Hanford waste tunnel collapses, no airborne radiation detected Tri-City Herald May 9, 2017 An emergency was declared at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Eastern Washington state on Tuesday after the roof of a tunnel used to store highly radioactively contaminated waste
collapsed.
Several thousand workers were ordered to take shelter, most of them for several hours, in buildings with ventilation systems shut down to protect against any possible airborne
contamination.
The emergency was declared Tuesday morning after workers conducting routine monitoring in central Hanford noticed an anomaly on the Hanford
landscape.
They saw what appeared at a distance to be a 2 to 4 foot deep depression in the soil over one of the waste disposal tunnels at the defunct PUREX processing plant tunnels. An aerial check showed that a hole caved in the top of the tunnel, potentially exposing the highly radioactive material stored inside to the
atmosphere.
No airborne radiation had been detected as of 5 p.m. Tuesday. Radiological surveys were continuing. No workers were hurt, none were known to be contaminated and all were accounted for, according to the Department of Energy.
>>Continue readingHouse Democrat Says Hanford Collapse Highlights Safety Concerns Associated Press May 9, 2017 SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The Latest on an accident at the Hanford Nuclear Waste facility in Washington state (all times local):3
p.m.
The senior Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee says he is requesting that the Energy Department brief the panel on the cause of a tunnel collapse at a nuclear waste storage site in Washington
state.
New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone said the incident underscores the need for the Department of Energy to take all necessary precautions to ensure the safety and security of
workers.
The committee oversees the Energy Department's management of cleanup efforts at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation 200 miles southeast of
Seattle. >>Continue readingS.C. congressional delegation loses fight to get nuclear tax credit in government spending bill The Post
and Courier May 2, 2017 WASHINGTON — The budget agreement worked out in Congress has disappointed every member of the
South Carolina delegation after a highly desired nuclear power plant tax credit was left out.
Excluded from the plan that's supposed to keep the government running through September is a provision extending the deadline for nuclear power plants to take advantage of the tax bonus, threatening to undermine a major economic driver in the
state.
At issue is a credit Congress created in 2005 to incentivize nuclear power production. But it gave plants a 2020 deadline to complete their work in order to qualify. >>Continue
readingCongress cuts MOX funding to $335 million, gives $15 million for downblending Aiken
Standard May 2,
2017 MOX funding would be trimmed by $5 million, but $15 million has been allocated for an alternative plutonium disposition facility in New Mexico, according to an early draft of the Congressional
budget.
The proposed House budget appropriates $335 million for the MOX project. Last year, the Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, which is about 73 percent complete, received $340 million to continue basic levels of progress after last minute revisions to the funding bill in
December.
Funding in the next budget is only for construction and project support activities, according to budget
documents.
The budget also directs the U.S. Department of Energy to provide the House and Senate appropriations committees with its "long-term vision for sustainment at the (Savannah River Site)."
>>Continue
readingBelt tightening likely at Piketon plant The
Hill May 4,
2017 PIKETON - As approval of a $1 trillion spending bill to keep the government running through September moves closer to reality, what is included in it for cleanup of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant recently
became more important.
That's because Energy Secretary Rick Perry recently issued a secretarial determination to further reduce the amount of uranium inventory from the site that may be sold on the open market through a barter program that currently accounts for about 30 percent of the project's funding. The lower the money brought in through the barter program, the greater reliance the project must place on the
federal budget. >>Continue readingPerry makes first visit to
INL The Post Register May 9, 2017 U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry spoke Tuesday afternoon to Idaho National Laboratory employees in a packed hall at the lab’s Idaho Falls campus.
The speech capped Perry’s two-day tour of INL facilities, which included briefings on nuclear power and its effects on
energy, national security and the environment.
During his speech Perry touted the U.S. Department of Energy; he said that although the governorship of Texas has been his favorite position thus far, the “coolest” job of his career has been that of energy
secretary.
It was Perry’s first visit to INL. This week’s visit is the first of several planned lab visits for Perry. While addressing INL employees, he discussed the importance of national labs in science, economics and domestic security.
>>Continue readingPerry to tour Los Alamos, meet with lab
experts Santa Fe New Mexican May 9,
2017 U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry will visit the department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory on Wednesday, the lab
announced.
Perry, the former Texas governor, was scheduled to receive briefings on the lab’s capabilities in support of national security, nuclear deterrence, nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship and nuclear
non-proliferation.
He was to also tour the lab’s nuclear weapons and global security facilities and meet with the facility’s director, Charles McMillan, as well as experts, the lab announced Tuesday.
>>Continue readingNevada's state budget approved to fight Yucca
Mountain Las Vegas Review Journal May 7, 2017 CARSON CITY — The budgets for the state agencies charged with fighting the Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste dump were approved Saturday by the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means
committees.
The budget for the Agency for Nuclear Projects totals $3.8 million for the next two years, with most of the money going
to fight against restarting Yucca Mountain. Of that total, $1.3 million will be spent fighting the expected restart of licensing proceedings.
The attorney general’s office budgets also were approved by the panels, including $3.4 million over two years to fight the project. >>Continue readingNewhouse asks Trump for
small modular reactor money Tri-City
Herald May 6,
2017 Federal money to establish the United States as a leader in small modular nuclear reactors would pay off with economic and security benefits, Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., has told President Donald
Trump.
Newhouse and Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., led an effort to get 17 Republican representatives to send a letter to Trump
last week asking that he include money for the Department of Energy’s small modular reactors in his fiscal 2018 budget request to Congress.
The president’s budget proposal is expected to be released later this month. >>Continue readingSmall modular reactor possibilities expand The Post Register April 29, 2017 When the U.S. Department of Energy granted a site use permit in February 2016 to build a small modular reactor at Idaho
National Laboratory’s desert site, NuScale Power’s design was the only one in the pipeline.
Since then, 18 other reactor design groups have expressed interest in building at the desert site.
Most of the groups are interested in hybrid energy applications. Though nuclear plants are traditionally used to produce electricity, groups are exploring other energy possibilities, including water desalination, synthetic fuel creation and direct heating for municipal or industrial
uses. >>Continue reading |
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| May 2017 | | 10 | NRC Meeting on Draft Regulatory Basis for SMR Emergency Preparedness Rulemaking |
|
| May 2017 | | 10-11 | Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board Chair
Meeting |
|
| June 2017 | | 7 | House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus Event |
|
| June 2017 | | 14 | INVITATION
ONLY
ECA High-Level Waste Committee Strategic Session |
|
| August 2017 | | 8-9 | Intermountain Energy Summitt |
|
| August
2017 | | 16-17 | INVITATION ONLY ECA Peer Exchange: Implementation of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Richland, WA |
|
| September 2017 | | 5-7 | Radwaste Summitt 2017 Summerlin, NV |
|
| September 2017 | | 12-14 | 2017 National Cleanup
Workshop Alexandria,
VA |
|
| September 2017 | | 13 | House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus
Event Washington,
DC
|
|
Find the most recent ECA Bulletin here |
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