ECA Update: January 18, 2012
Published: Wed, 01/18/12
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This new ECA Guidebook lists relevant DOE and NNSA disposal and transfer authorities. Simply click on any listing in the Table of Contents to skip to that page in the document. Download the guidebook here.
Article and five-minute video
Peter Eisler, USA Today
January 18, 2012
Peter Eisler, USA Today
January 18, 2012
HANFORD SITE, Wash. - Seven decades after scientists came here during World War II to create plutonium for the first atomic bomb, a new generation is struggling with an even more daunting task: cleaning up the radioactive mess.
The U.S. government is building a treatment plant to stabilize and contain 56 million gallons of waste left from a half-century of nuclear weapons production. The radioactive sludge is so dangerous that a few hours of exposure could be fatal. A major leak could contaminate water supplies serving millions across the Northwest. The cleanup is the most complex and costly environmental restoration ever attempted.
And the project is not going well.
Press release and one-hour video
FRONTLINE
January 17, 2012
FRONTLINE
January 17, 2012
Has the world lost faith in nuclear power?
Almost a year after a devastating earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, there's an emerging consensus in Japan and Germany that the hazards of nuclear energy overshadow its benefits. In the United States and other countries, the question remains unresolved.
In Nuclear Aftershocks, airing Tuesday, January 17, 2012, at 10 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE correspondent Miles O'Brien travels to three continents to explore the revived debate about the safety of nuclear power, the options for alternative energy sources, and questions about whether a disaster like the one at Fukushima could happen in the United States.
Review of FRONTLINE documentary
Andrew C. Revkin, The New York Times Dot Earth Blog
January 17, 2012
Andrew C. Revkin, The New York Times Dot Earth Blog
January 17, 2012
Tonight, the PBS program Frontline is running "Nuclear Aftershocks," a 50-minute documentary examining the implications of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear calamity for the future of nuclear power in the United States and elsewhere.
Over the weekend I watched a near-final version of the program, and I found it a powerful, fair and - given the time constraints -- comprehensive report on the benefits and risks of one of the handful of energy technologies that can provide electric power in bulk without greenhouse gases.
The guide to the issues is Miles O'Brien, a veteran television science reporter (foolishly fired by CNN in 2008) who traveled to three continents to tell the tale.
He examines Japan's difficult and costly cleanup, the resulting pulse of public fears about radiation there (and elsewhere) and corporate and government decisions that resulted in the construction of such a vulnerable power plant complex in a tsunami zone.
DOE official looking at expanding research of small nuclear reactors
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
January 18, 2012
Research will be moving forward this year toward development and design certification of small modular nuclear reactors, said Peter Lyons, the Department of Energy assistant secretary of nuclear energy.
Lyons, the primary policy adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu on nuclear energy research and international nuclear activities, visited Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland on Tuesday and then spoke at a meeting of the Eastern Washington Chapter of the American Nuclear Society.
While no one source alone can meet increasing demand for electricity, both in the United States and also in developing countries, nuclear energy must be part of the mix as a clean and reliable source, he said.
U.S. Enrichment Corp., which produces fuel for nuclear power plants, is having its own sort of meltdown.
Disillusioned investors have wiped out 95 percent of the company's market value since 2007. Standard & Poor's has saddled it with a dismal CCC-plus credit rating. And USEC's chief executive John Welch says that "clearly we're coming to crunch time here."
When USEC was created by the U.S. government in the 1990s, the idea was to privatize the job of uranium enrichment. USEC leased an old Energy Department plant and under a program known as Megatons to Megawatts, it has blended down highly enriched uranium taken from 17,698 Russian warheads under a U.S.-Russia treaty.
OAK RIDGE -- Increased pressure on the U.S. Department of Energy to cut costs is having impacts beyond the federal operations.
As part of a new five-year Tennessee Oversight Agreement with DOE, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation accepted a 10 percent reduction in the grant money received annually from the federal agency.
"There was obviously a difficulty with DOE's funding at a national level and they did approach the state and asked the state to consider reducing its budget," said John Owsley, director of TDEC's oversight office in Oak Ridge.
Under terms of the new agreement, TDEC's funding from DOE will drop from $5.18 million in Fiscal Year 2011 to $4.71 million this year.
OAK RIDGE -- Finally, some good news about one of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's most vexing environmental problems.
UCOR, the U.S. Department of Energy's cleanup manager in Oak Ridge, announced that workers had successfully excavated Tank W-1A -- an underground waste tank responsible for radioactively polluting the groundwater in ORNL's historic central campus.
The 4,000-gallon stainless-steel tank was commissioned in 1951 and used for decades to collect and store liquid radioactive wastes from the lab's nuclear operations. The waste tank was removed from active service back in the 1980s and emptied of most of its contents after high levels of radioactivity were found in the surrounding area and traced to the vessel.
Based on comments I've received, some employees at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant clearly felt like they'd been victimized by the pay freeze at U.S. Department of Energy plants. Those feelings seemed to grow and amplify after it was reported that B&W Y-12 received an award fee of about $56 million for its management of Y-12 in fiscal year 2011.
Some salaried employees said top executives were getting theirs and the union folks were getting theirs, and it was the folks in the middle who weren't getting anything.
B&W spokesman David Keim said Y-12 is still operating under a two-year pay freeze that was instituted by DOE in response to "budget deficits and national economic conditions."
Leadership Lessons: Arun Majumdar, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy
Paul R. Lawrence and Mark A. Abramson, Government Executive
January 17, 2012
This is the second in a series of profiles based on interviews for the book Paths to Making a Difference: Leading in Government (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011) by Paul R. Lawrence and Mark A. Abramson, which highlights the management lessons of 24 political executives during their first 18 months in the Obama administration.
Arun Majumdar, who became the first director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy in October 2009, knows what it's like to build a new federal organization from the ground up. Formerly a member of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's executive team, Majumdar was tapped to lead the new agency on a mission to revolutionize the nation's energy efficiency and economy.
Created by the 2007 America COMPETES Act, ARPA-E invests in projects aimed at developing new energy technologies and reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil. The agency awarded its first contract in 2009 after receiving $400 million in funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As of summer 2011, the agency had invested in 121 projects ranging in size from $400,000 to $9 million.
Japan to consult with U.S. in reviewing nuclear fuel cycle policy
The Mainichi Daily News
January 18, 2012
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) -- Nuclear disaster minister Goshi Hosono said Tuesday that Japan will consult with the United States in reviewing its nuclear fuel cycle policy, in terms of nuclear security and nonproliferation.
"The issues of nuclear security and nonproliferation are drawing attention internationally, and needless to say, the United States plays a pivotal role," Hosono told reporters in Washington after his meetings with senior U.S. officials, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Thomas Nides, U.S. deputy secretary of state for management and resources.
"I want to exchange opinions between Japan and the United States proactively in these fields," he said.
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