ECA Update: June 25, 2012
Published: Mon, 06/25/12
ECA and ECA communities to testify before Congress on the establishment of a Manhattan Project National Historical Park
ECA
Oak Ridge Mayor and ECA Chairman Tom Beehan will testify on Wednesday, June 27 on behalf of ECA before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources National Parks Subcommittee in support of legislation to establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Hanford, Washington.
ECA community members will also testify on Thursday, June 28 before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands regarding the House version of the legislation.
ECA strongly supports the establishment of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
Senate Legislative Hearing on Manhattan Project National Historical Park and Other Issues
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee June 27, 2012, 3:00 p.m. LINK
House Legislative Hearing on Manhattan Project National Historical Park and Other Issues
House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands June 28, 2012, 10:00 a.m Bipartisan House Bill Introduced to Establish Manhattan Project National Historical Park
Congressman Doc Hastings June 21, 2012 Washington, Jun 21 - Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04), Congressman Chuck Fleischmann (TN-03) and Congressman Ben Lujan (NM-03) today introduced legislation (H.R. 5987) in the House of Representatives to establish a Manhattan Project National Historical Park that will include facilities at Hanford, Washington, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
"It's taken years of work by advocates in these local communities to get to this point. Today we are another step closer to preserving and sharing this unparalleled piece of our history for current and future generations. Establishing this Park will give visitors a first-hand look at Hanford's B Reactor and other Manhattan Project facilities that played a defining role in our nation's history and help ensure that these historical landmarks are remembered and cared for," said Hastings.
Mayor [Beehan] talking SMRs and national parks
Beverly Majors, The Oak Ridger June 21, 2012 OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- Mayor Tom Beehan will be in Washington this week to talk about the future of nuclear energy and the importance of small modular reactors to the city of Oak Ridge.
While in Washington, the mayor will also meet with the President's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to discuss issues about the K-25 site.
The Energy Communities Alliance will meet Thursday and Friday at the Department of Energy's Forrestal Building in its regular session. On Wednesday, the ECA will have a Small Modular Reactor roundtable discussion.
Energy Communities Alliance is an organization of local governments that are adjacent to or impacted by Department of Energy activities.
NRC nominees advance in Senate Steve Tetreault, Las Vegas Review-Journal June 21, 2012 The prospective new chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission took a step closer Thursday to becoming Senate-confirmed. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved Allison Macfarlane to lead the nuclear safety agency, where she would replace Gregory Jaczko, who announced last month he was resigning after a tumultuous run as chairman.
Macfarlane's nomination was sent to the full Senate, which is expected by the end of the month to confirm her. A geologist by profession and an expert on nuclear waste, Macfarlane is associate professor of environmental science at George Mason University.
Macfarlane was approved by voice vote among committee members, although Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., asked to be noted as voting yes, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., noted he was voting no. Los Alamos Laboratory to let go of 80 contract workers The Associated Press June 21, 2012 LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - Los Alamos National Laboratory is letting go of some of its workers.
The Los Alamos Monitor reports lab director Charlie McMillan said 80 contractor positions would be eliminated.
McMillan made the announcement Wednesday in a memo sent to all employees.
The lab terminated 60 employees in April and 557 others left the lab in March as part of a voluntary separation program.
McMillan has scheduled a meeting on June 27 to discuss the lab's workforce with all employees.
S.C. hopes to lead in small modular nuclear reactors Sarita Chourey, Savannah Morning News June 23, 2012 COLUMBIA -- Thousands of jobs could be coming to South Carolina, if federal funding helps develop small modular reactors in the state, a prospect that drew a challenge from a nuclear safety group during a news conference Tuesday.
Government and industry leaders gathered outside the S.C. Statehouse to lay out how a grant program from the U.S. Department of Energy could strengthen the state's economy and plug it into the potential $100 billion market.
During Tuesday's event, nuclear-safety activist Tom Clements tried to ask Republican Gov. Nikki Haley how the Palmetto State would address the risk that South Carolina could be stuck with spent fuel as a result of the new small modular reactors (SMR).
"It's logical that the spent reactors and all the spent nuclear fuel would come back here to South Carolina. Are you advocating that we become some kind of holding ground?" said Clements, addressing Haley.
Haley: Small modular reactors mean jobs Anna Dolianitis, Aiken Standard June 20, 2012 COLUMBIA -- The Savannah River Site is the ideal place to demonstrate the first small modular nuclear reactor, Gov. Nikki Haley said during a press conference at the State House Tuesday, and "Team South Carolina" stands ready to be at the forefront of the new technology.
Through a Department of Energy program, investment funds totaling $450 million will be awarded to two projects believed to have the most potential and promise to achieve licensing by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and become commercially operational by 2022.
The five-year cost-share agreements will provide a total of about $900 million, at least 50 percent of which will be contributed by private industry.
South Carolina wants to be awarded both of the projects, Haley said, but would settle for at least one when the recipients are announced in August.
Modular reactor concept perfect for Hanford site Tri-City Herald June 20, 2012 One key ingredient is missing from the Department of Energy's approach to small modular reactors -- a sense of urgency.
Right now, DOE is considering a proposal to award $450 million to support engineering, design certification and licensing for one or two small modular reactor designs over five years.
The plan is to match federal dollars with private money and have the new reactors operating commercially by 2022.
House Armed Services hearing, "The Creation and Implementation of the National Nuclear Security Administration" House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces June 27, 2012. 3:30 p.m. SC's Savannah River Site begins waste plutonium shipments for storage at New Mexico facility The Associated Press
June 25, 2012 AIKEN, S.C. -- Plutonium from a former nuclear weapons complex in South Carolina is leaving for a federal storage site in New Mexico.
The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/M39aDe) that a shipment of plutonium from old nuclear weapons is leaving the Savannah River Site this week for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.
The shipment is part of the U.S. Energy Department's plan that could send 4.3 metric tons of plutonium from South Carolina to New Mexico over a 20-year period. The plutonium is waste material that can't be converted into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors at Savannah River's mixed-oxide facility.
The New Mexico facility has a storage site 2,000 feet below the surface within layers of geologic salt. Officials plan to ship 5 kilograms there at a time.
Using Risk Estimates to Guide Nuclear Safety Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times June 18, 2012 Virtually since the inception of civilian nuclear power, critics have argued that the regulators do not draft or apply rules in a way that is appropriate to the risks. Oddly, the regulators sometimes agree; the rules and practices governing reactor safety, they say, are a patchwork.
So experts at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have produced a study that proposes to reorganize its rules over the next 10 to 15 years. The goal is to more uniformly protect public health and safety, from a reactor in a crowded suburb to one in a lonely desert, from a truck carrying radioactive waste to a medical office irradiating cancer patients.
The plan is to make a list of each thing that could go wrong, calculate its probability and the consequences, and zero in on the level of risk that each problem poses, adding equipment and procedures to lower the threat until all have been equally addressed. In some cases, rules could be relaxed to achieve a uniform level of protection.
House approves sweeping package of energy bills Nick Snow, Oil & Gas Journal June 21, 2012 The US House approved a sweeping energy legislative package that supporters said would facilitate development of more domestic oil and gas, and opponents said would seriously gut environmental protections. HR 4480 passed by 248 to 163 votes, and its sponsor, Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), urged the US Senate to take it up promptly.
"These bipartisan pieces of legislation make sure that we move forward on oil and gas development in the western United States and on federal lands," Gardner said.
The package of seven bills would require the US Department of Energy secretary to develop a plan for more leasing on federal land; streamline the federal drilling permit process; direct the US Interior secretary, when conducting lease sales, to offer previously unavailable acreage as at least 25% of the annually nominated total; and to require analysis of impacts from certain US Environmental Protection Agency rules and actions on gasoline, diesel fuel, and natural gas prices.
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