ECA Update: November 12, 2015
Published: Thu, 11/12/15
Manhattan Project sites get National Park status WBIR.Com November 10, 2015 LINK WBIR - OAK RIDGE) Representatives from the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Department of Energy signed a memorandum of agreement in Washington D.C. on Tuesday to establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The park will have three locations in Los Alamos, New Mexico; Hanford, Washington; and in Oak Ridge. The three cities are where some of the world's first atomic weapons were built in World War II. Oak Ridge leaders have said the new park would be a giant economic boost for the area. "It's a great way of telling one of the most significant historical events that happened in our last generation," Oak Ridge City Councilman Chuck Hope said. "It's going to be a big factor in letting everybody know how important East Tennessee and Oak Ridge was to that endeavor." The agreement will formally describe how the National Park Service and Department of Energy will work together to "preserve, protect, and provide access to the historic resources associated with the Manhattan Project." Scenes From Today's Signing Ceremony Establishing Manhattan Project National Historical Park LA Daily Post November 10, 2015 LINK MPNHP News: Watch the event live here WASHINGTON, D.C. - Los Alamos County Council Chair Kristin Henderson, former Councilor Fran Berting and Bandelier Superintendent Jason Lott joined U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich at this morning's signing ceremony in Washington, D.C. to officially establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Udall and Heinrich and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., participated in the signing ceremony for the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Department of the Interior and Department of Energy establishing the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz signed the agreement. After more than a decade of support and involvement from the local community, Senators Udall and Heinrich worked to include legislation in the FY2015 National Defense Authorization Act--which was signed into law in December 2014--to establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The provision established three different educational sites in Los Alamos, New Mexico; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Hanford, Washington. The park will conserve historic sites and artifacts that played a key role in the dawn of the nuclear era, and help tell the story of the creation of the world's first atomic bomb and its consequences for society. The MOA officially establishes the Manhattan Project National Historical Park as a unit of the National Park System. The MOA formally describes how the National Park Service and the Department of Energy will work together to preserve, protect, and provide access to the historic resources associated with the Manhattan Project. Who: U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) Interior, Energy to sign agreement establishing Manhattan Project Park Oak Ridge Today November 9, 2015 LINK Note: This story was updated at 7 p.m. On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz will sign a memorandum of agreement, or MOA, in Washington, D.C., to establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which will include Oak Ridge. The new park will be the first of its type to commemorate the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. The park will have three locations: Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Hanford, Washington. National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis will attend the Tuesday morning ceremony along with U.S. senators Lamar Alexander, Maria Cantwell, Martin Heinrich, and Tom Udall, who represent each of the park’s locations. Leaders of the communities that will host the park, including Oak Ridge, will attend the ceremony. “The science of the Manhattan Project laid the foundation for innovation in fields such as nuclear medicine and clean energy, which has enhanced the quality of our lives, helped keep us competitive in a global economy, and maintained our national security,” Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch said. The Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act became law as part of a provision passed in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act. The Park establishes three different sites in Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Hanford. The park will conserve historic sites and artifacts that played a key role during the nuclear era while telling the story of the world’s first atomic bomb and exploring its historical and societal consequences. “The Manhattan Project National Historical Park will give current and future generations a better understanding of this indisputable turning point in world history,” said Roane County Executive Ron Woody, who is secretary of the Energy Communities Alliance. “We look forward to telling that story together.” For more than a decade, the U.S. Department of Energy and National Park Service, in cooperation with other federal agencies, state, and local governments and stakeholders—including Oak Ridge, Atomic Heritage Foundation, and Energy Communities Alliance, among others—have worked to create the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. On December 19, 2014, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, which included provisions authorizing the steps to establish the park. Once signed, the MOA will officially establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park as a unit of the National Park System. The MOA will formally describe how the National Park Service and the Department of Energy will work together to preserve, protect, and provide access to the historic resources associated with the Manhattan Project. The Tuesday signing ceremony begins at 10 a.m. at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. The ceremony will be streamed live online at doi.gov/live. “Our communities are honored to be working together to tell the story of the Manhattan Project,” said Steve Young, ECA vice chair and mayor of Kennewick, Washington. “The Park creates a real opportunity to preserve history while realizing the benefits the Park’s heritage tourism industry will create for our communities.” ECA is a nonprofit organization of local governments that host, or are adjacent to, U.S. Department of Energy sites. See previous stories on the park here. Senator Brown continues to urge full funding at Piketon The Pike County News Watchman November 10, 2015 LINK On Monday, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) wrote to U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Shaun Donovan, director of the Office of Management and Budget, urging that the Department of Energy’s fiscal year (FY) 2017 budget include $460 million to fully fund ongoing decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) efforts at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon. “Because of the commitment from Congress and the Administration, there are more than 2,000 good-paying jobs at the site,” said Brown. “Yet, due to budgetary shortfalls, over the past two years more than 1,000 WARN notices have been issued at the site. While a commitment from the DOE and Congress has resulted in the shortfall being eliminated and the jobs being saved, this process has been unfair to workers, the community, and the families that depend on these jobs.” Workers at Piketon — both in its decontamination and decommissioning operations and at the American Centrifuge Plant — have received WARN notices that their jobs were in jeopardy. Congress passed a short-term funding bill in September that ensures that D&D operations at the plant will continue through Dec. 11. Last month, Secretary Moniz indicated that no layoffs would occur within Piketon’s D&D operations through Dec. 11. “The Administration’s commitment to an accelerated site cleanup, ensures that our nation maintains its commitment to the people of Southeastern Ohio who for more than 50 years have supported critical enrichment activities,” Brown’s letter stated in-part. “Continued cleanup at the site is critical to the economy of Southern Ohio, a region still recovering from the recent economic downturn. These funds will help put people back to work cleaning up the site, reclaiming the site, and setting the stage for future redevelopment and reuse.” Brown also stated that he is “concerned that despite undeniable progress at the site, the DOE continues to rely on uranium disposition to fund some cleanup activities and lacks a clear plan for maintaining the current workforce and the pace of site cleanup once the uranium runs out. Given the significant reliance DOE has placed on uranium disposition to fund cleanup activities, I believe DOE must develop a sustainable, long-term plan for cleanup work. Having a clear funding path — that does not rely upon uranium disposition — in the years ahead is essential to ensure that Portsmouth’s cleanup timelines are met.” “As work will soon begin on an onsite disposal cell for demolition materials, it is critical that funds for the disposal cell do not come at the expense of funding for the ongoing deconstruction and decontamination work at the site. Further, it is imperative that we continue this progress by ensuring that the construction of and eventual disposal of materials in the cell is consistent with the recommendations made by the Site Specific Advisory Board. In October, Brown and other members of the Ohio Congressional delegation wrote a letter to Moniz urging him to maintain employment at the plant using the funding provided by Congress. Hanford Advisory Board wants DOE openness on tank vapors Tri-City Herald November 9, 2015 LINK The Hanford Advisory Board will not be giving the Department of Energy advice in the coming year on efforts to better protect Hanford workers from chemical vapors from underground waste tanks. The topic is not on the annual agenda, or work plan, that DOE and its regulators approve, although the advisory board had included the topic on its proposed agenda. The board released a letter Monday that it sent to the Department of Energy saying, “the scope of the restrictions now imposed on board public discussions seems unnecessarily broad.” DOE is named in two lawsuits filed in federal court over worker vapor protection, one filed by Washington and the other by Hanford Challenge and Union Local 598. Numerous studies have been done on worker exposure to the chemical vapors during the past two decades, with DOE contractor Washington River Protection Solutions working to implement recommendations made in the latest study. That effort started before the lawsuits were filed. “The board encourages DOE to revisit the communication restrictions, in hopes of minimizing tank farm information restricted areas to only those which directly bear on the on-going litigation,” the advisory board letter said. Openness will only improve the board’s and the public’s trust in the DOE safety culture, it said. “Worker safety has been and will always be a priority for the Department of Energy,” DOE said in a statement. “The department will continue to communicate as appropriate and in consideration of the ongoing litigation.” As long as tank vapor protection is not on the annual work plan, the board will not be given formal briefings that would provide in depth information that would lead to the board issuing advice to DOE and its regulators. However, the board can request progress reports and some information was made available in September when the board was given an update on overall progress at the Hanford tank farms and the vitrification plant being built to treat the waste for disposal. Information DOE has provided has included measures taken to date to protect workers and progress on implementing the first phase of recommendations from the latest study, which was led by the Savannah River National Laboratory. Part of the board’s goal in writing the letter was to assure tank farm workers that they are taking the issue seriously, even if there are no plans to issue advice on the topic. “The board reaffirms that the health and safety of the Hanford Site work force will remain one of our primary concerns and that the board will continue to actively monitor this and other important worker safety issues,” the letter said. |
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