Last chance to book your discounted hotel for ECA's Meeting with the New Administration ECA Staff January 25, 2017 Today is the last day to book your hotel room at the discounted conference rate for ECA's event:
This meeting is the first national meeting with the new Administration, focusing on the DOE Offices of Environmental Management, Nuclear Energy, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Meeting attendees will have the unique opportunity to hear from the Trump Administration, DOE officials, key Congressional staff, and other DC
insiders.
Trump
will keep nuke agency administrator, for now Albuquerque Journal January 23, 2017 SANTA FE – The agency that oversees the nation’s nuclear labs still has a boss.
Last week, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico sent a letter to now-President Donald Trump saying his transition team had not asked the top officials of the National Nuclear Security Administration to stay on until Trump named new leaders. NNSA and its important national security work were in danger of being left to run on “auto-pilot,” Heinrich
said.
Heinrich’s letter got national press attention. He also brought up the matter during a Senate
committee hearing on former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s nomination to be Trump’s secretary of the Department of Energy, which includes the NNSA.
In New Mexico, the Los Alamos and Sandia national labs are overseen by the
NNSA.
A spokesman for the agency confirmed Monday that NNSA administrator Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz had
been asked to remain and was still on the job since Trump’s Friday inauguration as president. >>Continue reading Investment in DOE cleanup a key opportunity for new administration Current Argus January 21, 2017 Opinion Article: Dr. Todd Wright, Executive Vice President of Operations, AECOM Management
Services
This is a period of change for America and for the Department of Energy. Fittingly, the
transition to a new president and new administration offers the chance to reflect on one of DOE’s core programs: the Office of Environmental Management (EM), and the opportunities that lie ahead.
While DOE, like all government agencies, will likely continue to face uncertain budgets, it is important to acknowledge the critical value that EM brings in successfully cleaning up chemical and radioactive contamination produced as a legacy of our nation’s nuclear weapons development and nuclear research efforts, and in building, maintaining, and utilizing a cleanup infrastructure that is
unparalleled worldwide. It is clear that further investment in this infrastructure can bring measurable successes for the country to continue the progress already underway. >>Continue readingPerry vows to support national labs, protect WIPP Albuquerque Journal January 20,
2017 WASHINGTON – Rick Perry, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of
Energy, vowed Thursday to support the nation’s national laboratories and protect the mission at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad during his confirmation hearing before the Senate energy committee.
The former Texas governor also said he regretted remarks he made in 2011 in which he suggested abolishing the Energy Department and he disavowed Trump transition officials’ efforts in recent
weeks to identify department employees who were working on climate change science. >>Continue reading Perry says he does not have 'definitive answer' on Yucca Platts January 19, 2017 Rick Perry, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of energy, declined during a Senate confirmation hearing Thursday to say whether he supported moving the long-stalled Yucca
Mountain repository project in Nevada forward but said that, if confirmed, he would look at alternatives to address the issue.
"I don't have a definitive answer," Perry said when Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, Democrat-Nevada, pressed him on the issue of restarting the Yucca Mountain project. "I'm going to be looking at the alternatives to address this issue," he said during the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing. >>Continue readingEnergy secretary nominee pledges support for Hanford cleanup Tri-City Herald January 189 2017 Rick Perry, the nominee for energy secretary, plans a visit to the Hanford nuclear reservation and would meet with workers to hear concerns if he is confirmed, he said
Thursday.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, came to Perry’s confirmation hearing armed with questions of interest to the 15,000 Department of Energy workers in Washington, most of them in the Tri-Cities area at Hanford and
PNNL.
Perry addressed DOE cleanup of nuclear weapons sites like Hanford in his opening remarks, before Cantwell and other senators on the committee with states home to nuclear sites began asking questions.
“I understand, and am committed to, the vital role of the Department of Energy that it maintains in environmental cleanup, specifically cleaning up nuclear waste (that) is the legacy of the Cold War,” he said. >>Continue readingDOE nominee commits to Piketon visit Chillicothe Gazette January 20,
2017 PIKETON — If former Texas Gov. Rick Perry wins confirmation as President Donald Trump's Secretary of Energy, employees of the cleanup work at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant should expect to see his face at some point in Piketon.
During Perry's confirmation hearing Thursday before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Rob Portman bemoaned what he said was the failure of President Barack Obama's energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, to keep a commitment to visit the Piketon site and see the work going on
there.
"I'm very disappointed in the Department of Energy for their inability to follow through on their commitments to the plant," Portman told Perry. "Frankly, it's really difficult for people who work there.
They just never know if their next paycheck is going to be there, and this usually happens around Christmastime, as it did this past Christmas." >>Continue readingWilson Introduces the Sensible Nuclear Waste Disposition Act Rep. Joe Wilson Press Release January 11, 2017 Congressman Joe Wilson (SC-02) issued the following statement after introducing the
Sensible Nuclear Waste Disposition Act, critical legislation to prevent the Department of Energy from constructing a new
defense waste repository until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has made a final decision regarding the outcome of Yucca Mountain:
“The federal government has dedicated enormous resources to completing the nuclear storage facility at Yucca Mountain. However, the Obama Administration has tried to do everything in its power to stall the completion of the facility, holding up construction under political red tape—the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s own safety evaluation has found that Yucca Mountain far exceeds the regulatory standards and would not be a threat to the local population of Nevada. >>Continue readingCongress Passes Unconventional Nuclear Power Bill The Daily Caller January 24,
2017
If signed by President Trump, the proposal could change how the government regulates nuclear power and create a boom in the utilization of advanced unconventional reactor technology. The bill was sponsored by two Republicans and three Democrats.
“We believe that trailblazing the advance of nuclear energy technology including Gen 3+, Small Modular Reactors, Non-Light Water Reactor (LWR) Advanced Reactors and Fusion
Reactors is one of the key imperatives for U.S. market competitiveness,” David Blee, executive director of the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council (NIC), told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“It is vital to maintaining the U.S. lead in technology innovation, safety enhancements, energy security and clean energy,” Blee said. >>Continue reading |
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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 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 "Manhattan Project National Historical Park Implementation" |
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| September 2017 | | 13-14 | 2017 National Cleanup Workshop Alexandria, VA |
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Find the most recent ECA Bulletin here |
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