ECA Update: July 2, 2012
Published: Mon, 07/02/12
Guest column: Alexander supports Manhattan Project park in Oak Ridge
Senator Lamar Alexander July 1, 2012 In 2004, I joined Sen. Jeff Bingaman as a cosponsor of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Study Act, which directed the Department of Interior to conduct a study of the Manhattan Project sites to determine the feasibility of including the sites in the National Park System.
In 2011, Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Department of the Interior, recommended the creation of a Manhattan Project National Historical Park with units at Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Los Alamos, N.M., and Hanford, Wash. According to Secretary Salazar, "The Manhattan Project ushered in the Atomic Age, changed the role of the United States in the world community, and set the stage for the Cold War."
Support for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act is bipartisan, bicameral, and has the strong support of the Energy Communities Alliance and preservation organizations, including the National Parks Conservation Association.
Today, it is impossible to imagine that in September 1942, in a valley in East Tennessee, 3,000 farmers and their families were told to leave their homes to make way for a "secret city" that would bring 100,000 men and women together to help end World War II and forever change the course of human history. The story of the Manhattan Project is not only about World War II, it is about the people who lived and worked at these sites, the scientific achievements they made, and the impact of their work on our nation's history.
I have long supported establishing a national historic park to protect the Manhattan Project sites because of the project's important role in our history, but also because of its importance to the history and people of Tennessee.
Many have asked how a valley in East Tennessee became the first Manhattan Project site. Ray Smith, Y-12 National Security Complex historian, has reason to believe politics might have played a role.
According to Mr. Smith, President Roosevelt needed to convince Congress to spend a large amount of money without knowing what is was going to be used for. President Roosevelt asked Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kenneth Douglas McKellar, a Democrat from Tennessee, if this could be done. Senator McKellar is said to have replied, "Yes, Mr. President, I can do that for you ... now just where in Tennessee are you going to put that thang?"
Senator McKellar's decision to get President Roosevelt to locate the project in Tennessee was not welcome news to everyone.
John Rice Irwin's family lived on a farm in the 59,000-acre area that would soon only be known as the Clinton Engineer Works. John said that one day the family came home from Nash Copeland's general store, and on the screen door on their front porch was a notice from the War Department. John kept a copy of one of the notices from the War Department that was posted on his neighbor's door. The notice, dated Nov. 11, 1942, said, "The War Department intends to take possession of your farm on December 1, 1942. It will be necessary for you to move not later than that date."
Wilma Brooks' family found a similar notice, and her family only had 18 days to leave a farm they had lived and worked on for 200 years.
Oak Ridge, which was not listed on a map until 1949, became the home for 100,000 scientists, engineers, machinists, operators and construction workers.
Very few of the scientists knew what they were working on, and even fewer knew anything about uranium. Bill Wilcox, a young chemist tells the story of going to work for Eastman Kodak to do "war work," and only later learning that he would be working to produce uranium, which he was never allowed to call by its name.
Today, Mr. Wilcox is the City of Oak Ridge's historian and a tireless advocate for the creation of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Harvey Kite, another chemist who came to work at Y-12 in 1944, recalled that he and some of his co-workers suspected that the uranium was for a nuclear weapon, but they did not know for sure until the atomic bomb was first used.
Gladys Owens, a "Calutron Girl," worked for eight months operating the massive electromagnetic separation machines in "Beta 2" of Y-12 without knowing anything about her work. All Ms. Owens knew was that if she wore pins in her hair, the machines she operated would pull them out and stick them like glue to any metal surface she came near.
The X-10 Graphite Reactor, located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor. X-10 not only produced plutonium, it was also the first reactor used to produce radioactive isotopes for medical therapy which marked the birth of modern nuclear medicine which has saved countless lives.
The X-10 Graphite Reactor has been preserved as a National Historical Landmark since 1966, and exists today in virtually the same condition as it did in 1943, when the reactor first achieved criticality.
These are stories of our nation's history, and what is remarkable is that the facilities used by workers like Gladys Owens have been preserved and exist today almost exactly as they did so many years ago. I am proud of the Department of Energy for investing in our history and preserving these one-of-a-kind facilities. The Department has also worked closely with the National Park Service and local communities to make this unique national park model a reality.
As Americans, we have a special obligation to preserve and protect our heritage, and the Manhattan Project National Historical Park will ensure that all Americans learn about the significance of the Manhattan Project and how it continues to shape our history.
Tom Beehan, the mayor of the City of Oak Ridge, who testified on behalf of the Energy Communities Alliance, made several recommendations which I hope the Committee will consider.
I look forward to working with the Committee to address these recommendations, and to make sure that there is enough flexibility in the legislation so that communities can work with the National Park Service and the Department of Energy to protect nationally significant sites that are critical to understanding the role the Manhattan Project played in our nation's history.
Sen. Alexander submitted this statement to the Senate's Subcommittee on National Parks in support of a bill he co-sponsored, S. 3300, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act. Beehan and Smith testified before Congress in support of the bill last week.
Senate panel urged to create park honoring Manhattan Project veterans Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald June 28, 2012 The Energy Communities Alliance urged a Senate subcommittee Wednesday to establish a Manhattan Project National Historical Park soon to honor veterans of the World War II project and the Cold War. The bill discussed before a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks would give the Departments of Energy and Interior a year to work out what roles each would play and then the park automatically would be formed.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is an original cosponsor of the bill, said she hoped that deadlines in the bill could be met because there still are people who can give firsthand accounts of the early work at Hanford and other sites.
The two agencies might need more time to thoroughly work out issues, but if the bill has a one-year deadline, that is what will be met, said Ingrid Kolb, director of the DOE Office of Management.
Three years to complete a management plan is appropriate and that much time may be needed, given the proposed new park would include sites in three states and that security and safety issues will have to be worked out while DOE work continues elsewhere at the sites, she said.
The proposed park would tell the story of the start of the Atomic Age during World War II, including the role played by Hanford's historic B Reactor, which produced plutonium for the world's first nuclear bomb and the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, helping to end the war.
Manhattan Project facilities in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Los Alamos, N.M., also are proposed for inclusion.
"The reason we would have the three sites is all three were integral to the Manhattan Project," Kolb said. "All three would be presented as a whole."
The proposed park would give current and future generations an understanding of a turning point in the history of America and the world, said Oak Ridge Mayor Thomas Beehan, the chairman of the Energy Communities Alliance, which includes Hanford-area local governments.
"Despite what some detractors may claim, this is not a park about weapons," he said. "I believe this historical park is about scientific and engineering accomplishments at a time when our country was defending itself, both during World War II and the Cold War."
The National Park Service would address all viewpoints to give visitors to the proposed park a full and fair picture, he said.
The Energy Communities Alliance also recommended that a modest entrance fee be charged to the proposed park to help with long-term care. The park should be permitted to accept both property and financial donations to support the park and the tours of the site, Beehan said.
Congress also should allow flexibility to allow the park service to work with communities to add sites that are nationally significant and suitable to include in the park, he said.
At Hanford the park could include not only B Reactor, but eventually T Plant, which processed irradiated fuel to remove plutonium, and buildings left by early settlers forced to give up their homes, businesses and farms to make way for the top-secret nuclear project.
Today a companion bill will be discussed in a House Natural Resources subcommittee.
Senate backs geologist Allison Macfarlane to lead Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Associated Press June 29, 2012 WASHINGTON -- The Senate has approved President Barack Obama's nominee to chair the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an agency marked by discord in recent years. Geologist Allison Macfarlane will replace Gregory Jaczko (YAHTS'-koh), who announced his resignation last month after a tumultuous three-year tenure. Jaczko came under fire for an unyielding management style that fellow commissioners and agency employees described as bullying.
Macfarlane, a Democrat, told a Senate panel this month that she will work to restore collegiality at the NRC. She also pledged to ensure "a respectful working environment" at the agency, which oversees safety at the nation's 104 commercial nuclear reactors. Her term runs through June 2013.
The Senate also approved Republican Kristine Svinicki to a new five-year term on the commission. Svinicki has served on the panel since 2008.
Inquiry on Nuclear Chief Finds No Rules Were Broken Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times Green Blog June 27, 2012 On the eve of the resignation of Gregory B. Jaczko, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the commission's inspector general has issued a report that exonerates him of some of the charges against him.
Dr. Jaczko did not exceed his authority last year in directing his agency's response to the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown in Japan, despite his colleagues' irritation over his management style, the office of the inspector general, Hubert Bell, said on Tuesday. He did not make any unilateral decisions that affected companies that hold N.R.C. licenses, the report said.
The other four members of the commission had complained to the White House and later to Congress that Dr. Jaczko had cut them out of decision-making.
The report was not immediately made public. The New York Times obtained a copy of the eight-page summary from a Congressional aide.
In May, Dr. Jaczko said he would resign when a successor was confirmed.
The Senate is likely to do that this week, approving Allison Macfarlane, a geologist and professor of environmental science at George Mason University, as his successor.
The inspector general has investigated a variety of actions that critics say were improper, but the new report does not find any clear violations.
It said that Dr. Jaczko had broken with the practice of two previous commission chairmen by seeking to change the recommendations of its staff,and that he limited staff communications with the other four commissioners.
That was not against the rules, but "inconsistent with the commissioners' expectations to receive the staff's written views, analysis and recommendations,'' the report said. And ultimately the commissioners got access to the information, it added.
Nonetheless, the inspector general "identified more than 15 examples of interactions between the chairman and N.R.C. senior executives and commissioners where the chairman's behavior was not supportive of an open and collaborative work environment," the report said.
The commission demands that companies that hold reactor licenses maintain a collaborative environment, it added.
In a statement, Dr. Jaczko said that he had felt "confident all along that my actions have been consistent with my responsibilities and authorities as chairman, and certainly that there was no wrongdoing.''
"This report underscores my belief,'' he said. "I appreciate the inspector general's independent investigation and am glad to put this behind us."
NRC Inspector General Backs Jaczko Bullying Allegations Nuclear Street June 27, 2012 The inspector general of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has confirmed a number of allegations of abusive behavior by outgoing chairman Gregory Jaczko.
The Associated Press reported that it obtained a copy of the inspector general's report Tuesday, and that it outlined 15 times when Jaczko's behavior was perceived as intimidating or bullying by NRC employees and commissioners. The report also alleged that statements taken by the inspector general were inconsistent with Jaczko's testimony in recent congressional hearings.
While Jaczko has not faced a formal rebuke by the agency or any legal action, the inspector general's report caps months of public allegations directed at the chairman, including by four of his fellow commissioners. For his part, Jaczko has consistently denied the allegations. In late May, he announced he would resign.
"I have felt confident all along that my actions have been consistent with my responsibilities and authorities as chairman, and certainly that there was no wrongdoing. This report underscores my belief," Jaczko said in a statement posted on the NRC's website Tuesday. "I am particularly proud that the NRC consistently has been rated as one of the best places to work in the federal government during my tenure as chairman." Jaczko has served on the commission since 2005 and was appointed chairman in 2009. Allison Macfarlane, currently an associate professor at George Mason University and a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, has been appointed to replace him.
SRS awaits Energy Department nuclear waste strategy Rob Pavey, The Augusta Chronicle June 25, 2012 The fate of Savannah River Site's high-level nuclear waste could become clearer by the end of July, when U.S. Energy Department officials brief Congress on a new national disposal strategy.
Currently, the site's inventory includes about 3,100 steel canisters of stabilized waste that, until the Obama administration canceled the Yucca Mountain project in 2010, were to be removed from South Carolina for burial in Nevada.
The site's Citizens Advisory Board recently asked officials to explore sending all or part of the stored waste to the department's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., where lower-level "transuranic" nuclear waste is buried beneath the Chihuahuan Desert.
In a letter last week in response to the board's recommendation, SRS manager David Moody said his department is evaluating the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission created to devise a new disposal strategy after Yucca Mountain was canceled.
"Repository and interim storage sites will be considered in accordance with a consent-based process as outlined by the Blue Ribbon Commission," he wrote. "Additionally, the department's experiences at (the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) are being considered as part of the assessment to respond to the commission."
The New Mexico site was designed for the disposal of the same type of canisters stored at SRS but is licensed only for less-concentrated radioactive wastes, such as lightly contaminated clothing, tools and other materials. Because of that difference, revising the facility's acceptance criteria would likely require approval from Congress.
"The administration's strategy regarding these matters is expected to be delivered to Congress by the end of July 2012," Moody wrote, adding that a briefing for the citizens board will be arranged thereafter.
The board is a stakeholder group that provides the assistant secretary for environmental management and designees with advice, information and recommendations on issues affecting the environmental and cleanup programs.
DOE to delay new cost, schedule for vit plant over technical concerns Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald June 26, 2012 Richland -- The Department of Energy will delay coming up with a new cost and schedule for Hanford's huge vitrification plant after a technical panel agreed with an employee that erosion and corrosion within the plant must be addressed.
David Huizenga, DOE's senior adviser for environmental management, made the announcement today in a national media call after congressional leaders were briefed this morning.
Resolving technical issues, including how to keep radioactive waste well mixed and to prevent erosion and corrosion within the plant, is expected to take more than a year and cost tens of millions of dollars, Huizenga said.
The testing is intended to give additional confidence that the Waste Treatment Plant can operate for the full 40 years planned to treat up to 56 million gallons of radioactive waste for disposal, Huizenga said.
The waste, held in underground tanks, is left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.
"We're trying to address technical issues head on and realistically," Huizenga said.
By acknowledging issues now, the plant will not end up with unanticipated costs and maintenance issues in the future, he said.
Now the plant is legally required to start operating in 2019 and is projected to cost $12.2 billion, but DOE will not be able to finish it by then and at that price.
DOE had instructed its contractor Bechtel National in February to propose a new cost and schedule for the vitrification plant, which was due in August.
But with technical questions to be addressed for parts of the plant that will handle large quantities of high level radioactive waste, Bechtel will proceed only with a cost and schedule revision for the plant's Low Level Waste Facility, the Analytical Laboratory and about 20 support facilities.
When testing is finished, it then can address additional cost and schedule information for the vit plant's High Level Waste Facility and Pretreatment Facility.
Those two buildings have areas called "black cells," that will be too radioactively hot for workers to safely enter after the plant begins operating for maintenance or to make repairs.
Construction at those facilities already has been ramped down and no further layoffs are anticipated.
Don Alexander, a DOE scientist, raised questions regarding erosion and corrosion in piping and tanks in black cells within the plant in September in a Difference of Professional Opinion report, disagreeing with scientific opinion accepted by DOE.
It was the third set of issues he'd raised in an ongoing Difference of Professional Opinion.
DOE addressed his concerns with a panel of technical experts that concluded his concerns are legitimate, and now DOE is planning testing that will be done in conjunction with already planned mixing testing to resolve them, Huizenga said.
"I think this demonstrates if people raise issues, we are willing to make tough decisions to address them," Huizenga said.
Waste level rising in 52 Hanford tanks Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald June 26, 2012 Measurements of radioactive waste in Hanford's underground tanks appear to show that the level of waste in 52 of the tanks is rising. The reason for the readings, taken over decades in some cases, is a mystery.
But the worst-case scenario, that precipitation or snowmelt may be getting into some of the waste tanks, has the state of Washington concerned.
Hanford stores 56 million gallons of high-level radioactive and hazardous chemical waste left from the production of weapons plutonium in underground tanks. That includes 28 newer double-shell tanks and about 141 older single-shell tanks, some of which have leaked in the past.
An assessment of routine measurements of the single-shell tanks concluded that levels may be rising in 52 of the tanks. For some tanks, an average increase of a couple thousands of an inch a year has been measured. But measurements taken in 21 of the tank indicate larger increases of up to an average of about three-quarters of an inch a year.
The measurements have been taken four times a year for decades for some of the tanks.
"At this point, we are not sure what the cause is," said Dennis Washenfelder, engineering manager for tank and pipeline integrity for Washington River Protection Solutions.
Some of the measurements are taken by periodically lowering a plummet on a wire in the tank until it hits the waste. But the surface of the waste can be rough, with peaks and valleys across tanks that can have diameters of 75 feet and capacities of up to 1 million gallons.
It's possible that the plummet, which stays in the tank between measurements, could be hitting different places on the surface of the waste when it is lowered.
In addition, the waste contaminates the plummet, sometimes getting trapped on its end. A small amount of water is flushed down the wire to remove it.
That water could be pooling in a pocket beneath the plummet, Washenfelder said. In that case the measurement would not indicate an increase in the level of waste across the tank.
However, the change in measurements also could be caused by moisture infiltrating the waste, possibly at the below-ground joint between the concrete tank top and metal risers that give access to the underground tank.
Access to the risers usually is through pits, or boxes buried flush with the ground, and water infiltrating the pits also could be getting into the tanks. The pits are topped with interlocking concrete blocks that have a urethane weather cover, plus joints are taped where needed, which would restrict the amount of rain and snow melt that gets into the pits, Washenfelder said.
Washington River Protection Solutions plans to increase monitoring to as often as weekly in some of the tanks.
It also is making plans to inspect the insides of the enclosed tanks using a video camera as the first step to determine the cause of the increasing waste level measurements.
"The visual inspection will provide us the information to confirm whether water intrusion has occurred, and, if it has, what actions should be taken," said Lori Gamache, DOE spokeswoman.
The camera will look at the waste surface in the vicinity of the plummets and at places where a second type of measurement device has been used. The second device relies on a neutron monitor sensitive to water to measure waste levels, and it also has shown an increase in liquid levels in some cases.
In addition, video will be recorded of the inside of the concrete dome of the tank, with the camera searching for damp places that would indicate water is infiltrating it.
"As we begin to inspect the tanks and the causes unfold, we will determine what to do with DOE and Ecology," Washenfelder said.
The Washington State Department of Ecology is following the issue closely, concerned that water may be infiltrating the tanks, said Jeff Lyon, the agency's project manager for tank waste storage.
One of the state's main concerns is the length of time the waste will remain in the old tanks, he said.
Some of the tanks date back to World War II and could contain waste until the last of the single shell tank waste is transferred to double shell tanks about 2040. Because of the limited capacity of the double shell tanks, the Hanford vitrification plant now under construction has to be treating waste from the double shell tanks to make space in them for more of the waste from single shell tanks.
The state's other chief concern is the potential of waste leaking from the tanks into the soil beneath them. Some of the tanks with increasing waste level measurements are known to have leaked in the past, Lyon said.
DOE temporarily stabilized the tanks, completing work in 2004 to remove pumpable liquids in the single shell tanks to regulatory standards. But some of the tanks still have more than 1,000 gallons of free liquid, Lyon said. In addition, more liquid is trapped in the pores of the solid waste that remains in most of the single shell tanks.
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