DOE Resumes Operations at WIPP ECA
Staff January 5,
2017 Communities around the country have been
waiting a long time for the resumption of operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Yesterday, the Department of Energy was able to safely resume transuranic radioactive waste emplacement operations at WIPP. This marks the first waste to be emplaced in the WIPP underground since a fire and separate radiological event closed the facility in February 2014.
The Office of Environmental Management and federal and contractor employees at the WIPP site have labored diligently to restart operations. Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway, Hobbs Mayor Sam Cobb, the New Mexico congressional delegation, and the congressional delegations from states affected by WIPP’s closure have contributed to the site’s
reopening and their support for the project will be crucial going forward.
DOE initially gave authorization to resume waste operations on December 23, following the satisfactory closure of the prestart findings and approval of corrective action
plans for the post-start findings identified in their Operational Readiness Review. Following an inspection of the facility earlier last month, the New Mexico Environment Department granted its approval on December
16.
DOE announced it will hold a formal re-opening, invitation-only ceremony on January 9 as a thank you to workers. 2016: A Year of Major Developments for U.S. Nuclear Energy Natural Resources Defense Council January 3,
2017 Just weeks before the start of the Trump administration,
there is much uncertainty about which nuclear energy policies will be pursued, and what the policy timelines could be. But as a new year opens, it’s worth taking stock of how much happened in 2016. It was a year marked by major developments for nuclear power across the United States: from California to Nebraska to Illinois to Tennessee to New York. Those developments were not largely in nuclear safety, or radioactive waste, or plant security, but instead the economics of nuclear power. They spoke to fundamental questions of energy policy: what role can nuclear energy play in a future of climate change? And, to what extent will U.S. nuclear plants be
subsidized? >>Continue reading 2016--The Year In Nuclear Forbes January 3, 2017 Nuclear energy and nuclear weapons had quite a year in 2016. Our new President-elect made nuclear more front and center than it has been in decades, coming out in favor of nuclear power and discussing nuclear weapons in an open, if frightening, way.
With regard to weapons, the two big issues are Iran and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea in the old parlance). Discussing giving Japan and Korea (previously known as South Korea) nuclear weapons is scary enough, but talking about tearing up the Iran nuclear agreement is even
worse.
Iran is actually meeting the terms of the nuclear deal hammered out in Switzerland in 2015 by the United States-led P5+1 Group. By the end of 2016, Iran had shipped to Russia nearly its entire fissionable stockpile of over 12 tons of enriched uranium. Iran has mothballed thousands of
centrifuges necessary to enrich uranium, and has removed the core of its heavy water reactor at Arak so it can’t produce a plutonium bomb. For this, Iran got back almost $60 billion. Some Iranian citizens will be removed from U.S. government blacklists, Europe is allowing trade in software, gold, other metals and transportation equipment, Iran is rejoining the international banking system and can sell oil on the open market. Boeing even has a $16 billion contract to make commercial airplanes for
Iran. >>Continue readingWhy Trump’s Appointments Of Tillerson And Perry May Fuel Uranium And Nuclear Sectors – OpEd Eurasia Review December 30, 2016 In a world anxious about notable political shakeups, but hopeful about new paths for public policies both here at home and abroad, the U.S. nuclear sector may be
reenergized under President-Elect Trump through his nomination of Rex Tillerson (CEO of Exxon-Mobil) for Secretary of State, and Rick Perry (former Governor of Texas) as Energy Secretary.
We all know that two major platforms of Trump’s campaign were U.S. energy independence and
jobs. It follows that Trump and his team can greatly promote both of these interests through nuclear energy and uranium mining.
While many people think about “oil” when discussing energy independence, our greatest foreign energy dependence issues are likely in the nuclear
sector. Trump, Tillerson, and Perry have stated that they generally support nuclear energy. However, they need to understand just how dependent on foreign uranium our nuclear sector really is – truly a national security issue. >>Continue readingTREATMENT &
TRANSPORTATION: Tests planned in Colorado on Idaho nuclear-waste-treatment component The Seattle
Times December 30, 2016 BOISE, Idaho — A small-scale version of a key component of an eastern Idaho radioactive-waste-treatment facility that has so far failed to operate will be tested in Colorado, federal officials said Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Energy said engineers at Hazen Research near Denver in January will
start testing a smaller replica of the primary-reaction vessel that’s part of the $600 million Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory.
The failure of the
treatment facility to process 900,000 gallons of high-level nuclear waste stored at the 890-square-mile Energy Department site in eastern Idaho has caused the federal agency to violate a 1995 agreement with Idaho.
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden as a result is refusing to allow research quantities of spent nuclear fuel from entering the state to be tested at the laboratory. He applauded the plan
released on Thursday. >>Continue reading |
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| January 2017 | | 11 | Environmental Management Site Specific Advisory Board Meeting, Oak Ridge Reservation
Oak Ridge,
TN
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| January 2017 | | 12 | Environmental
Management Site Specific Advisory Board Meeting, Portsmouth Piketon, OH |
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| January 2017 | | 18 | Environmental
Management Site Specific Advisory Board Meeting, Nevada Las Vegas, NV |
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| January 2017 | | 23-24 | Environmental Management Site Specific Advisory Board Meeting, Savannah River
Site Hilton Head Island, SC |
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| January 2017 | | 25 | Environmental Management Site Specific Advisory Board Meeting, Northern New Mexico Ohkay Owingeh, NM |
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| February 2017 | | 23-24 | ECA Annual Meeting Washington, DC "Meeting the New Administration: Addressing Community 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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