy officers concerning the Navy's approach to ensuring the safety of its nuclear fleet operations. The two panelists, the current Commander of the Naval Safety Center and the former Chief Engineer and Deputy Commander for Naval Systems Engineering, will focus discussions on Navy safety policies and procedures. They will also provide testimony on the tools, metrics and practices used to sustain a strong safety culture, and safety culture lessons learned. In the afternoon session, the Board will receive testimony from a panel of government and academic subject matter experts concerning the role of organizational leaders in establishing and maintaining an effective, positive safety culture. The afternoon panel will be comprised of a Member of the United States Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, and experts from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Southern California. EM Site-Specific Advisory Boards to Hold Open Meetings
Federal Register
August 14, 2014
EM SSAB, Nevada will hold its meeting in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014.
EM SSAB, Paducah will hold its meeting in Paducah on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014.
Chamber of Commerce expands cleanup support efforts
Chillicothe Gazette
August 15, 2014
WAVERLY - As work continues in trying to break the U.S. Department of Energy's silence concerning the funding future of cleanup work at the former gaseous diffusion plant in Piketon, the Pike County Chamber of Commerce has stepped up efforts to get its members involved in the process.
Earlier this week, Executive Director Shirley Bandy sent an email directly to chamber members requesting their help with a letter-writing campaign designed to show DOE and members of Congress widespread support for the cleanup operations and the potential effect on the local economy should those operations be curtailed.
The plea came a week after the chamber's regular monthly newsletter was distributed, which included letters sent to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz from Ohio's congressional delegation and from the chamber bearing the signatures of county officials from Pike, Ross, Jackson and Scioto counties. The newsletter also contained a Steelworkers Rapid Response Action Call item demanding action from DOE and information on how those receiving the item could make their voice heard.
"We are asking you to join us with the letter-writing campaign if you have not already done so," Bandy wrote in this week's email to chamber members. "Please invite your employees, co-workers, friends, families and neighbors to join us. We need to send a message to urge DOE and our congressional lawmakers to provide the resources needed to keep the project moving forward."
To help in the effort, Bandy included a form letter that could be signed and returned via email. The letters can be dropped off at the chamber office, or arrangements can be made to pick them up by calling the chamber's office. The letters will be collected and sent as a group.
"Please write your letters today," she urged. "This is not the time to lose momentum. Full funding and support will ensure the Piketon site remains a positive influence for environmental safety, jobs, growth and future for southern Ohio."
Presently, the decontamination and decommissioning project of the former Cold War-era site is facing a projected $110 million budget shortfall, which could force cleanup contractor Fluor-B&W Portsmouth and its subcontractors to lay off 675 employees in the fall. Earlier this month, a joint news conference was staged in which local officials from the four counties most affected by the work at the site expressed their frustration about what Scioto County Commissioner Mike Crabtree called a "code of silence" coming from DOE.
The form letter emphasizes the effects on families, businesses, schools and government services that the loss of that number of jobs would have, and it states it is critical the work proceed or be accelerated for the sake of future economic development in the area.
It also reminds DOE of its stake in the project from a historical standpoint.
"The D&D Project is more than cleaning up a shutdown gaseous diffusion plant -- it's about the final chapter for the site's Cold War legacy," the letter reads. "It is about the federal government keeping its promise to a community that has supported the nuclear industry for over 60 years. It's about remediating the land so the community can focus on reindustrialization.
"Over the past three years we have seen progress and, more importantly, we've seen a FUTURE for this 3,700-acre site. Please allocate the funds needed to not only maintain, but accelerate the D&D work." |
| ||||||||
