Chillcothe Gazette

June 14, 2016

PIKETON - As plans progress for creation of an on-site waste disposal cell for cleanup work at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, village officials want more involvement and interaction with the Department of Energy.

"We expect the DOE to show us the respect they have shown other energy communities and to, for the first time, pay the village a visit to keep us updated concerning the on-site disposal cell," Piketon Mayor Billy Spencer said.

The on-site disposal cell to be created on the DOE site in Piketon is being designed to handle low-level contaminated waste from the decontamination and decommissioning work of the former Cold War-era uranium enrichment facility, with higher-level waste still being shipped off-site for disposal. The plan for the cell's creation received the approval of both DOE and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

The absence of DOE representatives at important moments in the life of the cleanup project, including a town hall meeting conducted last September in Waverly when it looked like large-scale layoffs were imminent, has been a sore spot for Pike County officials, village officials and many working at the DOE site.

Recently, the Piketon Village Council approved a five-page resolution formalizing some of its concerns and requesting actions be taken to establish a better relationship with the federal agency.

The first of those actions involves the village pursuing a technical assistance grant from DOE to allow for a third party to come in and assess the influence a disposal cell may have socioeconomically, with regard to public image, and on future growth and development. Such influence could be on the village itself or on "areas identified for future growth opportunities that will result from the construction of a low-level nuclear and hazardous waste landfill and the perpetual storage of radioactive and hazardous waste at the Piketon Plant to enable the Village of Piketon to develop a strategic plan to offset the negative impacts that are identified," the resolution reads.

Communication is another sore spot the council would like to see remedied. It is requesting DOE provide a quarterly report to council presented in-person by a DOE representative with updates on the cleanup project, a detailed explanation of waste acceptance criteria and items that are prohibited for disposal at the site, a summary of site employment, project schedule updates, and a funding profile. The council also wants DOE to establish a public information center accessible to community members for educational purposes about safety controls, potential hazards and various insights about the site and its history.

The resolution also states the council will provide public support for construction of the waste disposal cell if DOE commits to eight conditions:

Spencer said the resolution is something village officials have been talking about on and off for a while now. Several of the items contained in the resolution are similar to those expressed by the Portsmouth Site Specific Advisory Board in September when the advisory group withdrew support of the cell because it felt DOE did not listen to concerns about disposal requirements and did not commit to making changes it felt were needed.

With the council resolution having just passed in late May, Spencer said officials have not yet had the opportunity to submit the technical assistance grant application, nor has the village received a response from DOE.

Knox Blogs

June 15, 2016

An assessment by the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General raised questions about hundreds of thousands of dollars of costs incurred by DOE’s Oak Ridge cleanup contractor — URS/CH2M Oak Ridge — but UCOR said it resolved all of the issues before the report was made public this week.

The IG regularly conducts reviews of DOE’s managing contractors to evaluate whether costs claimed under their federal contracts are allowable and properly accounted for during internal audit. The report released Wednesday looked at UCOR’s first three years on the job — Fiscal Years 2011, 2012 and 2013.

The report also said more than $250 million in subcontractor costs had not been audited for those first three years under UCOR’s leadership and those, too, are considered to be unresolved until the audits are completed.

Ashley Hartman, a spokeswoman for UCOR, said all planned subcontract audit for 2011-2013, as well as those for Fiscal Years 2014, 2015 and 2016, will be completed by Dec. 31.

According to the IG’s assessment, there was no “material concern” that indicated UCOR’s internal audits could not be trusted or relied up. And there were no general weaknesses with the cost-allowability audits, which “generally met” international auditing standards.

However, it was noted that UCOR’s internal audits had questioned $404,252 of the costs claimed during the three-year period, of which $112,613 had not been resolved.

Therefore, the IG said it, too, questioned that amount and also identified some weaknesses that needed to be addressed to make sure only allowable costs were claimed and reimbursed to the contractor. There also were issues where the conclusions of internal audits were not accurate.

Of note among those weaknesses was that UCOR did not always conduct audits of its subcontracts when costs incurred were a factor.

“UCOR believes that the findings in the Inspector General’s report speak for themselves,” Hartman said in response to questions, “and we support the audit’s conclusions. Prior to the release of the report, UCOR had corrected or resolved all unallowable or questionable (contractor) costs raised in the findings.”

Even though the IG said it ultimately found that it could rely on UCOR’s internal audits, the report said there were instances where the audit papers did not contain sufficient information to substantiate the conclusions.

The IG report listed five recommendations for improvements at DOE’s Oak Ridge contractor, and the federal agency’s cleanup chief — Sue Cange — said she agreed with those recommendations.

Among those recommendations was that all unresolved costs be resolved and that all unallowable costs be collected from UCOR. DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management instructed UCOR to have most of the issues resolved by mid-May.

Mike Koentop of DOE’s Oak Ridge cleanup office said the agency was pleased with UCOR’s response to the issues.

Aiken Standard

June 12, 2016

The U.S. Department of Energy – Savannah River Site (SRS) has welcomed Cathy R. Patterson, of Aiken, for a two-year term on the Citizens Advisory Board. The SRS Citizens Advisory Board is a community board that provides advice and recommendations, from a community perspective, to the DOE regarding environmental cleanup activities that are taking place at SRS.

Patterson is a senior programmer analyst with Centerra, the SRS security force. She has expressed an interest in educational and economic development issues. She holds a Bachelor of Science in math and computer science, a Master of Arts in theology and a Master of Business Administration in accounting. She is a member of the Concerned Ministers Fellowship.

World Nuclear News

June 14, 2016

Eight small businesses have been chosen to receive a share of a $2 million pilot project to help them access the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) nuclear energy-related knowledge and capabilities under the department's Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative.

The Nuclear Energy Voucher Program's goal is to assist new entrants into the nuclear field to build the collaborations necessary to accelerate the development and deployment of innovative nuclear technologies. The funding is in the form of "vouchers" redeemable at DOE national laboratories or Nuclear Science User Facility (NSUF) partner facilities to obtain services or use facilities to help small businesses overcome critical technology and commercialization challenges. Vouchers cannot be used to obtain services or use equipment that is available in the private sector.

The DOE invited eligible small businesses to apply for the vouchers, worth from $50,000 to $300,000 each, in March.

To be eligible, businesses needed to be organized for profit, have less than 500 employees, be majority-owned by a US citizen, and operate primarily within the USA. Selected recipients are required to provide at least 20% cost-share per voucher which can be in cash or "in kind" - for example labour, materials, equipment or data.

The eight businesses selected to receive vouchers are Creare, Columbia Basin Consulting Group, Terrestrial Energy USA, Transatomic Power Corporation, Ceramic Tubular Products, Oklo Inc, CompoRex and BgtL. They have been partnered with the DOE's Argonne, Idaho, Oak Ridge and Pacific Northwest national laboratories and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Proposals put forward by voucher recipients include the development of novel materials, reactor technologies and energy storage systems.

DOE Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy John Kotek said the department looked forward to working with the recipients as they develop their innovative concepts. "In addition to this financial support, DOE will be fostering innovation by facilitating these groups' access to the extensive nuclear research capabilities hosted at DOE National Labs and our partners in the Nuclear Science User Facilities program," he said.

Kemal Pasamehmetoglu, director of the GAIN initiative and associate laboratory director for nuclear science and technology at Idaho National Laboratory, said that the partner laboratories had the facilities and capabilities needed to help make the voucher recipients' advanced nuclear technology concepts a reality. "The urgency and stakeholder support for these innovations has never been stronger," he said.

The GAIN initiative was launched in November 2015 to provide a way to fast-track nuclear innovation, providing stakeholders with a means of accessing DOE research and development infrastructure to help them meet the challenges of bringing new technologies towards engineering-scale demonstration. Earlier this year the DOE selected projects to develop a pebble bed reactor and a molten chloride fast reactor to receive multi-year cost-share funding worth up to a total of $80 million under the initiative.

KUNM

June 12, 2016

This KUNM Call In Show will be rescheduled. We'll let you know when as soon as we know. - The Manhattan Project National Historical Park was formally established last year and plans are underway to create facilities in Los Alamos, Oakridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Washington. The idea is to tell the stories behind the creation of the first atomic bomb. But critics worry the new park could glorify or gloss over controversial issues, such as using the weapons on Japan, and the impacts on communities from nuclear weapons testing.

How will the story of creating the atomic bomb be told?

What does it mean to have these sites under the banner of the National Parks Service? Whose voices do you think should be included? Email callinshow@kunm.org or call in live during the show.

Guests:

Tracy Atkins, interim superintendent, Manhattan Project National Historical Park

Tina Cordova, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Association

Heather McClenahan, executive director, Los Alamos Historical Society