ECA Update: December 6, 2011
Published: Tue, 12/06/11
The BRC held a full Commission meeting on December 2 to present the revised recommendations of the three subcommittees to the full Commission for deliberation and to present the recommendations of the newly established Ad-Hoc Subcommittee on Co-Mingling Of Defense and Commercial Waste.
The proposed changes of most interest to ECA members are listed below. These are recommended changes and they may or may not be adopted by the full BRC into the final report due in January.
The full presentations from each of the subcommittees can be found here.
RECOMMENDATION FROM THE REACTOR AND FUEL CYCLE TECHNOLOGY SUBCOMMITTEE
Don't forget about existing U.S. facilities and their strategic importance
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE DISPOSAL SUBCOMMITTEE
More details on the consent‐based siting process/The nature of the agreement between the waste management org and the host state and tribe
A new approach is needed to site and develop nuclear waste facilities in the United States in the future. We believe siting processes for all such facilities are most likely to succeed if they are:
The nature of the incentives to be provided to host governments
Better reflect the support for the Yucca Mountain project that exists in Nye County and other local counties
Call for the completion of the NRC review of the Yucca Mountain license application, because of the lessons that can be learned and the scientific and technical questions that can be answered
Senate committee to consider nomination of Majumdar as Under Secretary of Energy
On Thursday, The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will meet to consider the nomination by President Obama of ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar to be Under Secretary of Energy.
The position has been vacant since former Under Secretary Cathy Zoi left DOE in March. Majumdar has serverd as acting Under Secretary since that time.
Congressional Quarterly reports that, in the wake of the Solyndra scandal, Majumdar may face a rocky nomination process.
The 9:30 AM hearing will be webcast on the committee website.
Staffing Limits May Stall U.S. NRC License Renewals, Jaczko Says
Brian Wingfield, Bloomberg December 6, 2011 Limited staffing at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission may delay the agency in renewing licenses for existing nuclear power plants, Chairman Gregory Jaczko said.
"There are resource limitations," Jaczko said today at a meeting with reporters at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. It "may take us a little bit longer to get through the reviews" for license renewals, he said.
Reactor owners such as Entergy Corp. (ETR) of New Orleans are seeking operating-license extensions for some of the 104 U.S. commercial nuclear generating units. Entergy's Indian Point plant, about 24 miles (39 kilometers) north of New York City, has two units with licenses expiring in 2013 and 2015. Jaczko didn't specify the reactors that may be affected and said "no decisions have been made" on how to deal with resource constraints. The agency has renewal applications pending for 14 reactors, according to the NRC website.
Hiroshima, Nagasaki express concern about Manhattan Project park plan The Mainichi Daily News December 3, 2011 (Kyodo) -- The cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki sent letters to the U.S. government on Friday requesting that consideration be given to providing information about the damage caused by atomic bombings as it proceeds with plans to establish national historical parks commemorating the U.S. wartime project to develop an atomic bomb.
In a letter sent to U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui wrote that "the people of Hiroshima were profoundly alarmed" by the U.S. plan to designate three sites involved in the Manhattan Project as a national historical park.
Planning a park to celebrate the weapons project runs counter to "the wishes of the millions of people around the world calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons," he added. "Such a park would communicate an erroneous and dangerous message to future generations."
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- At Los Alamos National Laboratory, scientists and engineers refer to their planned new $6 billion nuclear lab by its clunky acronym, CMRR, short for Chemistry Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility. But as a work in progress for three decades and with hundreds of millions of dollars already spent, nomenclature is among the minor issues.
Questions continue to swirl about exactly what kind of nuclear and plutonium research will be done there, whether the lab is really necessary, and -- perhaps most important -- will it be safe, or could it become New Mexico's equivalent of Japan's Fukushima?
As federal officials prepare the final design plans for the controversial and very expensive lab, increased scrutiny is being placed on what in recent years has been discovered to be a greater potential for a major earthquake along the fault lines that have carved out the stunning gorges, canyons and valleys that surround the nation's premier nuclear weapons facility in northern New Mexico.
CARSON CITY -- The state is accusing the federal Department of Energy of reneging on its pledge not to ship low-level and dangerous nuclear waste through the Las Vegas Valley.
The state Attorney General's Office said the late Gov. Kenny Guinn secured a promise from the federal agency not to truck that waste over Hoover Dam and through the Las Vegas Valley using Interstate 15 and I-15/US Highway 95.
The comments came Friday on the draft environmental impact statement drawn up by the energy department on the use the Nevada Test Site, now called the Nevada National Security Site, for storage of the waste.
Hanford report: 'Chilled' safety culture no issue
Shannon Dininny, Associated PressDecember 1, 2011 YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- Workers who are designing and building a waste treatment plant at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site generally are not reluctant to raise safety concerns, even though there have been isolated cases where workers have said otherwise, a new report concluded Thursday.
The report differed starkly from earlier findings of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which raised concerns about the safety culture at the Hanford nuclear reservation plant, and critics immediately disparaged the latest findings as being "bought and paid for" by the site contractor.
The $12.3 billion plant in southeast Washington is being built to convert highly radioactive waste into a stable, glass form for permanent disposal underground. The one-of-a-kind project has long endured technical problems, resulting in delays and cost overruns, though it is widely considered the cornerstone of cleanup at the highly contaminated site.
Federal Nuclear Watchdog Says Hanford Safety Culture Still An Issue
Anna King, OPB News December 5, 2011 RICHLAND, Wash. - A report last week says the safety culture at Hanford's waste treatment plant is largely OK. But now, a federal nuclear facilities watchdog says he sees it differently.
Hanford's waste treatment plant contractor Bechtel commissioned the report. It was carried out by a small cadre of nuclear experts. It found that Hanford's waste treatment plant had, overall, a good safety culture.
That's been the subject of much debate ever since a high-level whistleblower came forward criticizing the $12 billion project.
Nevada Cites Concerns With Transport Of Hazardous Waste In Response To Draft Plan For Former Test Site
Sean Whaley, Nevada News Bureau December 4, 2011 CARSON CITY - A draft environmental statement addressing the future of the former Nevada Test Site appears to be setting the stage for the transportation of mixed hazardous and low-level radioactive waste to the site through heavily populated areas of Las Vegas, the state response to the document says.
The response, filed by Nevada Attorney General's office after consultation with multiple state agencies, including Gov. Brian Sandoval, the Agency for Nuclear Projects and the Department of Transportation, says the draft document appears to be abandoning a long-standing agreement to use highway routes that avoid urban Las Vegas for the shipping of low-level radioactive waste. The agreement was made between then-Gov. Kenny Guinn and then-Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson.
The DOE has been using a portion of the site to bury low-level radioactive waste shipped to Nevada from other department sites from around the country for more than a decade.
House Republican targets Sen. Kerry for Yucca Mountain opposition Andrew Restuccia, The Hill December 2, 2011 A top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee criticized Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for his opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository this week, arguing that lawmakers who are unsupportive of the Nevada storage site are effectively ensuring that high-level nuclear waste remains in their states.
Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), chairman of the committee's Environment panel, noted in a floor speech Thursday that the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Massachusetts holds spent fuel in above-ground pools.
Savannah River Remediation layoffs complete needed cuts
Rob Pavey, The Augusta Chronicle December 5, 2011 Savannah River Remediation is laying off 48 workers this week to complete a budget-induced workforce reduction announced in November.
The company, which manages Savannah River Site's liquid waste programs, initially planned to eliminate up to 100 jobs but will end up with 86 reductions through voluntary separations, attrition and the layoffs, company President Dave Olson said in a letter sent to all employees Monday.
Since the announcement in November, 18 workers volunteered to leave and 20 others left through normal attrition, he said.
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