BUDGET & APPROPRIATIONS
Nevada House Democrats draw lines on plutonium, Yucca
Las Vegas Review Journal | 4/1/2019
WASHINGTON — Nevada Democrats in the House are seeking to use the appropriations process to block future Department of Energy transfers of plutonium to the state as well as administration efforts to jump start licensing hearings to open the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
The effort led Monday by Reps. Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford comes as Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., prepares to question Energy Secretary Rick Perry about those issues in a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday.
Nevada Democrats are asking the top two officials on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water — Chairwoman Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and ranking Republican Rep. Michael Simpson of Idaho — to include language in the fiscal 2020 spending bill to prohibit future plutonium transfers to the Nevada National Security Site along with any funding for Yucca Mountain.
SHIPMENTS & TRANSPORTATION
SPRU Could Ship Transuranic Waste to Idaho Starting in Fiscal 2020
Exchange Monitor | 4/1/2019
The Idaho National Laboratory could receive transuranic waste from the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) in New York state in fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021, according to the recent Department of Energy budget justification.
The Idaho National Laboratory, which is trying to get rid of a backlog of on-site defense transuranic waste, would serve as a temporary holding area for the SPRU material prior to its ultimate disposal at DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Idaho is the approved location to ship waste from the department’s “small sites” remediation programs for treatment. The budget document does not specify what facility at Idaho would
handle the material, and the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project is scheduled to wind down operations this year.
Demolition of the H2 and G2 buildings at SPRU has generated 24 containers of potential transuranic waste or mixed TRU waste regulated by the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation. A February 2018 consent order between DOE and the state allows for continued outdoor interim storage of the material in Conex boxes. The state is reviewing a permit that could allow continued storage at SPRU for up to 10
years.
DNFSB sends Secretary Perry notice of Nevada Device Assembly Facility seismic hazard
Las Vegas Review Journal | 3/29/2019
WASHINGTON — A defense safety board is concerned the Department of Energy has failed to address a vulnerability to earthquake hazards at a Nevada National Security Site facility where nuclear materials are stored — including a recent shipment of weapons-grade plutonium.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board outlined its concerns to Energy Secretary Rick Perry and issued a report that pointed out the safety risks to workers and the “offsite public” due to seismic hazards to structures at the Device Assembly Facility at the Nevada security site, located about 90 miles north of Las Vegas.
“This facility continues to operate without accounting for the increase in seismic hazard and without evaluating whether the credited structures, systems and components can perform their safety function during and after a seismic event,” Bruce Hamilton, chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, wrote.
Hamilton summarized his concerns in a letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry accompanying the report and dated March 21.
STORAGE & DISPOSITION
NUCLEAR SAFETY
MANHATTAN PROJECT NATIONAL PARK
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