ECA Update: November 9, 2011
Published: Wed, 11/09/11
$115 billion not enough to finish work at Hanford, board says
(Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald) Savannah River Remediation to cut 100 more SRS jobs
(Rob Pavey, The Augusta Chronicle) Video Report on WIPP
(Lee Patrick Sullivan, Energy Now) Video Interview
(Thalia Assuras, Energy Now)
Court sets schedule in Yucca case
(Stephens Washington Bureau) GOP candidates' Yucca stance could be liability in South Carolina (Andrew Restuccia, The Hill) SRS breaks ground on two new tritium facilities
(Anna Dolianitis, Aiken Standard) Local search planned for interim leader for Reach center
(Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald) Japan grants stricken nuke co. $11B for cleanup (Associated Press) |
Idaho lab says damaged container likely led to plutonium accident that exposed 16 workers
Associated Press
November 9, 2011
Associated Press
November 9, 2011
BOISE, Idaho -- Decades-old plutonium powder that escaped its damaged shell is the main suspect behind a serious incident at the Idaho National Laboratory that exposed 16 workers to potentially harmful radiation.
U.S. Department of Energy officials and private contractors said Wednesday they're closely monitoring two workers at the lab in the eastern Idaho desert who had radioactive material in their lungs.
All 16 employees went home following the incident Tuesday, but they've returned to the lab's medical facilities for additional monitoring and treatment.
$115 billion not enough to finish work at Hanford, board says
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
November 6, 2011
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
November 6, 2011
Do not expect that the $115 billion estimated to be needed to complete environmental cleanup work at Hanford will be adequate to finish the job, according to the Hanford Advisory Board.
The board sent a letter to the Department of Energy and its regulators Friday saying that the estimate does not include cleanup work the board expects may be needed and also does not include fully developed cost estimates for some work.
The $115 billion estimate was the conclusion of the 2011 Hanford Lifecycle Scope, Schedule and Cost Report -- a new requirement of the legally binding Tri-Party Agreement, after DOE negotiated with Washington state and the Environmental Protection Agency to extend some environmental cleanup deadlines.
Savannah River Remediation to cut 100 more SRS jobs
Rob Pavey, The Augusta Chronicle
November 8, 2011
Savannah River Remediation, the liquid waste contractor at Savannah River Site, announced a second round of job cuts Tuesday in which up to 100 more positions will be eliminated.
In a memo to employees, company president and project manager Dave Olson said the cuts were approved by the U.S. Department of Energy "as part of a workforce management initiative to balance resources" and will occur in two phases.
"The first phase will give employees an opportunity to participate in a self-select program," Olson said. "The second phase, if necessary, will consist of an involuntary separations program."
Video Report on WIPP
Lee Patrick Sullivan, Energy Now
November 5, 2011
Lee Patrick Sullivan, Energy Now
November 5, 2011
Nuclear power plants generate about one-fifth of U.S. electricity, and don't release the greenhouse gases scientists have linked to climate change. But tens of thousands of tons of spent fuel rods are stranded at the nation's 104 commercial nuclear reactors. They can't be moved because construction of a proposed nuclear waste dump outside Las Vegas has been halted, and the state of Nevada is fighting to make sure it will never be completed. So where else could all that nuclear waste go?
Correspondent Lee Patrick Sullivan visits one community that's already home to a nuclear waste storage site that could one day also accept spent fuel rods from America's nuclear power plants.
Video Interview
Thalia Assuras, Energy Now
November 3, 2011
Thalia Assuras, Energy Now
November 3, 2011
In this exclusive interview with energyNOW! anchor Thalia Assuras, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko talks about expected NRC votes by early next year on a new nuclear power plant design and applications for two new plants that want to use that design. He also discusses the safety of spent fuel storage now that the planned Yucca Mountain, NV, nuclear waste repository is stalled and what the NRC would do if Congress or a court ordered the Department of Energy to restart the project.
WASHINGTON -- A federal court on Friday set the schedule for a lawsuit that seeks to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reopen its review of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site.
Plaintiffs headed by the attorneys general of Washington state and South Carolina have charged the NRC dragged its feet on licensing for the Nevada repository in violation of a three-year deadline set by Congress.
The Savannah River Site Community Reuse Organization placed an advertisement on Yucca Mountain in the Aiken Standard last weekend. The advertisement comes as the state prepares to host a Republican presidential debate on November 12.
The Republican presidential candidates previously discussed Yucca Mountain at the October 18 debate in Las Vegas, Nevada. At that debate, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and Ron Paul agreed that the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository should not go forward because it lacks state support.
GOP candidates' Yucca stance could be liability in South Carolina
Andrew Restuccia, The Hill
November 4, 2011
Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) warned the Republican presidential candidates Thursday that their stance on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository could be a liability in South Carolina, a key early primary state.
Duncan took to the House floor Thursday to bash the candidates for saying at a recent debate that the long-planned and long-delayed nuclear waste repository should not be built in Nevada because people there oppose it.
"I was deeply disappointed when the presidential candidates were recently asked about Yucca Mountain," Duncan said. "I was astonished that these good folks would echo the failed rhetoric of Sen. Harry Reid."
Two months after announcing plans to consolidate the Savannah River Site's tritium facilities in an effort to achieve long-term cost savings, the National Nuclear Security Administration broke ground last month on two new buildings that will be a first step in the 10-year project.
The Tritium Responsive Infrastructure Modifications program, a plan to consolidate the work done in SRS' three 1950s-era tritium facilities and into two newer, existing facilities, is intended to save $20 million annually in lifecycle costs, reducing energy consumption by more than 40 percent.
Local search planned for interim leader for Reach center
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
November 8, 2011
The Richland Public Facilities District board plans to look locally for an interim director of The Hanford Reach Interpretive Center.
An interim chief executive could "settle everything down," said board member Dan Boyd.
"I think we need someone in quickly -- in weeks rather than months," said board member Rick Jansons.
TOKYO - Japan's government Friday allocated $11.5 billion of public money to help a utility decontaminate its tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant and dismantle the reactors.
The aid is meant as a preliminary installment to help cash-strapped Tokyo Electric Power Co. cover the massive cost of the work, Japan's nuclear minister, Goshi Hosono, said.
The 900 billion yen comes from the fund made up of all Japanese nuclear plant operators and the government.
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