Trump's energy team overhauled E&E Publishing, LLC November 21, 2016 President-elect Donald Trump's energy and environmental transition staff has been drastically reshaped.
The transition team announced today that Thomas Pyle, president
of the American Energy Alliance, will be taking over as head of the Energy Department transition operation. Doug Domenech, former Virginia secretary of natural resources and a George W. Bush administration Interior Department staffer, will lead Interior's transition operation.
The Trump team said Myron Ebell, a well-known climate skeptic and the head of the U.S. EPA transition operation, continues to lead that agency's team.
Several top transition team members have departed as others have taken their slots on teams overseeing energy policies and on the so-called landing teams expected to arrive this week in DOE, the Interior Department and other agencies. The shake-ups come after the Trump team announced a crackdown on registered lobbyists last week and amid a broader staffing overhaul made when Vice President-elect Mike Pence replaced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as head of the transition
team. >>Continue
reading
More to Read:
Oil, gas and nuclear industries anticipate friendly Trump DOE >>Read
here What a Trump Presidency Means for Nuclear Stocks >>Read
here WASTE TREATMENT & TRANSPORTATION NEWS
Key SRS contractors working together in pre-startup of salt waste
plant The Augusta Chronicle November 19, 2016 Two major contractors at Savannah River Site are working together to help the pre-startup work for the plant processing radioactive liquid waste stored in tanks at the Department of Energy facility.
Savannah River Remediation, the liquid waste contractor at SRS, has hired 20 radiological protection inspectors through Parsons, the contractor for the Salt Waste Processing Facility. The workers were needed for Savannah River Remediation’s current, short-term work in the plant’s start-up scheduled for late 2018 and will remain with Parsons as its part of the
project ramps up.
The salt waste facility will process about 90 percent of the radioactive liquid waste in tanks at SRS.
Savannah River Remediation’s part of the project is to connect the existing waste transfer lines to the facility. >>Continue
reading
More to Read: Shipments of nuclear material to Savannah River Site could continue >>Read here
Energy Department Announces Agreement to Sell Depleted Uranium to be Enriched for Civil Nuclear Power >>Read here
U.S. Wants to Build $1.6B Idaho Facility for Nuclear Waste >>Read
here WASTE STORAGE & DISPOSITION NEWS
Editorial: Trump, Congress should open $15B Yucca Mountain Albuquerque
Journal November 21, 2016 The most
radioactive news to come out of President-elect Donald Trump’s camp might not involve beauty contestants or entertainment reporters or birth certificates from Hawaii.
It involves a hole in the Nevada desert.
U.S. taxpayers have invested more than $15 billion over three decades for a final resting place for all of the spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste produced in the United States. And that investment has resulted in the most expensive and secure and empty underground parking garage in the form of Yucca Mountain, located in a remote part of Nevada between Las Vegas and
Reno.
The planned underground
repository for spent nuclear fuel from power plants was taken off the table by now-retiring Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who made sure over his D.C. career there was not sufficient funding to process Yucca’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission license application, or the political will to approve it. >>Continue reading
More to
Read: Many obstacles remain before Yucca Mountain could accept first nuclear waste
shipments >>Read here
Alexander Says Next Congress Has A Prime Opportunity To Ensure Future Of Nuclear Power The Chattanoogan November 16,
2016 Senator Lamar Alexander, the top Senate Republican on energy appropriations, on Wednesday said the next Congress has a “prime opportunity to ensure nuclear power has a future in our country” and laid out steps that should be taken to spur
the development of new nuclear reactors and end the nuclear waste stalemate.
“Today, nuclear produces about 60 percent of our country’s carbon-free electricity, but the U.S. could lose about half our reactors over the next two decades if existing licenses can’t be extended from 60 to 80 years. We need to take steps today to ensure nuclear power has a future in our country, including extending our reactor licenses when it is safe to do
so, investing in energy research, ending policies that pick energy winners and losers and ending the nuclear waste stalemate,” Senator Alexander said. >>Continue
readingMANHATTAN PROJECT NATIONAL PARK
NEWS
National park at Hanford turns 1 year old;
new super visits Tri-City
Herald November 13,
2016 Some 13,000 people visited the new
Manhattan Project National Historical Park at Hanford in its first year, including — this week — the new park superintendent.
Kris Kirby, newly named to the position, is the park’s first employee.
She’s based in Denver, and is
splitting her time between the three sites of the park — Hanford; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and Los Alamos, N.M. — each of which played a major role in creating the world’s first atomic bombs to help end World War II.
The park was officially created a year ago, with the signing of an agreement between the Department of Energy, owner of Hanford facilities, and the Department
of Interior, which includes the national park system. >>Continue readingCONTRACTING & ACQUISITION NEWS
EnergySolutions and Valhi to contest DOJ effort to block waste control
specialists acquisition EnergySolutions Press Release November 16 2016 Salt Lake City, Utah – EnergySolutions and Valhi, Inc. (NYSE: VHI) today announced plans to vigorously defend EnergySolutions’ pending acquisition of Waste Control Specialists LLC (WCS) in response to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit seeking to block the
transaction.
The DOJ contends that the combined company would be “the only option for customers in nearly 40 states.” In fact, there are numerous disposal sites for LLRW waste operated by the competitors of the two companies. In addition, customers have the option to store
on-site, as many have done, rather than ship to one of the many companies offering LLRW disposal. Furthermore, the innovation and price declines for LLRW waste disposal that DOJ cites in its own statements are in fact evidence of other competitors in the marketplace.
This combination is in
the best interest of the nuclear industry as it delivers on part of the “Nuclear Promise” strategic plan. Through merging the two companies, the new entity will realize significant cost synergies through a decrease in management, selling, and administration expenses. Those savings, in turn, can be passed on to utilities and consumers of nuclear electricity. In addition, this merger will save costs on nuclear
decommissioning. >>Continue reading |
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| February 2017 | | 23-24 | ECA Annual Meeting Washington, DC
"Meeting the New Administration: Addressing Energy Priorities and Securing Progress" |
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| March 2017 | | 5-9 | Waste Management Conference
Phoenix, AZ
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| May/June 2017 | | 31-1 | INVITATION ONLY ECA Peer
Exchange Richland,
WA "Formalizing Host Communities' Role in the Manhattan Project National Historical Park" |
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Find the most recent ECA Bulletin here |
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