House Energy and Commerce Committee

July 7, 2016

WASHINGTON, DC – The Environment and the Economy Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), today held a hearing entitled, “Federal, State, and Local Agreements and Economic Benefits for Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal.” Yucca Mountain, Nevada, was designated in 1987 as the sole site for a deep, geological repository to store high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. Congress included mechanisms in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act for collaborative partnerships with state, tribal, and local governments such as funding for technical support activities and economic benefits to host a nuclear disposal facility. The hearing provided the subcommittee the opportunity to hear from Nevada stakeholders and explore the federal, state, and local perspectives and economic benefits of moving forward with the Yucca Mountain project.

Congressman Mark Amodei (R-NV) stressed the fact that Nevadans cannot simply ignore Yucca Mountain and think it is off the table, testifying, “No one in Nevada is in favor of a nuclear landfill – neither am I, but, the issue is not going to go away. If we decide to deal with this, I appreciate the opportunity to have a discussion that says – what are the real impacts, what should our policy be, and in that context, what is the story for Nevada? I’ve got some things for you to think about as policymakers to evaluate a responsible course of conduct with respect to local and state economic impacts, operating oversight, safety policy in the near and long-term, and our policy as a nation regarding the material itself – let’s start there."

Congressman Cresent Hardy (R-NV) discussed the importance of having an open, constructive dialogue on the issue, stating, “Nevadans deserve to have honest brokers in their federal government, and they deserve to hear the unbiased, scientific results that all of their hard-earned dollars funded. … Too many politicians are afraid to engage in a constructive dialogue on this issue. They fail to recognize that discussing Yucca Mountain doesn’t equal endorsement of the project. Dialogue isn’t capitulation. It’s leadership.”

Commissioner Dan Schinhofen, Vice-Chairman of the Nye County, Nevada Board of County Commissioners discussed the importance of having a collaborative process that supports the community, “I propose creating a collaboration between DOE, the State, Nye County and other impacted local governments to ensure that resources are provided for activities that support the construction and operation of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.”

“The Federal government made the decision to site the repository at the Yucca Mountain site in 1987. DOE should be working with Nevada stakeholders to make progress on the repository instead of ignoring the law. This hearing has done the job that DOE refuses to do,” said Chairman Shimkus. “We will continue to listen to all stakeholders to develop a comprehensive solution to dispose of our country’s spent nuclear fuel. Today’s testimony will play a key role to inform this Committee’s efforts to develop comprehensive legislation to advance used fuel management."

Full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) added, “The Department of Energy is now wasting valuable time and money, and ignoring a history lesson while taxpayers continue to rack up billions of dollars in liability for the delay in opening Yucca Mountain. Instead of expending financial resources to hear from everyone but the State of Nevada, DOE should reconstitute the Yucca Mountain program and engage in a meaningful conversation with those stakeholders as we did today. Our nuclear energy future depends on it.”

For a background memo, witness testimony, and archived webcast of today’s hearing, click HERE.

Miami Herald

July 7, 2016

For Fred Hughes, it's déjà vu.

Hughes, president of cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho, recently began his fourth tour living and working in eastern Idaho.

His stints at the U.S. Department of Energy's desert site began in the mid-1980s, working for a U.S. Navy contractor. He returned in the 1990s to manage several waste facilities, only to leave and return again in the early 2000s to oversee construction of a facility known as the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project.

Now Hughes, 61, is back once more to lead the entire $1.4 billion cleanup operation that employs roughly 1,700. Fluor's responsibilities combine what was previously handled by two government contractors — Idaho Treatment Group and CH2M-WG Idaho, or CWI. The work includes everything from cleanup of toxic and radioactive contamination to managing and watching over spent nuclear fuel.

On Wednesday, Hughes sat down with the Post Register at Fluor's Idaho Falls office to discuss his background, the contractor's first month on the job and goals for its five-year contract.

Hughes, who moved from Pittsburgh, was hired by Fluor in 2010 to help manage a massive cleanup project at the old Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio, a former uranium enrichment facility. But his experience in Idaho made him a natural fit to lead the company's new contract here.

Fluor Idaho, which includes four subcontractors, won the contract in February, beating out AECOM. Fluor management then began a three-month transition period, learning the ropes from the two outgoing contractors. It formally took over the new contract June 1.

Most employees working under the previous two contractors were hired by Fluor. Hughes said there were "less than 20 employees that we couldn't find a position for." Most were business services-related positions based in Idaho Falls, he said.

"In the first two days, we wanted to get it across that we're not two separate contractors anymore," Hughes said. "You're one contractor under Fluor Idaho. Maybe you've worked with this one team for the last five, 10 years, but now there are going to be some new team members involved. We wanted to start that consolidation process from the (beginning)."

After a brief pause in work at the beginning of last month, Hughes said operations are back to normal. He claimed overall productivity of the cleanup projects is already improved over the two previous contractors.

Hughes promised Fluor would be transparent with employees about workplace issues, whether involving safety problems or employees pointing out areas where efficiency could be improved.

"What they'll notice is that when they bring up an issue, we will tackle it as fast as possible, resolve it, and involve them in the resolution of that issue, and keep them up to date," Hughes said.

Under Fluor, the schedule for retrieving and packaging buried radioactive waste from several pits west of Idaho Falls will continue ahead of DOE and state-mandated schedules, Hughes said. The contractor also is required to design a concrete cap to be built over a portion of the waste that is not slated to be retrieved.

Another top priority will be to finish processing of spent nuclear fuel, Hughes said. Fuel from historic and current Idaho National Laboratory reactors, as well as used fuel from Navy vessels, has been cooling down for years in a large water basin located at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, or INTEC. Fluor will remove the fuel from the water and place it in sealed, dry containers.

One of Fluor's biggest challenges will undoubtedly be the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit. The facility was built to treat 900,000 gallons of liquid radioactive waste by the end of 2012. But it hasn't been able to do the job, repeatedly encountering chemical and equipment issues.

Hughes said Fluor has expertise in facilities similar to the IWTU, which will help it succeed. In 2012, a team of Fluor scientists helped get a Washington project up and running which uses a similar "fluidized bed" technology as the Idaho facility, Hughes said.

Hughes said he recently hired on the same group of scientists for the Idaho contract to help out with chemical challenges at this facility.

"They've been poring over IWTU — reviewing prior simulant runs, test reports, equipment," Hughes said. "They've been crawling all over (the facility), talking to the engineers, to get a good feel for what's going on with the IWTU and that fluidized bed."

Fluor recently put together a new IWTU project plan, Hughes said. It will include small-scale testing at a Colorado facility, and more test runs on the plant itself before real waste treatment gets underway. Fluor has assembled its own team of chemical experts, another team focused on improving the facility's equipment, and a third team made up of experts around the country that will provide oversight on project operations going forward.

Hughes said he could not yet commit on a time frame of when waste treatment might begin.

"All three teams have objective of, we're going to get into compliant operations as fast as we possibly can," he said. "They're convinced it's not a matter of (needing) to start all over again. (They think) we can make this process work. And they clearly understand what it's going to take to get the facility running."

So far Hughes has met with Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper, the Butte County Commission and several state officials. He has more meetings planned.

Hughes said Fluor managers are looking to serve on local boards and get involved in organizations.

There has also been a committee set up, he said, that controls a budget to pay for community projects, economic development efforts and improving local education, especially in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. The money comes out of Fluor's bonus that it earns from DOE each year, and it will be doled out via an application process.

"Fluor is really big on being involved in the community where they work," Hughes said.

Piketon News Watchman

July 7, 2016

Editor, News Watchman,

I have sent this letter to Senators Brown and Portman, Congressman Wenstrup, and DOE Secretary Dr. Ernest Moniz regarding funding to the PORTS D&D project and the onsite disposal facility.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to you in strong support for the immediate funding needs for U.S. Department of Energy PORTS Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) Project in Piketon, Ohio. Due to uncontrollable circumstances, the drop in the price of uranium has led to a serious budget deficit for the project and will require Congress to appropriate additional funding to avoid layoffs and disruption of work.

As you know, the Pike County area is economically distressed even when times are good. The PORTS project is the largest employer in our county, and change in the plant’s employment level affects Pike County and the region almost immediately.

I am asking members of the House and Senate to allocate additional funds for the projects in the amount of $400 million dollars annually for continued D&D and $58 million dollars annually for the construction of the On Site Waste Disposal Facility. Funding at these levels will ensure the work is performed safely and in a timely manner, supporting economic stability in our community.

Thank you for your past support and continued efforts on behalf of our community.

I will anxiously await a response from you regarding this request.

Sincerely,

Billy R. Spencer

Mayor, Village of Piketon

Newswise

July 6, 2016

Newswise — Argonne, Ill., July 6, 2016 – The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory will be working with four small businesses on nuclear technology projects under the auspices of DOE’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN).

The projects will be funded through GAIN’s Nuclear Energy Voucher pilot program, which is providing up to $2 million to assist new entrants into the nuclear field as they build the collaborations necessary to accelerate the development and deployment of innovative nuclear technologies. The program grants the companies access to the extensive nuclear research capabilities available at DOE’s national laboratories and Nuclear Science User Facilities partners.

“We congratulate these small businesses selected for the NE Voucher pilot program, and we look forward to working with each of these organizations as they develop their innovative concepts,” said John Kotek, DOE Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy. “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.”

Argonne will work with Terrestrial Energy to determine the thermophysical properties of molten salts, which the company plans to use in its Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR). The IMSR uses two molten salt streams – a fuel salt that contains the uranium and another salt to transfer heat from the reactor to the electricity generation system – in a design that will optimize uranium utilization and energy production while reducing the generation of waste.

Argonne will also work with Oklo, Inc., to speed deployment of a comprehensive database of information about metallic nuclear fuel performance. The historical data were generated during decades of Argonne’s development of sodium-cooled fast reactors, which use metallic fuels. Oklo will work with Argonne to make the information more approachable to small companies that might lack the resources to tackle the massive database.

The third project will pair Argonne with CompRex, a company that is developing a new type of compact heat exchanger for applications with high temperature and pressure, such as nuclear reactors. The heat exchangers can be used for advanced electricity generation using supercritical carbon dioxide instead of steam, a field in which Argonne has extensive experience.

The final project focuses on a new type of energy storage being developed by a company called BgtL. The new approach uses a phase-changing aluminum material to store energy from a heat source, such as a nuclear reactor, for later use. The devices would allow nuclear power plants to increase and decrease electricity output based on grid demand without having to change the output of the nuclear reactor itself.

“Our staff is excited to work with these innovative small businesses to support them in these advanced nuclear technology projects,” said Argonne’s Nuclear Engineering Division director Jordi Roglans-Ribas. “The capabilities of the national laboratories are unique in the world, and we are happy to work with our sister laboratories to provide access to those capabilities through the efforts of GAIN.”

Other research organizations that will work on voucher projects include Idaho, Pacific Northwest and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Idaho National Laboratory leads the overall GAIN initiative for DOE in partnership with Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.

Tri-City Herald

July 6, 2016

Washington State University in Pullman will launch a new training program in radiochemistry with the help of a Department of Energy grant.

The nation has a growing demand for scientists trained and educated to understand radiochemistry, the chemical study of radioactive elements, according to DOE.

DOE is contributing up to $3 million for a five-year program to train graduate students.

Workers are needed both for complex scientific and technical work to advance environmental cleanup work at Hanford and other DOE cleanup sites and also to help the United States maintain global leadership in the next generation of safe nuclear energy, according to DOE.

WSU was chosen for the program following a rigorous, competitive process, according to DOE. WSU has formed partnerships for the training program with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland and the Idaho and Lawrence Livermore, Calif., national laboratories.

Q13 Fox

July 6, 2016

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy is proposing a seven-year plan to clean up a radioactive waste spill under a building on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The structure is known as the 324 Building and is located on the former nuclear weapons production site near Richland.

Contractor Washington Closure Hanford wanted to have the building down in the fall of 2013. But the company discovered a highly radioactive spill under the building from a hot cell leak.

The Tri-City Herald reports the building is 1,000 feet from the Columbia River. There is no evidence that the spill has migrated toward the river.

After the leak was discovered, a new plan was developed to install remotely operated equipment to clean up the spill.

Hanford for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons.

Federal Register

July 7, 2016

Dates: Monday, July 25, 2016, 1:00pm-5:00pm; Tuesday, July 26, 2016, 8:30am-5:00pm

Address: New Ellenton Community Center, 212 Pine Hill Avenue, New Ellenton, South Carolina 29809

The agenda can be viewed by clicking on the link above.

Public Participation: The EM SSAB, Savannah River Site, welcomes the attendance of the public at its advisory committee meetings and will make every effort to accommodate persons with physical disabilities or special needs. If you require special accommodations due to a disability, please contact James Giusti at least seven days in advance of the meeting at the phone number listed above. Written statements may be filed with the Board either before or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral statements pertaining to agenda items should contact James Giusti's office at the address or telephone listed above. Requests must be received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable provision will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer is empowered to conduct the meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct of business. Individuals wishing to make public comments will be provided a maximum of five minutes to present their comments.

Federal Register

July 7, 2016

Dates: Wednesday, July 27, 2016, 1:00pm-5:15pm

Address: Santa Fe Community College, Jemez Complex, 6401 Richards Avenue, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87508

The agenda can be viewed by clicking on the link above.

Public Participation: The EM SSAB, Northern New Mexico, welcomes the attendance of the public at its advisory committee meetings and will make every effort to accommodate persons with physical disabilities or special needs. If you require special accommodations due to a disability, please contact Menice Santistevan at least seven days in advance of the meeting at the telephone number listed above. Written statements may be filed with the Board either before or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral statements pertaining to agenda items should contact Menice Santistevan at the address or telephone number listed above. Requests must be received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable provision will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer is empowered to conduct the meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct of business. Individuals wishing to make public comments will be provided a maximum of five minutes to present their comments.