Yahoo News

June 21, 2016

The efforts during World War II to develop an atomic bomb were once shrouded in secrecy, but today, the story of the so-called Manhattan Project isn't just public — you can now visit the project on your smartphone.

A new app called "Los Alamos: Secret City of the Manhattan Project" takes users back to New Mexico in the 1940s, to the facilities where scientists, government administrators and the U.S. military convened to create the most devastating weapons known to humankind. [Top 10 Greatest Explosions Ever]

"The new app provides a virtual tour of a Manhattan Project property that no longer exists," Jennifer Payne, leader of the Resource Management Team at Los Alamos' Environmental Stewardship Group, said in a statement.

Research for the Manhattan Project took place at multiple sites, but work at Los Alamos was largely responsible for building the first atomic bombs, using uranium and plutonium. This research resulted in the "Trinity device," which was detonated 220 miles (350 kilometers) south of the Los Alamos facilities, at the Trinity test site, and eventually the "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" nuclear bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, near the end of World War II.

The app allows users to move about the black-and-white film-noir grounds of facilities that have since been dismantled or simply aren't open to the public, encountering information on the science, people and history of the project. There are 137 "bread crumbs" to find with historical facts, photographs and documents, according to Travis Burkett, who led the development team for the app.

As users explore the map and the site's history, their "security clearance" is upgraded, opening up more places to visit. The experience culminates in a trip to the Trinity site and the test detonation that occurred on July 16, 1945.

"[The Manhattan Project] is really the reason why Los Alamos exists," said Burkett, who lives in a Los Alamos house built by the government. He notes that the game includes information about the town and people and not just the bombs, plus an augmented reality feature for visitors to the Los Alamos site of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

Burkett's team previously mapped facilities at Los Alamos so that firefighters without security clearance can learn the layouts of the buildings there without administrators having to shut down activities for tours.

The app was produced by Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Bradbury Science Museum. It is currently available on iOS and is free to download and play.

"We hope everyone will use it," Burkett said. "We hope even the older generation will give it a shot."

Chillcothe Gazette

June 21, 2016

PIKETON — The Department of Energy site in Piketon is making environmental sampling data accessible to the public through a new enhanced geographic mapping tool online.

The tool, PEGASIS, offers public access to information such as all publicly available environmental documents and ground-water level and analytical data from the site. Previously, the data was only available by filing a formal Freedom of Information Act request.

“PEGASIS promotes open government by allowing users to conveniently access the system,” said Richard Bonczek, of the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. “This information about the Portsmouth site can be used for a variety of purposes, and DOE is glad to provide this resource to the public.”

The database is available at https://gisviewer.fbports.com/Default.aspx.

Aiken Standard

June 21, 2016

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Energy celebrated the newly constructed Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Dr. Monica C. Regalbuto, DOE assistant secretary with the Office of Environmental Management, was the guest speaker for the event. Other participants included DOE-Savannah River Manager Jack Craig, Parsons Executive Vice President Anthony Leketa and Senior Vice President and SWPF Project Manager Frank Sheppard.

The Salt Waste Processing Facility is a key component of the liquid waste program at the Savannah River Site. SWPF will treat highly radioactive salt solutions currently stored in underground tanks at SRS.

Removing salt waste, which fills more than 90 percent of tank space in the SRS tank farms, is a major step toward emptying the Site’s remaining 43 high level waste tanks

Tri-City Herald

June 21, 2016

The Hanford tank farm contractor defended its protection of workers in a letter to the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council on Tuesday, a day after the union group issued a list of demands to better protect workers from chemical vapors.

“Throughout the WRPS contract period, we have ensured that personnel are protected,” said the letter from tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions.

However, the contractor will consider in good faith the actions outlined by the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council, or HAMTC, said Mark Lindholm, president of the tank farm contractor, in the letter. HAMTC is an umbrella group for 15 unions with workers at Hanford.

Chemical vapors associated with waste held in underground tanks at Hanford have been an issue for at least 20 years. With 53 workers receiving medical evaluations for possible exposure to vapors in recent months, HAMTC told the tank farm contractor Monday that more aggressive action was needed immediately to protect workers.

HAMTC has the power to stop work if it does not believe workers are safe.

OUR INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE AND MONITORING PROGRAMS ARE FULLY COMPLIANT AND STATE OF THE ART, SETTING NEW STANDARDS FOR OUR INDUSTRY.

Mark Lindholm, WRPS president

Lindholm said in the letter to HAMTC President Dave Molnaa that the tank farm contractor is continuing to improve working conditions that already exceed regulations and the requirements and expectations for industry.

The letter said the tank farm contractor has consistently maintained the air that workers breathe to meet occupational exposure limits used in the nuclear and petro-chemical industry.

“Our industrial hygiene and monitoring programs are fully compliant and state of the art, setting new standards for our industry,” Lindholm said in the letter.

He acknowledged that despite increasingly better monitoring and protections related to chemical vapors “some workers continue to express concerns associated with odors.”

Some workers report respiratory symptoms after smelling suspicious odors that may be linked to chemical vapors and fear that the chemical exposure could lead to serious health problems.

The contractor has made progress over the last 18 months in implementing recommendations made in an independent review of the chemical vapors issues.

IN EVALUATING THIS INPUT, ANY CHANGES IN APPROACH MUST BE IMPLEMENTABLE, SUCH THAT WORK CAN CONTINUE IN A MANNER THAT MAKES A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE IN WORKER HEALTH AND SAFETY.

Mark Lindholm, WRPS president

The industrial hygiene program, which protects workers from chemical hazards, has been expanded and improved to the rigor of Hanford’s program for radiological controls, the letter said.

New technology is being tested to improve detection of chemical vapors, and a comprehensive vapor control strategy with much improved monitoring should be ready to implement by October, it said.

Implementing the comprehensive vapor control plan “represents the most meaningful and aggressive steps that can be taken to demonstrate and ensure the continued protection of HAMTC and all workers,” the letter said.

HAMTC wants better monitoring and improved technology.

But it also has demanded more extensive use of supplied air respirators, including for all work within the tank farms and for some work within 200 feet of the tank farm boundaries. It wants all work that could increase the possibility of chemical vapor releases scheduled on evening, night and weekend shifts. Fewer workers would be on site at those times.

As WRPS considers the demands, it will consider whether changes are realistic to implement and will make a positive difference in worker health and safety, the letter said said.

The Energy Collective

June 20, 2016

Readers of this blog may be interested in the ongoing struggle of the Idaho National Laboratory to bring in small quantities of high burn up spent nuclear fuel for R&D purposes. So far this has not happened due to opposition by former Governors Andrus and Batt.

Their view is that until DOE cleans up 900,000 gallons of highly radioactive liquid waste, no spent fuel for an R&D mission should come to INL. This linkage they say is the only way to insure DOE will keep its promises.

As a result of opposition by Andrus, and the Idaho State Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, Idaho lost the DOE R&D mission and the spent fuel went to Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

For its part DOE has indeed failed to make progress on the cleanup of the “sodium bearing liquid waste” which is left over from decades of reprocessing US Navy spent nuclear fuel. The project has ballooned in cost from an initial estimate in 2005 of $160M to a cost of nearly $600M in 2016 and the process treatment center still does not work.

The waste is stored in concrete underground tanks at the Idaho lab’s Arco Desert facility which is managed by a separate contractor than the one that runs the lab’s R&D programs.

On the other hand, NuScale is planning to build 12 50 MW SMRs at the Idaho site with the first one breaking ground as early as 2022. When complete these units will generate spent nuclear fuel, in Idaho, for at least the next 40-60 years.

The Settlement Agreement makes no provision for a dozen active commercial nuclear reactors generating new spent fuel well past the deadline of 2035 for all spent fuel in Idaho to be shipped to a geologic repository.

I made the case last December and again more recently that if Idaho does not accommodate NuScale’s project by updating the Settlement Agreement, that there are probably investors in Wisconsin who might be interested in taking advantage of that state’s legislature having lifted its ban on new nuclear power plants.

The Idaho Falls Post Register has a round up of opinions on the issue which thanks to a friend back in Idaho made it possible for me to share here a few relevant parts of the text of the article which was published on the newspaper’s web site this evening (6/18/16).

I said in my interview http://bit.ly/1Ug8kVX with Post Register reporter Luke Ramseth that it would be simple enough to calculate the actual estimated mass of spent fuel needed for R&D and the mass which would be generated by NuScale’s SMRs, and write those numbers into the Settlement Agreement.

This approach would keep the enforceable milestones in the Federal District Court Order and not compromise opportunities for redress over cleanup by Andrus, Batt, or Wasden.

Andrus and Batt have legitimate concerns about DOE’s lack of progress, but if they don’t sit down to talk things over with Energy Secretary Moniz, they could wind up with a much bigger problem. It would lead to a diminished nuclear R&D center, with its high paying jobs high tailing it for Oak Ridge and other more welcoming places.

As for NuScale the firm says it will submit its SMR design to the NRC for its safety review later this year. That process will take three-to-four years. Assuming all goes well, the firm’s customer UAMPS, a consortium of western utilities, will apply for a combined construction and operation license, a process which will also take a minimum of three years.

What this timetable means is that Andrus, Batt, Wasden, and anyone else who is hard over about not changing the Settlement Agreement, have some time to think about it, talk about it, and meet with DOE to put some flexibility into the document. The risks of no action are clear.

Comments are welcome.