Yucca Mountain unlikely to get funding amid focus on 2020 election, experts say
Las Vegas Sun | 9/3/2019
With the political chaos of the approaching election, there is little chance the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository will receive funding this fiscal year, energy professionals say.
Speaking at the Radwaste Summit, a conference on radioactive waste with both private and public participants, Energy Communities Alliance Executive Director Seth Kirshenberg said political disagreements will likely continue to stop any movement on Yucca Mountain this year.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Hanford nuclear waste report comes up short, say experts
Tri-City Herald | 9/2/2019
Not enough is known to decide on the best and most economical way to treat much of the low-activity radioactive waste in Hanford’s underground tanks, said a committee of the National Academies of Sciences.
Still, a decision may need to be made soon to be ready to treat the waste on schedule, it said.
The Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland has 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste stored in underground tanks from the past production of plutonium for the nation’s weapons program.
The Department of Energy plans to separate the waste into high level radioactive and low activity radioactive waste for treatment at the $17 billion vitrification plant under construction in the center of the Hanford site.
But the plant was not planned to be large enough to treat all the low activity waste. Options include expanding the plant or finding supplemental treatments for the waste to provide additional treatment capacity by 2034.
The National Academies of Sciences committee has prepared a final draft analysis of a study ordered by Congress that looked at three ways to treat the waste and found that vitrifying, or glassifying, the waste for disposal would be considerably more expensive than other options.
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Nov 19-21 2019 Intergovernmental Meeting with DOE; Nashville, TN (invitation only)
NATIONAL CLEANUP WORKSHOP
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"Advancing Goal-Oriented Nuclear Waste Cleanup, Today and Tomorrow"
September 10-12, 2019
Hilton Alexandria Mark Center
Alexandria, VA
Join more than 700 attendees, including senior DOE officials, Congressional leaders, DOE contractors, and state, tribal and local government leaders for the largest EM-focused gathering in the D.C. area.
Scheduled sessions at this year's workshop include:
- Insights from the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus Leadership
- 30 Years of EM Cleanup: A Foundation of Success
- EM Contracting: Moving Forward on Contract Management Enhancements
- Legislative Challenges and Opportunities for the EM Program
- Clarifying the Definition of HLW: Challenges and Opportunities
- Continuing Progress on Direct Feed LAW at Hanford
- The Future of the Savannah River Site
- Congressional Staff Perspectives
- Roundtable with DOE Field Office Managers
- Investing in Infrastructure to Enable Cleanup and Future Missions
Read about DOE's High Level Waste Interpretation
Have questions about DOE’s recent high-level waste (HLW) interpretation? Download ECA’s Key Points and FAQs on the issue to better understand what ECA believes are the potential benefits of implementation.
Interested in learning more? Read the ECA report “Making Informed Decisions on DOE's Proposed High Level Waste Definition” at www.energyca.org/publications
Stay Current on Activities in the DOE World
Read the latest edition of the ECA Bulletin, a regular newsletter providing a detailed brief of ECA activities, legislative news, and major events from across the DOE complex. Have suggestions for future editions? Email bulletin@energyca.org.
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Learn More about Cleanup Sites with ECA's DOE Site Profiles
ECA's new site profiles detail DOE's 13 active Environmental Management cleanup sites and national laboratories, highlighting their history, missions, and priorities. The profiles are a key source for media, stakeholders, and the public to learn more about DOE site activities, contractors, advisory boards, and their surrounding local
governments.
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