ECA Update: October 6, 2014
Published: Mon, 10/06/14
Monday, October 6, marks the first day Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall will enter the Department of Energy as Deputy Secretary. She was confirmed by the Senate on a voice vote last month after spending the last 5 years as a top official on the National Security Council. Former Deputy Secretary Dan Poneman, who held the position for more than five years, left the post Friday, October 3, for Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Message from DOE on the Hanford Consent Decree
DOE EM
One of the Department of Energy's most important tasks is to clean up the legacy of nuclear materials production during World War II and the Cold War. At the Hanford site in Washington State, the Department is responsible for treating 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste stored in 177 underground tanks. The Department, through its contractor, is designing and constructing the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant or WTP, a massive, complex, and first-of-a-kind, chemical and nuclear plant to turn a portion of this defense waste into a glass form.
WTP consists of several different facilities, including:
In 2010, the Department of Energy entered into a court-enforceable agreement known as a Consent Decree with the State of Washington to complete and start up WTP by 2019 and reach an average 70 percent operational capacity by 2022. The Department also agreed to transfer the waste from 19 single-shell tanks into double-shell tanks, which have an extra barrier between the waste and the environment, by 2022. Due to unresolved technical challenges, particularly with the Pretreatment Facility, the deadlines for WTP are not achievable, and the Consent Decree needs to be modified.
The Department has been in discussions with the State and had hoped to reach an agreement on an amendment to the Consent Decree. However, the State announced on Sept. 5 it would not extend discussions. DOE's motion to modify the Consent Decree represents a prudent and reasonable approach for accomplishing the objectives outlined in the existing Consent Decree on a modified timeline in light of the technical and safety issues that have emerged.
The current design requires that all waste treated at WTP be processed through the Pretreatment Facility, but this would require waiting until the technical issues are resolved. Therefore, a key element of our proposal is an alternative approach to begin treating Hanford's tank waste as soon as practicable by directly feeding the liquid portion of the waste to the Low-Activity Waste Facility. We continue to make progress toward achieving this goal even without an amended Consent Decree.
The Department has made tremendous progress in the cleanup efforts at Hanford, but we still have a long way to go. It is critical that we move forward as quickly as practicable to begin immobilizing the tank waste. We hope there is an expeditious resolution of this matter. In the near term, the Department will continue to move forward to begin treating tank waste at Hanford, and will continue to work with the State and key stakeholders to accomplish this important mission.
Sincerely,
Mark Whitney
Acting EM Assistant Secretary Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Public Hearing Notice and Meeting
DNSFB
October 7, 2014
Summary
This public meeting and hearing is the third in a series to address safety culture at Department of Energy (DOE) defense nuclear facilities and the Board's Recommendation 2011-1, Safety Culture at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. The meeting will be convened in a single session with three panels. In the first panel, the Honorable Ernest J. Moniz, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy, will provide remarks concerning his vision for establishing a strong safety culture in DOE. Secretary Moniz will also discuss his views on other Departmental priorities. In the second panel, the Board will receive remarks from the Honorable Madelyn Creedon, Principal Deputy Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Ms. Creedon is expected to discuss concerns identified in NNSA safety culture assessments and present her approaches to address those concerns. She is also expected to offer her perspective on the safety culture of NNSA contractor organizations, her expectations for safety culture, and her approaches to address any identified safety culture concerns. In the third and final panel, the Board will receive remarks from Mr. Mark Whitney, Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management, DOE. Mr. Whitney is similarly expected to discuss concerns identified in safety culture assessments of Environmental Management (EM) organizations and his approaches to address those concerns. He will also discuss his perspective on the safety culture of EM contractor organizations, his expectations for safety culture, and his approaches to address any identified safety culture concerns. The hearing can be watched at the link provided in the notice.
Idaho National Laboratory brings nuclear test reactor back to life
Daily Journal
October 5, 2014
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho -- Idaho's nuclear research laboratory is in the process of refurbishing a 1959 nuclear reactor to restart testing new fuel designs and power levels.
The U.S. Department of Energy is spending $75 million to restart the reactor, known as TREAT, by 2018, the Post Register reported.
Idaho National Laboratory transient testing director John Bumgardner says federal officials expressed interest in resuming the reactor's testing abilities after the 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan.
The Department of Energy conducted several cost-benefit studies across the country but Idaho's TREAT reactor won as the best option.
Bumgardner said Idaho's reactor was selected largely because operators in 1988 completely refurbished the system before it shuttered six years later.
"The people who worked at this reactor in the past did a brilliant job," Bumgardner said. "It has a very low use of uranium, and as a result, the reactor can run for a long time."
The Japan nuclear accident caused Congress to direct the energy department to renew efforts to develop more accident-tolerant nuclear fuel.
The reactor had been shut off since 1994, largely because of a lack of customers.
INL officials say they tracked down former employees to gain knowledge about the machine. They are now working to replace the computer system --the current one has 8-inch floppy drives-- and train a 40-person full-time staff who will operate the reactor.
Keith Penny, TREAT plant manager, compared the reactor to a 1959 classic car that was fully restored in the 1980s. After it was restored, Penny said, it sat untouched inside a garage ever since.
"The design of this machine is unreal," he said.
The reactor can hold several 17-foot metal control rods that are pumped continuously in and out of the core. Under the reactor's core, various pistons are positioned to slow or accelerate a nuclear reaction.
TREAT is set to be INL's third active nuclear reactor. However, not everyone is excited about it.
Beatrice Brailsford with the Snake River Alliance questioned if the demand for transient testing has increased since 1994, when officials cited lack of customers as one of the main reasons to shut it down.
Anti-nuclear group Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free also opposes the reactor.
"An accident at the TREAT Reactor can, INL admits, have an impact on people who live and work offsite," wrote Kit DesLauriers of Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free, ". the most careful and realistic assessment must be done, and there must be full public participation in the decision to restart."
UCOR restructures to prepare for future DOE roles
Knoxville News Sentinel
October 6, 2014
It's a variation on an old saying, but there's nothing certain about the government's Oak Ridge operations except for change.
That's surely the case at URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the Department of Energy's environmental cleanup contractor, which recently unveiled a major reorganization of its management team.
This wasn't just a few people changing offices to get a better view, a little more responsibility and maybe a pay raise. It appeared to be a very targeted restructuring to prepare UCOR for changing missions, evolving priorities at DOE, and opportunities for future work.
Since 2011, when UCOR replaced Bechtel Jacobs as the manager of DOE's environmental cleanup efforts, the primary focus has been on demolition activities at East Tennessee Technology Park -- site of former uranium-enrichment activities -- and other Oak Ridge sites.
Now that the massive K-25 building has been hauled away, fewer demolition tasks are on the horizon -- with K-27 being the biggest one -- and attention is shifting to other cleanup jobs.
Ken Rueter, who a few months ago succeeded Leon Sain as president and project manager for UCOR, explained the reorganization in a lengthy message to employees.
While some management changes are designed to prepare the contractor for the future, some were designed to meet short-term needs -- such as attention to a leaking reactor pool at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Rueter said Jeff Selvey has been named the 3042 Recovery Manager (3042 is the building number for the Oak Ridge Research Reactor, where the leak was detected in mid-September). Selvey mobilized the team that responded to the reactor leak and has maintained that leadership. Rueter indicated that Michelle McNutt will replace Selvey as acting manager of the high hazard nuclear operations group.
Other changes of note:
Construction continues for MOX facility at Savannah River Site under continuing resolution funding levels
The Augusta Chronicle
September 27, 2014
The mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility at Savannah River Site has survived the most threatening push to halt construction in its tumultuous history, but the funding fight isn't finished for the multibillion-dollar government project.
In March, the Obama administration called for an end to the project at the start of the 2015 fiscal year, which begins Wednesday. However, Congress' inability to pass a budget for the year benefitted the thousands of workers at the MOX project who will continue to build the facility at least for a few more months.
Congress approved a continuing resolution Sept. 18 that continues funding the government, including the MOX project, at current spending levels. The short-term measure expires Dec. 11, after which Congress will try to reach a budget agreement for the rest of the fiscal year.
MOX construction continues under the resolution but the path forward will be re-evaluted when it expires, said Derrick Robinson, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Se¬curity Administration, a semi-autonomous division of the Department of Energy that manages the project.
"The department is currently reviewing execution plans for (fiscal year 2015) work submitted by the MOX contractor at various funding levels and will determine the best path forward taking into account direction from Congress when the current continuing resolution expires," he said.
A reprieve for the MOX project isn't new. Supporters of the effort, which is about 60 percent complete and intended to convert 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium into commercial nuclear fuel, say they have seen the funding fight before but an ultimate decision on the project's fate has been delayed.
"It's always been a large debate on the dollar amounts," said Rick McLeod, the executive director of the SRS Community Reuse Organ¬i¬zation. "This past year is the only time it was pushed to the degree of 'cold standby.' "
During the president's recommendation of cold standby, the facility and equipment would be protected from the environment and the site and government documents secured.
About $4 billion has been spent on construction so far. In 1999, the MOX plant was projected to cost $1.7 billion to build. The estimate rose to $4.9 billion and in 2013, the cost was revised to $7.7 billion.
Following a bipartisan show of support, the House and Senate agreed that MOX needs more money in fiscal year 2015 than the White House proposed using to shut down the project. Congress also said the money must be used to continue construction.
Even if a new budget includes money for continuing MOX, McLeod said it won't be at the level necessary for optimal construction activity.
"The funding amounts coming forward are not at a level that will expedite construction," he said. "If at some point people are serious about continuing MOX, there has to be an agreement that (the Department of Energy) would request money to expedite construction and Con¬gress would back it."
Political backers of the project remain optimistic that Congress will approve a massive omnibus spending bill for the fiscal year that will include MOX funding. During budget sessions, Senate appropriators approved $400 million, and the House approved $345 million.
"Congress has made its intentions for the completion of the project explicitly clear," said Carolina Delleney, a spokeswoman for Rep. Joe Wil¬son, R-S.C. "It is the congressman's hope that the administration will not attempt to stymie the will of Congress and that a full year Omnibus can be passed which will fund all of SRS through Sept. 30, 2015."
Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said the Senate's support of MOX will likely carry over into budget discussions when Congress returns after the November election. SRS waste shipments to WIPP delayed until 2016
Aiken Standard
October 5, 2014
The Savannah River Site will have to wait until at least 2016 to continue sending shipments of Cold War-era nuclear waste materials to a site in New Mexico, according to a recent update.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, is in Carlsbad, New Mexico. The site receives waste shipments from various Department of Energy sites, including transuranic waste, or TRU waste, from Savannah River Site.
The Site's TRU waste program includes solid waste consisting of clothing, tools, rags, residues, debris and other items contaminated with plutonium. In 2001, SRS began shipping more than 15,000 cubic meters of TRU waste to the WIPP.
Operations at the WIPP are on hold after 22 workers were exposed to radiation during a Feb. 14 incident.
Since then, DOE has been providing progress reports on happenings at the WIPP, the latest stating full-scale operations might not resume until 2019 with initial restarts scheduled for 2016.
"Resumption of full scale operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant may not occur until 2019 and could cost up to $551 million, though initial operations are slated for resumption in early 2016 at a cost of about $242 million," officials wrote in the report.
They explained that DOE must install a new permanent ventilation system and construct a new exhaust shaft. The system is estimated to run between $65 million and $261 million while the exhaust shaft is expected to cost between $12 million and $48 million.
"This will be part of the critical decision process for DOE capital asset projects, and also be dependent on appropriation of funds and those kinds of things," said DOE spokesman Mark Whitney.
SRS officials have reported that the rest of the TRU waste shipments are safely stored and are ready to go once the WIPP reopens. The last shipment SRS sent to occurred in February, and the site currently has about 750 cubic meters left.
SRNS suffers anomalies, amps up oversight
The Aiken Standard
October 3, 2014
Oversight has been amped up at the Savannah River Site's tritium facilities after several incidents, including undisclosed wrongful entries on a data sheet. The lapses might have resulted in the loss of jobs, but officials will neither confirm nor deny that.
"Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor," a publication that follows nuclear activities, recently published the allegations of improper activities by employees of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, or SRNS, the management and operations contractor for the site.
The publication reported on Sept. 26 that the SRS tritium facilities experienced 10 incidents, including several "anomalies," or inconsistencies, on the data sheet.
The Aiken Standard reached out to SRNS on the issue. The contractor confirmed that there were anomalies involving the data sheet, but did not comment on whether those anomalies were forgery, the falsifying of records, etc.
"Our employees, using the peer-checking that is part of our standard operating process, noted anomalies with the entries before the equipment was placed back in service, and the calibrations were completed and verified again with full documentation," said Angie French, the contractor's communications lead for NNSA operations.
When asked whether the incident resulted in job losses for employees, French explained that the contractor does not comment on personnel matters.
Other incidents that have occurred in the tritium facility include: an operator failing to follow established procedures to define system alignment that resulted in a ruptured disk; an operator error resulting in a valve inside one of the facilities being left open, allowing gas to expand into the transfer line; and a power loss to the Tritium Extraction Facility during execution of a preventive maintenance procedure.
To correct the issues, French said SRNS implemented senior supervisory watch in the tritium facilities, which is a standard tool used throughout the nuclear industry. "It means adding a level of senior management to each operating shift," she said. "We also brought in Conduct of Operations mentors from throughout the company to reinforce standard disciplined operating principles."
She added that SRNS is preparing to complete the senior supervisory watch campaign, a process that looks at each shift individually to verify that the full level of disciplined operations is in place.
She added, "As with any issue or concern, the Savannah River Tritium Enterprise management team looks at each to learn the underlying cause, determine how to prevent recurrence and ways to learn lessons that can be used both internally and across the site." IG Report: Management of Certain Aspects of the Human Reliability Program and Incident Reporting within the Office of Secure Transportation
September 24, 2014
"The Office of Secure Transportation (OST) is managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration within the Department of Energy (Department). OST is responsible for the safe and secure transport of Government-owned special nuclear materials within the United States. In accordance with Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 712, Human Reliability Program, OST implemented the Human Reliability Program (HRP). The HRP is a security and safety reliability program designed to ensure that only those who meet the highest standards of reliability, physical and mental suitability can gain access to nuclear weapons.
"We found that certain aspects of the OST HRP were not effectively managed. In particular, we identified problems related to notification and consideration of HRP status prior to assigning OST staff to missions. In addition, we identified a troubling failure of OST officials to report and properly assess a deliberate example of unauthorized access to nuclear weapons."
DOE makes plans to offer new type of Hanford tour
Tri-City Herald
September 27, 2014
Plans are being made to offer a new Hanford tour, this one telling the story of the settlers who lived near the Columbia River before they were forced out to make way for the secret Manhattan Project during World War II.
The public will see four pre-Manhattan Project structures that are now in the secure area of the nuclear reservation, announced Doug Shoop, acting manager of the Hanford Department of Energy Richland Operations Office.
In March 1943, 1,500 families were given eviction notices. It was the largest forced foreclosure in U.S. history, said Nancy Bowers, a Hanford B Reactor docent.
Most buildings were torn down, a signal to families that nothing remained for them there, she said. Orderly rows of stumps -- the remains of orchards -- can still be seen in the desert.
Among the families forced from their homes and businesses were Paul and Mary Bruggemann, who made their living on 400 acres downriver from the Vernita Bridge.
Decades after the land was made part of the nuclear reservation, they would come to the bridge and peer down the river to try to see what had become of their property.
After years of nurturing trees on soil kept moist with river water, the Bruggemanns were set to bring in their first major crop of cherries when they were evicted in 1943 to make way for a massive wartime plant to produce plutonium for atomic weapons.
Today, just one of the ranch's buildings remains standing. It is a beautifully crafted cobblestone warehouse with decorative touches like arched windows underlined with rows of smaller stones.
Down the river, the towns of White Bluffs and Hanford thrived in 1943.
But the federal government only left standing Hanford High School and the tiny, brick White Bluffs Bank.
Bank officials bragged that what was then a state-of-the-art structure was unrobbable, Bowers said, but they were wrong. The bank was robbed at least once.
The new planned tour also is expected to stop at the Hanford Irrigation District Pump House.
Hanford tours are offered spring through fall, with tours finished for this year. Watch for notices of the 2015 tour schedule in the spring. |
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