ECA Update: May 11, 2012
Published: Fri, 05/11/12
Andrew Restuccia and Ben Geman, The Hill
May 10, 2012 If there was any doubt that top Democrats would (somewhat begrudgingly) move forward with Kristine Svinicki's re-nomination to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) put it to rest Thursday.
An aide to Boxer, the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told The Hill that she plans to hold a confirmation hearing on the Republican nuclear official's nomination. The date hasn't yet been set, the aide said.
Obama DOE undersecretary nominee Arun Majumdar steps down Emily Heil, The Washington Post May 9, 2012 President Obama's nominee to be the third-ranking official at the Department of Energy is stepping down, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced Wednesday.
In an e-mail to department employees, Chu said Arun Majumdar, the acting undersecretary of Energy and the White House's nominee to permanently fill the slot, is leaving next month. "Arun has been an invaluable resource to me, to the Department, and to the Administration, and we will miss his leadership," Chu wrote.
Majumdar also is the director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, an agency modelled on DARPA within the Energy Department, created in 2009 to encourage research and development of new technologies.
Eric Toone will replace Majumdar at ARPA-E and David Sandalow has been named as the Acting Under Secretary of Energy, Chu announced. Toone is ARPA-E's deputy director of technology; Sandalow is the department's assistant secretary for policy and international affairs.
Energy Department Announces New Investments to Train Next Generation of Nuclear Energy Leaders, Advance University-Led Nuclear Innovation
DOE Press Release May 8, 2012 WASHINGTON - Underscoring President Obama's commitments to keep college affordable, expand opportunities for American families nationwide, and promote education in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced more than $47 million in scholarships, fellowships, research grants and university research reactor upgrades to train and educate the next generation of leaders in America's nuclear industry. The 143 awards announced today under the Department's Nuclear Energy University Programs and Integrated University Program will support nuclear energy R&D and student investment at 46 colleges and universities around the country.
These efforts at the Department of Energy build on President Obama's commitment to work with Congress to help keep college education affordable for America's students by keeping interest rates low on student loans.
"We must invest in the next generation of American scientists and engineers in order to fulfill our commitment to restarting America's nuclear industry and making sure that America stays competitive in the 21st century," said Secretary Chu. "The awards announced today - from scholarships and fellowships to university-led nuclear research projects - are part of the Obama Administration's efforts to keep college affordable for students nationwide. These investments will help train and educate our future energy leaders, while developing the innovations we need to create new jobs and export opportunities for American-made nuclear technologies."
SRS nuclear waste could go to New Mexico facility
Rob Pavey, The Augusta Chronicle May 10, 2012 As federal courts haggle over the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada, a local board wants to explore another option for Savannah River Site's stranded high-level nuclear waste: Send it to New Mexico instead.
The SRS Citizens Advisory Board will discuss a recommendation to send some or all of the site's 3,100 "ready for shipment" canisters of stabilized waste to the Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., where lower-level "transuranic" nuclear waste is buried in 250 million-year-old salt deposits a half-mile beneath the Chihuahuan Desert.
The most dangerous waste at SRS is being vitrified - placed into glass poured into steel canisters that, until the Obama administration canceled the Yucca Mountain project in 2010, were to be removed from South Carolina for burial in Nevada.
State Legislature endorses Arizona as dumping ground for nuclear waste: Safford area one of five potential locations
Jon Johnson, Eastern Arizona Courier May 6, 2012 If the Republican-controlled Arizona State Legislature has its way, the state could become the nation's dumping ground for nuclear waste.
The debate on what to do with America's spent nuclear fuel has been ongoing since the 1980s. The United States Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982, which instructed the Department of Energy to locate, build and operate a permanent underground disposal facility for the nation's nuclear fuel. In 2002, Congress approved President George W. Bush's decision to build the site under Yucca Mountain, which is in Nevada about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
In 2008, the DOE announced it was raising the project's budget from $57.5 billion to $96 billion. President Barack Obama and his administration rejected the use of the site in the 2010 United States Federal Budget by eliminating all funding except what is needed to answer inquiries from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The decision was made, according to Democrats, because of the skyrocketing price tag and a laundry list of scientific, technical, public health, legal and safety problems. While Democrats said the site was initially chosen for political reasons, Republicans cite the political affiliation between President Obama and Nevada Senator Harry Reid (D) as the primary reason for its demise. Some states subsequently filed lawsuits seeking to force the federal government to honor the license application of the NWPA and insist the site be opened to accept nuclear waste.
AIKEN, S.C. (AP) -- Officials at the Savannah River Site say they have poured more than 1 million gallons of grout into two underground radioactive waste tanks.
Authorities at the former nuclear weapons complex near Aiken said Wednesday that work to fill and seal the twin 1.3-million gallon tanks is now weeks ahead of schedule.
Work began on the tanks on April 2 and is expected to last through late summer.
One of the site's chief goals is to eliminate the danger from radioactive waste at the site that used to make nuclear bombs.
Savannah River Remediation added two new robots to its team - a more than $600,000 addition - to increase efficiency in the Savannah River Site's tank closure process and ensure employee safety.
The new robots, PackBot and Brokk 400, join three other robotic devices that are already being used in the tank waste removal process at SRS.
The remote-controlled robots perform cleanup and inspection work in highly radioactive areas in which employees would previously only go if equipped with protective clothing and respirators.
"We continually seek to implement practices that will protect our employees, and using robots instead of employees in high radiological areas is the right thing to do," SRR President And Project Manager Dave Olson said.
The PackBot, a $175,000 robot, is the size of a footstool, can navigate through rubble, narrow passages and steep grades and performs remote cleanup in the Defense Waste Processing Facility's Melt Cell.
SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) plans to conduct a public meeting to discuss possible revisions to the regulatory framework for the management of commercial low-level radioactive waste (LLW). The purpose of this public meeting is to gather information and receive feedback from stakeholders and other interested members of the public concerning specific proposed revisions to the Commission's LLW regulations. Consistent with Commission direction, the NRC staff plans to hold a series of three public meetings in 2012 on the proposed revisions to the Commission's LLW regulations. This is the second of those public meetings.
DATES: The public meeting will be held on May 15, 2012, in Dallas, Texas.
Barring a disaster--or a miracle, depending on your viewpoint--the Finnish government later this year will begin the final licensing of the world's first permanent storage facility for high-level nuclear waste. Located on Olkiluoto Island, just off Finland's southwest coast, the underground facility known as Onkalo will hold all of the country's existing waste and all that it expects to produce over the next century. It is designed to keep that waste secure for at least 100,000 years--in part by making humans forget it was ever there.
Onkalo is intended to house high-level waste (HLW), the most worrisome byproduct of nuclear power. It consists of spent nuclear fuel and some of the fuel's decay products, and it can emit dangerous types and levels of radiation for tens of thousands of years. Roughly 300,000 tons of it now exists; about 12,000 more tons are produced annually, and both numbers will increase significantly in the coming decades. To date, most HLW has been stored in water-filled pools at the nuclear plants where it was produced, or in temporary offsite facilities where the waste is bound in borosilicate glass and cast into ingots, which are then sealed inside shielding metal canisters. But these are impermanent and unsatisfactory solutions. Pools require constant maintenance and refilling, and both they and temporary facilities are physically insecure.
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