ECA Update: May 1, 2012
Published: Tue, 05/01/12
Committee Looking at Nuclear Power, Marine Energy Technologies
Defense Communities 360 April 30, 2012 The House Armed Services' Readiness Subcommittee requests DOD to brief lawmakers on the potential for small nuclear reactors and marine energy technologies to support installations' power needs, as part of the report language accompanying its section of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill that the panel approved Friday.
The committee asks DOD to describe any actions it has taken so far to deploy small modular reactors, nuclear power plants manufactured offsite that generate less than 300 megawatts. A small modular reactor could be a viable option for an installation if the department is not responsible for "first-of-a-kind expenses," the committee said, citing a report from the Center for Naval Analysis.
A South Carolina economic development project called NuHub is teaming up with a second nuclear reactor developer to pursue federal funding for a new nuclear technology called the smaller modular reactor, NuHub said Tuesday.
NuHub said in a statement it has partnered with Holtec International "to compete for one of two federal grants from the US Department of Energy" for SMRs, which the DOE defines as reactors of 300-MW or less.
"Winning the award would expedite the development, licensing, construction, commissioning and operation of Holtec's flagship reactor, named SMR-160, at the Savannah River Site," a DOE facility that hosts the Savannah River National Laboratory, NuHub said.
Will The Stars Align for Small Nuclear Reactors? Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times Green Blog April 26, 2012 A company that wants to build a new kind of nuclear reactor, one small enough that it could be delivered by truck, has found a potential customer.
The Westinghouse Electric Company has lined up Ameren, a St. Louis-based electric company, as a partner for its small modular reactor project. Getting a strong indication of commercial interest is critical because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can review only a few of the many proposed reactor designs and gives priority in the licensing process to those with a stronger chance of getting built.
Some utility analysts have argued that small reactors would be good "drop-in replacements" for 1950s and 1960s-era coal plants that are now being retired, given that that their generating capacity would be about the same. But Ameren is looking at its Callaway nuclear plant near Fulton, Mo., where it runs one reactor and had hoped to build a second full-size one.
That would be a multibillion-dollar project, however, and the Missouri state legislature refused to allow Ameren to bill customers for construction costs. So now it is now interested in a plant that is supposed to cost far less, although the companies did not give a price estimate in their announcements.
States seek court action on Yucca nuclear-waste dump
James Rosen, McClatchy Newspapers April 30, 2012 WASHINGTON -- Federal judges are again being asked to solve a difficult problem that lawmakers can't fix: the decades-old morass of how to handle tons of nuclear waste lying in temporary storage around the country.
A panel of federal appellate judges on Wednesday will hear arguments in a lawsuit filed by South Carolina and Washington state seeking an end to a political stalemate that now could be linked to the presidential election.
The states want the judges to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to decide whether the Energy Department has properly withdrawn its application for a nuclear-waste site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Until that decision is made, nothing can move forward unless Congress decides to act.
Hanford's B Reactor just a start to Manhattan Project National Historic Park idea
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald April 28, 2012 More than Hanford's historic B Reactor could be part of the Hanford unit of a new Manhattan Project National Historical Park, according to an early draft of proposed Senate legislation to create the park.
The park potentially could include Hanford's T Plant, which chemically processed the irradiated fuel from B Reactor, and the remains of settlements in the area before the federal government confiscated what now is Hanford during World War II.
The draft was previewed Friday at a conference of the Energy Communities Alliance on the proposed Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which would include historic facilities at Department of Energy sites at Hanford; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and Los Alamos, N.M.
During World War II, as the United States raced to build an atomic bomb, 670 square miles of desert was picked as the Hanford nuclear reservation, where the nation would produce plutonium for the world's first atomic explosion and the Fat Man bomb dropped over Nagasaki, Japan, helping end World War II.
Residents in the area, including the farming towns of White Bluffs and Hanford, were ordered to pack up their belongings and leave. Those two town sites, the Bruggemann family's nearby stone warehouse and the Hanford Irrigation District Pump House are listed in the draft legislation as possible sites for inclusion in the national park.
Rising costs at the mixed oxide fuel plant under construction at Savannah River Site could erode funding reserved for other national defense priorities, according to congressional budget writers.
"Construction continues to slip behind schedule due to unanticipated complexity of the work, poor contractor performance, delays in procurements, and the inclusion of additional work scope," said a new draft of the 2013 House Energy & Water Development Appropriations bill, posted Wednesday.
The $4.8 billion MOX fuel plant, managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy, is the cornerstone of a plan to dispose of 34 metric tons of plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads by blending the material with uranium to make commercial reactor fuel.
Lawmakers send another letter to DOE urging action, answers for SRS retirees Chad Mills, WRDW-TV Augusta April 29, 2012 AIKEN, S.C. - Savannah River Site retirees have kept phones at congressional and Department of Energy offices ringing. They don't want to swallow the pill of change -- change that will likely overhaul their medical benefits system.
Now, two U.S. lawmakers are putting more pressure on the Department of Energy for answers.
The Savannah River Site Retiree Association crammed into St. Angela's Hall in downtown Aiken a few weeks ago for their annual meeting. The medical benefit changes was the topic of concern.
Many of them could lose their benefits at the beginning of next year. Retirees over 65 would be forced off the site benefits plan and be forced to buy commercial health insurance. They'll get DOE money for that, but they don't know how much. For those under 65, their premiums would increase under the planned changes.
"The next steps are working with Sen. Graham's office and with Sen. Jim DeMint's office," said Congressman Joe Wilson, (R-SC), a few weeks ago. Now, his office is working with Senator Lindsey Graham's, (R-SC), to do just that.
Richland - The Department of Energy told CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. today that it plans to extend its Hanford contract for five years.
The contract extension is valued at $2.2 billion.
CH2M Hill won the contract to perform central Hanford cleanup in 2008 after a competitive bid process.
Then the contract was valued at about $4.5 billion over 10 years, including the base period and an option to extend the contract for another five years.
GAO Report: Modernizing the Nuclear Security Enterprise: Strategies and Challenges in Sustaining Critical Skills in Federal and Contractor Workforces GAO Report April 26, 2012 The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its M&O contractors have developed and implemented multifaceted strategies to recruit, develop, and retain both the federal and contractor workforces needed to preserve critical skills in the enterprise. NNSA's recruiting and retention efforts for its federal staff focus on attracting early career hires with competitive pay and development opportunities. Its development efforts generally rely on two key programs to develop its critically skilled workforce--one that identifies needs and another that identifies the qualifications necessary to meet them. For strategic planning purposes, NNSA is also undertaking a comprehensive reassessment and analysis of staffing requirements to ascertain future federal workforce requirements. M&O contractors' recruitment and retention strategies vary from site to site, but each site focuses on maintaining competitive compensation packages. Their development efforts vary in approach and scope and face some challenges--particularly in preserving underground nuclear testing skills. DOE IG: The Department of Energy's $12.2 Billion Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant - Quality Assurance Issues - Black Cell Vessels DOE IG Report April 25, 2012 The Office of Inspector General received allegations concerning aspects of the quality assurance program at the Department of Energy's $12.2 billion Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) project in Hanford, Washington. The WTP is a key element in the Department's strategy for remediating its significant legacy inventory of high-level nuclear waste.
In brief, it was alleged that quality assurance records for critically important "black cell" waste processing vessels were not traceable to work performed. To shield plant workers from intense radiation that will occur during WTP operations, processing vessels will be located in sealed compartments called black cells. Black cells are enclosed rooms where inspection, maintenance, repair or replacement of equipment or components is impracticable because there is no engineered access. Additionally, there are other vessels in the WTP facilities that are considered "hard-to-reach" because of location and expected difficulty of performing repairs or maintenance. Processing vessels in black cells and hard-to-reach areas must last for WTP's 40-year expected design life without in-service inspection and maintenance.
DOE IG Report: The Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research Facility at the Nevada National Security Site DOE IG Report April 23, 2012 The Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration's, Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research (JASPER) facility plays an integral role in the certification of the Nation's nuclear weapons stockpile by providing a method to generate and measure data pertaining to the properties of materials at high shock pressures, temperatures and strain rates through utilization of a two-stage gas gun. JASPER, located at the Nevada National Security Site, is a multi-organizational research facility that hosts personnel from Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos), Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore). The Nevada Site Office (Site Office) has Federal oversight and control of JASPER while National Security Technologies, LLC (NSTec), maintains the facility structures, systems and components. Livermore, a primary user of the facility, was responsible for specifying experiment parameters and executing experiments to meet programmatic milestones. |
|
