Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant to Close by 2021 The New York
Times January 6,
2017 Indian Point, the nuclear power plant closest to New York City, could be shut as soon as April 2021 under an agreement New York state officials reached this weekend with Entergy, the utility company that owns the plant, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal.
Under the agreement, one of the two nuclear reactors at Indian Point will permanently cease operations by April 2020, while the other must be closed a year later. The shutdown has long been a priority for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who -- though supportive of upstate nuclear plants -- has repeatedly called for shutting Indian Point. He has said it poses too great a risk to New York City, less than 30 miles to the south. >>Continue readingNuclear Plants Fall Victim to Economic Pressures The Wall Street Journal January 9,
2017 Utilities are closing U.S.
nuclear-power plants at a rapid clip as they face competition from cheaper sources of electricity and political pressure from critics.
New York’s Indian Point plant about 35 miles north of Manhattan, a major source of power for the city and its surrounding suburbs, looks to be the latest casualty. Owner Entergy Corp. and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has long
criticized the plant as a safety threat, are expected to announce a deal this week to close it, say people familiar with the matter.
Its closure would bring the tally of plants set to close by 2025 to four, including PG&E Corp.’s Diablo Canyon plant in California and Entergy’s Palisades unit in Michigan. Four others have already closed in the past four years, including Dominion
Resources Inc.’s Kewaunee plant in Wisconsin. >>Continue reading Nuclear Power In Washington State Continues To Break Records Forbes January 6, 2017 Despite two unexpected outages, the nuclear power plant near Richland, WA generated a record 9.6 billion kWhrs of electricity in 2016, edging out its previous record of 9.5 billion kWhs in 2014.
The Columbia Generating
Station, operated by the non-profit Energy Northwest, has been generating electricity constantly for thirty-two years, but seems to have really found its groove over the last six. The power plant’s electricity output has been steadily increasing over this period because of continuous management and safety improvements, well-timed maintenance, technology replacements and power uprates, done when production is halted to replace
fuel.
But the most important reason for the reliability is that nuclear takes so little fuel and just keeps going and going. >>Continue reading Which waste will WIPP want first? Current-Argus January 6,
2017 With sites across the U.S. Department of Energy complex brimming with radioactive waste awaiting disposal at the newly reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which will be shipped to the facility
first?
The answer will take several factors into consideration, according to U.S. Department of Energy spokesman Tim Runyon.
"The shipping schedule and queue is under development," Runyon said in an email.
The rate of emplacement at WIPP, which site has waste ready to be shipped, generator site
regulatory commitments and agreements, transportation and waste acceptance availability at WIPP and other factors will guide the order of the shipment queue, Runyon said. >>Continue readingWIPP goal: Shipments in 90 days Current-Argus January 5, 2017 Officials said no transuranic waste was emplaced at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on
Thursday.
The halt was part of a deliberate approach to restarting operations at the facility 26 miles south of Carlsbad. Workers placed the first drums of nuclear waste in the nation's only deep
geological repository on Wednesday, following a three-year closure.
Donavan Mager, a spokesman for operating contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership, said he expects waste emplacement to
resume again on Tuesday.
"We'll definitely be employing the crawl, walk, run approach," Mager
said. >>Continue readingWalden
Announces Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Rosters U.S. House of Representatives January 9, 2017 WASHINGTON, DC – House
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) today released the full Republican rosters for all six subcommittees in the 115th Congress. Walden last week announced the committee’s leadership, naming the Vice Chairman for the full committee along with subcommittee chairmen and vice chairs.
“The true heartbeat of the Energy and Commerce Committee is our six subcommittees, which craft vital legislation and conduct vigorous oversight through the hard work of our members and their staffs. I know that we will build upon the committee's long record of
success and continue tackling the most pressing issues on behalf of the American people,” said Walden. “Our first priorities will be overhauling a broken health care system and unleashing the full force of the American economy by rolling back unnecessary regulations and downsizing a bloated federal bureaucracy. We are ready to get to work and deliver results for the folks who sent us here.”
>>Click to see the full Republican rosters Savannah River Remediation completes 32-million-gallon waste
tank Aiken Standard January 8, 2017 Aiken's Savannah River Site is now home to the world's largest rubber-lined tank, and the company that built it plans of
filling it with a kind of cement.
Savannah River Remediation, the liquid waste management contractor at SRS, announced the tank had completed leak testing in the waning days of
2016.
Known as Salt Disposal Unit 6, the 32-million-gallon structure includes a number of features to meet unique nuclear waste
needs.
The 42-foot structure contains more than 12,500-cublic-yards of concrete, including more than 200 columns within that structure. All of that concrete, as well as all other material, were
only used if they met Nuclear Quality Assurance 1 specifications. >>Continue readingState to fine feds $100M again due to missed plutonium goal at Savannah River Site The Post and Courier January 8,
2017 South Carolina is on pace to fine the federal government another $100 million this year because of a missed plutonium recycling deadline at a nuclear plant in Aiken.
The U.S. agreed, in a 2000 agreement with Russia, to dispose of 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium. Under the agreement, Russia is expected do the
same.
The U.S. is using a method known as MOX, which would convert the plutonium into nuclear fuel by using a facility at the
Savannah River Site near Aiken. That facility, known as the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, is still under construction. >>Continue readingDOE Releases Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Cleanup of Area IV and the Northern Buffer Zone at Santa Susana Field
Lab DOE-EM January 6,
2017 SIMI VALLEY, Calif. – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) for cleanup of Area IV and the Northern Buffer Zone of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County, Calif. The Draft EIS examines a range of
approaches to clean up contamination at a portion of SSFL that includes the former Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC).
ETEC served as a premier research facility for the United States during the Cold War. Since then, more than 200 buildings on the site have been removed and only 18 remain.
“The release of the Draft EIS is an important step in our mission to clean up the former ETEC site at the SSFL in a way that protects human health and the environment,” said John Jones, ETEC federal project director. “Public input on the cleanup
alternatives is a critical next step to achieve this mission.” >>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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