BRC announces conference phone line for October 12 Boston meeting
BRC.gov

September 30, 2011

 

 

Boston, MA  October 12,  8:00 am-5:00 pm

Note: BRC has arranged to provide (one-way) call-in service for the October 12 meeting in Boston. Due to the meeting format there will be three call-in sessions--one for the morning presentations, one for the panel immediately following lunch and a third for the public comments and meeting wrap-up in the afternoon. We hope this helps those who cannot participate in person.

The call in number is: 1- 866-906-7447

 

Morning Session
(8:00 -noon, Eastern Standard Time)
The Participant code for the morning session is: 3508591

 

Afternoon Sessions
(1:00-2:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time)
The Participant code for this afternoon session is: 1860413

 

(3:45-5:00 pm,  Eastern Standard Time)
The Participant code for the afternoon session is: 1850463

 

 

 

House passes spending stopgap, sends to Obama
Pete Kasperowicz, The Hill
October 4, 2011

 

The House on Tuesday afternoon easily approved a stopgap bill funding the federal government through November 18, and sent it to President Obama for his signature.

 

The continuing resolution was approved in a 352-66 bipartisan vote in which 170 Democrats voted "yes," a far cry from the six Democrats who supported an earlier version of the bill last month.

 

Senior U.S. Official Denies Talk of Foreign Nuclear Waste Site in Mongolia
Elaine M. Grossman, Global Security Newswire
September 30, 2011

 

WASHINGTON -- A senior U.S. Energy Department official on Wednesday disputed reports that the Obama administration has sought Mongolian support for construction of a storage site for international spent nuclear fuel in the Central Asian nation (see GSN, March 30).

 

The assertion -- made by a high-ranking official who asked not to be named in addressing a diplomatically sensitive issue -- directly countered remarks offered last spring by a veteran State Department official who leads U.S. nuclear trade pact negotiations.

 

The diplomat, Richard Stratford, told a Washington audience in March that Energy Department leaders had made initial contacts with their counterparts in Ulaanbaatar about potential cooperation on a range of nuclear fuel services that Mongolia would like to develop for international buyers.

 

 

Community reacts to WIPP layoff announcement
Tom Schneider, Carlsbad Current-Argus
September 28, 2011
 

CARLSBAD -- News of imminent layoffs at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has prompted local concern over the safety of future operations at the nuclear waste repository southeast of Carlsbad, and raised questions about lawmakers' perceptions of the funding required to efficiently conduct operations.

 

Citing budget cuts, Washington TRU Solutions, the contractor that manages WIPP for the U.S. Department of Energy, announced last week that approximately 65 employees will lose their jobs beginning in October.

 

 

Hanford tank farms lay off 244 workers
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
October 4, 2011

 

Hanford's tank farm contractor handed out layoff notices Monday, bringing to 244 the number of layoffs at the nuclear reservation linked to uncertainties in the budget for the fiscal year that began Saturday.

 

The 244 layoffs were fewer than previously had been approved at the tank farms, where 56 million gallons of radioactive waste are stored from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.

 

But it still puts the total cutback at Hanford since spring at 1,993 jobs. The year started with about 12,000 jobs at Hanford.

 

 

Over 1,000 workers face final Hanford work day
Tri-City Herald
September 29, 2011

 

Today or Friday will be the final day of Hanford nuclear reservation employment for more than 1,000 workers.

 

Friday is the last working day of fiscal 2011, but many Hanford workers are on an extended work day schedule that includes a day off every other Friday, which falls this week.

 

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. has announced plans to lay off 1,039 workers as of Friday, but started processing them last week because of the large number. They will be paid through this week.

 

 

DOE releases plan to benefit SRS
Anna Dolianitis, Aiken Standard
October 1, 2011

 

After soliciting input from contractors, shareholders and the general public, the Department of Energy released this week its 2011-2015 Strategic Plan, intended to serve as a road map to keep the Savannah River Site viable in the future.

 

The plan, which includes the Enterprise SRS Vision, outlines challenges that lay ahead - like the steadily declining work scope at the site and the perception that the activities performed at SRS are disconnected from one another. It also lays out 12 strategic initiatives that Dave Moody, Savannah River operations office manger, said Thursday will all be attempted over the next few years in order to ensure continued missions in the future.

 

 

SUMMARY: On August 12, 2011, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) requested clarification on DOE's response to Recommendation 2011-1, Safety Culture at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. In accordance with section 315(b) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2286d(b), the following represents the Secretary of Energy's clarification response to the DNFSB's request.

 

 

Los Alamos under renewed environmental scrutiny
Jeri Clausin, Associated Press
October 2, 2011

 

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- Pickup trucks believed present at the world's first nuclear bomb test, coke and whiskey bottles, a calendar and a toothbrush are just a few of the items unearthed by a cleanup of one of Los Alamos National Laboratory's original toxic dump sites, where the detritus of the 1940s Manhattan Project was strewn through some of northern New Mexico's most scenic mesas and canyons.

 

More important, workers also extracted 43,000 cubic yards of radioactive debris and toxic soil -- all beneath highly specialized containment domes -- from what is known as Area B, just across the street from a strip of local businesses, and just more than a mile from downtown Los Alamos.

 

 

Energy, bioscience vulnerable to budget cuts at Oak Ridge
Frank Munger, Atomic City Underground
October 3, 2011
 

The government's Oak Ridge facilities have enjoyed unusually prosperous times over the past decade. Even during the recession, the Oak Ridge operations have been propped up, to a certain degree, by Recovery Act funding.

 

Now tough times appear ahead. The question is how tough, and that may not become clear for a while.

 

Federal and contractor officials in Oak Ridge have been trying to prepare for a fiscal downturn.

 

Savannah River Site celebrates completed reactor projects, cleanup funded by Recovery Act
Rob Pavey Augusta Chronicle
September 29, 2011

 

Workers celebrated the retirement Thursday of Savannah River Site's most notable Cold War remnants.

 

The long-defunct P and R reactors, brought online 60 years ago to make nuclear weapons materials, were permanently closed and sealed this year with 254,000 cubic yards of specially designed grout.

 

David Huizenga, the Energy Department's acting assistant secretary for Environmental Management, joined federal and state regulators, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions workers, and others to celebrate the completion of the reactor projects and other cleanup milestones funded by the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act.

 

Groundbreaking planned for Hanford Reach center
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
October 3, 2011

 

RICHLAND Officials for the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center will have a groundbreaking ceremony in the west end of Columbia Park on Wednesday.

 

The event is from 4:30 to 6 p.m. and includes a meet-and-greet, blessing by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, symbolic turning of dirt and live music performances.