ECA Update: August 14, 2012
Published: Tue, 08/14/12
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Oak Ridge plans for Manhattan Project's 70th anniversary
John Huotari, Oak Ridge Today
August 13, 2012
John Huotari, Oak Ridge Today
August 13, 2012
Organizers in Los Alamos, N.M., and Hanford, Wash., are having special events today to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Manhattan Project, the top-secret national effort to create the world's first atomic bombs during World War II.
Although nothing is planned in Oak Ridge, local volunteers are considering whether to have a celebration on Sept. 19, the 70th anniversary of the decision to select Oak Ridge for the first Manhattan Project site, newspaper columnist and Y-12 National Security Complex Historian D. Ray Smith said in an e-mail.
The volunteers plan to begin discussing the possible celebration during a 4 p.m. Tuesday meeting in the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau conference room.
Today's events in Los Alamos and Hanford are also designed to increase public awareness of the proposed Manhattan Project National Historical Park, and volunteers in Oak Ridge want to show Congress that Oak Ridge also supports that park. Smith said a small working group will be formed to lead the planning.
In July, a U.S. House committee approved a bill to set up a Manhattan Project National Historical Park that would include Oak Ridge. In the works for years, the park would also include facilities in Hanford and Los Alamos.
The bill specifies the facilities and areas at the three locations that are eligible for inclusion in the park. Most of these facilities and areas are already owned by the federal government and under the purview of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Under the bill, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park must be established as a unit of the National Park System within one year.
Community celebrates K-25 historic preservation agreement
John Huotari, Oak Ridge Today
August 10, 2012
John Huotari, Oak Ridge Today
August 10, 2012
An agreement officially announced Friday morning clears the way for the historic K-25 North Tower to be demolished, calls for a replica equipment building and viewing tower, proposes a history center at a nearby city-owned fire station, and provides a $500,000 grant for the run-down Alexander Inn.
The agreement wraps up a decade of discussion over how to commemorate the historic contributions of K-25, which was built during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, a federal program to make the world's first atomic bombs.
Historic preservationists lobbied for years to save the North Tower, but concerns over safety, the deteriorated condition of the building, and cost appear to have made that impractical. Much of the rest of the K-25 Building has already been torn down.
Those who signed the agreement include the U.S. Department of Energy, the State Office of Historic Preservation, the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the City of Oak Ridge, and the East Tennessee Preservation Alliance.
A few dozen representatives of federal, state, and local historic preservation groups celebrated the its signing during a Friday morning ceremony at the former K-25 site, now part of the East Tennessee Technology Park.
Sue Cange, DOE's deputy manager of Environmental Management in Oak Ridge, said the agreement was produced by many people who feel passionately about the need to preserve the history of the important work performed at the site.
"I believe this is a huge accomplishment," Cange said. "After these buildings are gone, and after we are gone, our grandchildren will know that the men and women who worked here made one of the greatest achievements in American history."
It's been estimated that the plan could cost $17.5 million to carry out. Cange said implementation of the initiatives included in the preservation plan will begin this fall and could take five to seven years to carry out.
Under the terms of the agreement, DOE will undertake three broad initiatives to commemorate the history of the K-25 complex and the city's larger role in the Manhattan Project, a press release said.
First, about 40 acres located inside the road that now surrounds the original mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building will be preserved to commemorate and interpret the work that once occurred there. A three-story equipment building will be built at the property's southern end.
"It will recreate a scale representation of the gaseous diffusion technology and contain authentic equipment used in the K-25 Building," the release said.
The replica equipment building will also house other equipment that was developed or used at the site. A viewing tower and 12 exhibits that tell parts of the K-25 story will also be included.
Second, a K-25 History Center will be located on the second level of a nearby fire station owned by the City of Oak Ridge. The history center will include equipment, artifacts, oral histories, photographs, and video. DOE has collected more than 700 original artifacts and archived 70 oral interviews from people who worked at the site.
Third, DOE will give a grant of $500,000 to the East Tennessee Preservation Association to support the preservation of the Alexander Inn, a historic structure in Oak Ridge where visiting scientists and dignitaries stayed while visiting the area. The grant will be used to buy the property and stabilize the structure until the inn can be transferred to a private developer.
Officials said the ETPA could receive the grant within 30 days. The two-story hotel in central Oak Ridge has been the subject of preservation efforts for years.
Mark Whitney, DOE's new head of Environmental Management in Oak Ridge, said the K-25 complex contained more than 500 buildings and 12,000 workers at its peak.
"The Manhattan Project's enormous scale, which in 1945 included the world's largest building, was necessary to produce a few grams of uranium-235 that were used to build the atomic bomb that ended the war with Japan," the press release said.
The K-25 complex was closed in 1987. The original buildings are now being demolished by DOE as part of the largest environmental remediation project in Tennessee's history. The property is being turned into an industrial park for future economic development.
Romney-Ryan Ticket Brings Lame Duck Debate Forward
Nancy Cook, National Journal
August 13, 2012
Nancy Cook, National Journal
August 13, 2012
The tax and spending debates that Beltway insiders predicted would not begin in earnest until after the election have suddenly been thrust onto the national stage, thanks to Rep. Paul Ryan's new spot on the Republican presidential ticket.
Since Mitt Romney announced his pick of Ryan as running mate on Saturday, the presidential race has already begun to shift from rhetorical, broad-brush attacks on ill-defined economic policy positions toward a more serious, substantive debate over spending and taxes - indeed the very role of government in American life.
And this means a debate - under a national spotlight - of the issues that Washington once thought would be taken care of behind closed doors in the seven weeks between the election and the end of the year. Trillions of dollars in expiring tax provisions and spending will be up for negotiation during that lame-duck session of Congress on everything from the scope of tax cuts for the wealthy to deficit reduction and the future of social spending programs, including Medicare and Medicaid.
The addition of House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan to the Republican ticket assures those issues will be litigated on the campaign trail and in nationally televised debates. Ryan, a conservative who has authored now two budgets criticized by Democrats as radical and extreme due to the sharp cuts they make to entitlement programs, will proudly hold up his policy positions as proof that a Romney-Ryan administration would put America's fiscal house in order. President Obama and Vice President Biden will warn voters that the Republican vision will wreck America's safety net and leave the country's most vulnerable without the support they need.
Indeed, they've already begun.
"More than any other election, this is a choice about two different visions for the country, for two different directions of where America should go," President Obama said at a Chicago fundraiser on Sunday.
The direction voters pick, he said, will "make a difference not just in your life, but in the lives of your children and in the lives of your grandchildren."
Fighting these battles during the general election season will give the winning party in November greater cause to claim a mandate. It might also generate a voter class more educated on the wonky issues of federal budgeting, deficit reduction, taxes, and the cost of entitlements. And that focus will put pressure on lawmakers to accomplish something during the lame duck, even if it's only planting the seeds for a later deficit-reduction plan or a tax overhaul.
Rep. Paul Ryan acknowledged as much Sunday night on CBS's "60 Minutes."
"That's why we think we need to have an election, to give the country a choice to put our country back on the right track. And then we need leadership to bring people together," he said.
One of Ryan's goals, according to his budget blueprint, is to shrink the size of the federal government by not providing funding for huge swathes of it. That's not part of Obama's plan, and that difference, among others, will drive the remainder of the campaign, forcing voters to decide the type of society they want and the kind of services they think government should be on the hook to provide.
Or, as the ranking member of the House Budget Committee Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said: Budgets "force choices. They're a reflection of our priorities, and at every turn the Republican budget chooses windfall tax breaks for the very wealthy at the expense of everybody and everything else."
That's a not a sentiment that Romney or Ryan share. They say they're eager to trim the budget to preserve some elements of the entitlement programs, while cutting taxes across-the-board to stimulate economic growth. That's supply-side economics coupled with a plan for deep spending cuts. It's also a clearer vision of reducing some portions of government spending than President Obama outlined.
The answers to these budget questions--previously relegated to the lame duck session--could redesign the way the country works and lives. Maybe it's only fair then to debate these issues in public and on the campaign trail before the lame duck session so that they become the core question of the contest -- or, at least, the main reason behind voters' decisions in November.
SRS to continue as training site
Jeff Wilkinson, The State
August 14, 2012
The U.S. Department of Energy has given the Savannah River Site a green light to continue as a training facility for Army soldiers and other members of the military.
Since February, about 200 soldiers have rotated through the sprawling, 310-square-mile installation in Aiken County for training in chemical, biological, radiological, explosive and nuclear defense. The details of that training are often classified, said SRS spokesman Bill Taylor.
Scientists and staff from the Savannah River National Laboratory, located at the site, often participate in that training, he said.
In addition, the Energy's Department's revised environmental study cleared the site for training by other branches of the service, such as aviation weapons training.
Taylor said the site receives no financial benefit from the training mission, and no additional jobs were created.
"Our motivation is patriotism and cooperation among government agencies," he said.
But any additional missions for the installation are a benefit in an era of federal budget cuts, boosters say.
The soldiers usually train in small groups over periods of two days to four or five days, Taylor said.
The majority of the soldiers and other military personnel that have and will train at the site are assigned through the Fort Gordon Training Command in Augusta, Fort Gordon spokesman Jay Mathews said.
"It's not necessarily Fort Gordon soldiers," he said. "We act as the local liaison to the site."
The Savannah River Site was constructed during the early 1950s to produce the basic materials used in the fabrication of nuclear weapons, primarily tritium and plutonium-239, in support of U.S. defense programs, according to its website. Five reactors were built to produce the materials, as well as support facilities including two chemical separations plants, a heavy water extraction plant, a nuclear fuel and target fabrication facility, a tritium extraction facility and waste management facilities.
Most of those facilities have since been scrapped, as the nation's manufacturing of nuclear weapon was drawn down.
In 2009, more than 1,500 new workers were hired and over 800 jobs retained when the site received $1.6 billion in federal stimulus money for the MOX facility for environmental cleanup, which should last for the next 25 years.
Soon, the site will be home to the nation's only mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) manufacturing plant. The MOX facility will convert weapons-grade plutonium into fuel suitable for commercial power reactors. It is scheduled for completion in 2016.
The site is also in the running for the first demonstration project to build miniature nuclear reactors. The mini-nukes could be as small as a double wide trailer and power remote towns and villages or industrial plants.
Nuclear Waste Confidence -- NRC Ruling No Big Deal
James Conca, Forbes
August 11, 2012
There has been some fist-bumping this week in the anti-nuclear sector over the recent vacating of two NRC rules by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in June; the waste-confidence decision and the storage rule. The judges felt that the agency had failed to conduct an environmental impact statement, or a finding of no significant environmental impact, before ruling that it is safe to store nuclear waste in wet pools and dry casks without a permanent solution in sight. But it was just that the initial NRC rule was too vague, not that this type of storage is unsafe (platts NRC Ruling).
In response, the NRC this week voted unanimously to delay final approval of licenses for new nuclear plants, or renewing the licenses of existing facilities, until the agency responds with a more complete ruling and addresses the dilemma of long-term nuclear waste storage across the country.
The 24 environmental groups that petitioned NRC to respond to the court are acting like they actually stopped all action on nuclear licensing (Marketwatch NRC Ruling). While no final decisions will be made in issuing licenses, the process for licensing new and existing plants will continue as before, the NRC said, which means the impact to the industry will be minimal.
Also, reactors can operate even after their present license expires as long as it is the NRC that is dragging it out. And most reactors have already been relicensed in the last ten years. Only 18 out of 104 reactors are not and primarily because they have to operate beyond 20 years before they can apply. The four new GenIII plants being built at Vogtle (Georgia) and V.C. Summer (South Carolina) are also not affected at all since their licenses have already been issued.
Since NRC needed to do this anyway and will get it done before a
ny of the critical licensing deadlines pass, this is no big deal. The nuclear industry has long been resigned to a slow-moving regulatory system. The environmental groups also stated that this action exacerbated an already dying nuclear industry, plagued with runaway costs and competition with far less expensive energy alternatives.
Huh? Re-licensing nuclear reactors is the absolute cheapest form of energy, about 2¢/kWhr for 20 years. They are obviously referring to new natural gas plants versus new nuclear GenIII plants which is not impacted by this ruling at all. New nuclear is actually cheaper than new gas in the long run, e.g., 20 years or more, even at present gas prices, but our society doesn't like to plan for the long-term so it usually gets these things wrong. And why anyone thinks gas plants are environmentally preferable to nuclear is odd from a carbon-emissions standpoint.
NRC's decision also marks the first major action since Dr. Allison Macfarlane was sworn in as chair of the NRC. MacFarlane describes the agency as "...a fantastic place, I'm enjoying it very much", bearing out the general hope that her tenure will be more congenial and productive than the former Chair Gregory Jaczko, who stepped down amid infighting and controversy.
But the elephant in the room on this whole issue is opening a deep geologic nuclear waste repository. As easy and safe as dry cask storage is, even for 100 years, spent fuel was always envisioned to be permanently disposed in such a repository, within 20 to 40 years of leaving the reactor. The original NRC ruling was to address the fact that we are not moving forward on that issue.
Of course, the choice of a final repository is not NRC's to make. Congress has to approve any site chosen by DOE or the yet-to-be-formed quasi-government agency recommended by the President's Blue Ribbon Commission on which Chairwomen MacFarlane served.
And confidence is a funny thing. Just look at the Stock Market. The scientific community has been researching deep geologic disposal for 60 years. We are more than confident we can accomplish it, relatively easily and within budget. If we are allowed to do it. We have performed thousands of studies, hundreds of environmental impacts, and have even built one of these deep geologic repositories in the U.S. that has been operating for 13 years without a hitch (Helman - WIPP).
The Yucca Mountain Project also conducted a huge number of environmental impact studies regarding the containment of radionuclides underground, protection of nearby communities, impacts to groundwater for 100,000 years, and a host of other studies that show we can do this if society wants it done. We know this problem very well and we know where and how to put this strange material away forever and ever. Scientific confidence is not the issue here.
The lack of confidence has always been with the political side. The court faulted NRC for assuming a national repository would be built within the next 60 years, even though that's the law. Funny that the court is slapping the NRC for something it can't seem to enforce itself.
But there is hope for the future. President Obama formed the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future to staunch the wound to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act left by the demise of the Yucca Mountain Project (Helman - BRC), and it was a brilliant dressing. The BRC drafted a number of recommendations addressing nuclear energy and waste issues, but three recommendations, in particular, set the stage for a new strategy to dispose of high-level nuclear waste and to manage spent nuclear fuel in the United States: 1) interim storage for spent nuclear fuel, 2) resumption of the site selection process for a second repository, and 3) a quasi-government entity to execute the program and take control of the Nuclear Waste Fund in order to do so.
The first and third are already being acted upon by Congress, led by Senators Bingaman (D-NM), Murkowski (R-AK), Feinstein (D-CA), Landrieu (D-LA) and Alexander (R-TN) who are trying to put the Commission's recommendations into legislative language. The latest attempt was just this last week, a proposed Nuclear Waste Administration Act, "To establish a new organization to manage nuclear waste, provide a consensual process for siting nuclear waste facilities, ensure adequate funding for managing nuclear waste, and for other purposes."
We will get this right as a Nation, and we will lead the way for the rest of the world. Just let us do it.
SRS Recovery Act Completes Major Lower Three Runs Project Cleanup
EM Recovery News Flash
August 14, 2012
AIKEN, S.C. - American Recovery and Reinvestment Act can now claim that 85 percent of the Savannah River Site (SRS) has been cleaned up with the recent completion of the Lower Three Runs (stream) Project.
Twenty miles long, Lower Three Runs leaves the main body of the 310-square mile site and runs through parts of Barnwell and Allendale Counties until it flows into the Savannah River. Government property on both sides of the stream acts as a buffer as it runs through privately-owned property. Completing this project reduces the site's footprint by another 10 percent.
"We excavated and disposed of over five million pounds of contaminated soil from three specific sites along the stream, erected miles of fence and placed over 2,000 signs in order to make Lower Three Runs safe and to reduce our site's footprint by another 10 percent," said Chris Bergren, Manager, Area Completion Projects. "Cost efficiencies obtained through the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act Project at SRS provided the funding necessary to accelerate this cleanup of Lower Three Runs."
According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Lead Project Manager Robert Pope, "The EPA is pleased with the cleanup of hot spots of contaminated soil and sediment along Lower Three Runs. EPA worked closely with the Department of Energy, South Carolina DHEC, and SRS cleanup crews, engineers and members of management to ensure all cleanup goals and expectations were met on an accelerated schedule," said Pope. "The cleanup actions, along with the installation of miles of fencing and warning signs, demonstrate SRS's commitment to protect human health and act as a good neighbor to residents living in the area."
Because low levels of contaminants remain in soils and sediments, fishing or trespassing on DOE property is not allowed. "However, testing of the water in Lower Three Runs has shown it to be safe, with contaminant levels below EPA standards," added Pope.
In addition to completing this project on budget and ahead of schedule, the work has provided an economic stimulus to area small businesses. "Our sub-contract workers, about 140 of them, were extremely efficient," said Bergren. "Their work ethic, planning and equipment management was impressive, particularly considering we were working during two of the hottest months on record, right after heavy rains in May."
Though workers encountered three of the four types of poisonous snakes found in this area at various times during the cleanup effort and labored under very difficult conditions, no one was injured.
Landowners near the stream were pleased with the results of the project. "We greatly appreciate that SRS was willing to invest the time and money into making the stream safe," said Jason Houck, who owns property adjacent to Lower Three Runs. "They did a great job. Everything ran smoothly."
According to Van Keisler, Manager, Federal Remediation Section, Bureau of Land and Waste Management, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), "Once again, by SCDHEC, EPA, and DOE working collaboratively together, a successful project that protects human health and the environment has been achieved. The removal of the contaminated soils and sediments helps ensure that the valuable water resources of the State of South Carolina remain protected. Further, the placement of upgraded fencing and signage will help ensure that no one inadvertently wanders onto property owned by DOE, further enhancing DOE's commitment to protect human health."
LANL Sets Waste Shipping Record for Fourth Consecutive Year
EM News Flash
August 14, 2012
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - For the fourth consecutive year, EM's TRU Waste Program at Los Alamos National Laboratory has shipped a record number of transuranic (TRU) waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M, for permanent disposal.
The Lab's 172nd shipment of TRU waste this fiscal year left Los Alamos bound for WIPP on Aug. 2. With two months left in the fiscal year, the Lab has already beaten last fiscal year's record of 171 shipments.
"Our goal this fiscal year is 184 shipments and we are on track to surpass that by a substantial margin," said Lee Bishop, TRU waste manager at DOE's Los Alamos Site Office. "We expect to send in the neighborhood of 200 shipments to WIPP this year."
The Lab has transported more than 1,000 shipments to WIPP since that facility opened in 1999.
Additional emphasis was placed on Area G shipments after last year's Las Conchas fire. Although the fire did not pose an immediate threat and protective measures were in place, the State of New Mexico, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Lab made removing the waste stored above ground at Area G one of their top environmental priorities.
In an agreement between the New Mexico Environment Department and DOE, the Lab will remove 3,706 cubic meters of waste from Area G by June 30, 2014.
"We are pleased with the progress we've made in our first year of accelerated shipping and we plan to more than double the volume of waste we ship next year," said Dan Cox, deputy associate director of environmental programs at the Lab.
The Lab plans to ship more than 800 cubic meters of waste to WIPP this year; 1,800 cubic meters next year; and the remaining 1,106 cubic meters by June 30, 2014.
"We are committed to removing the waste stored above ground at Area G as quickly and safely as possible," said Pete Maggiore, assistant manager for environmental operations at NNSA's Los Alamos Site Office. "We broke our all-time shipping record this year and we plan to set the bar even higher next year."
TRU waste consists of clothing, tools, rags, debris, soil and other items contaminated with radioactive material, mostly plutonium. Transuranic elements such as plutonium have an atomic number greater than uranium, so they are labeled transuranic, for "beyond uranium" on the periodic table of elements. About 90 percent of the current TRU waste inventory is a result of decades of nuclear research and weapons production at the Lab and is often referred to as legacy waste.
DOE's Oak Ridge cleanup contractor reaches four-year agreement with union
Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground
August 12, 2012
URS|CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge cleanup manager, announced that the United Steel Workers, Local 9-288, had ratified a new four-year contract for the work at the East Tennessee Technology Park (the former K-25 uranium-enrichment plant that's being cleaned up and converted to a private industrial parkl).
According to information released by UCOR, the contract includes a 2 percent wage hike for each of the next four years and "covers changes to the benefits that are consistent with changes in benefits for non-bargaining unit employees that were announced earlier in the year."
UCOR said the union agreed to increased costs of co-pays for office visits, specialists, and emergency room visits as part of the effort to cut costs. "The union also agreed to changes to the company matching contributions in the savings plan, short-term disability pay plan, and prescription drug planss," the contractor said.
In a statement, Dennis Pennington, president of the union local, said, "We are pleased to have reached an agreement with UCOR. This settlement provides stability in wages over the next four years in our contractual relationship with UCOR. The agreement remains consistent with our belief that everyone--the union, company, and the DOE--can benefit when the interests of the workers are successfully addressed in a non-adversarial environment."
Japanese Ministry to request funding to study burying spent nuke fuel
Toru Nakagawa, The Asahi Shimbun
August 14, 2012
The industry ministry announced that it will include research funds for "direct disposal," in which spent nuclear fuel is buried underground, in its next budget request, sources said.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to incorporate the demand in its budget request for the next fiscal year, which starts April 2013. It will mark the first time the ministry has made the request, they said.
The ministry came up with the plan as the government is likely to review the current "nuclear fuel cycle policy," in which all spent nuclear fuel is reprocessed for the reuse of plutonium. The review will be described in the government's new energy policy to be compiled as early as this summer.
According to sources, the government and the electric power industry have been promoting the nuclear fuel cycle policy. However, they were forced to review the policy in response to the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The government has come up with three proposals regarding the ratio of nuclear energy supplying the nation's electricity generation needs as of 2030. The three are "zero percent," "15 percent" and "20-25 percent."
In the case of zero percent, it is not necessary to reprocess spent nuclear fuel because nuclear power generation would have been terminated. Therefore, all remaining spent fuel would be buried underground.
In the cases of 15 percent and 20-25 percent, both reprocessing and burial are being considered.
That means burying the spent fuel is an option in all three scenarios.
So far, it has been decided that all spent nuclear fuel will be reprocessed. Therefore, the ministry has not conducted the necessary research in the event burying the spent fuel becomes a viable option. However, it now plans to change that position and will study the safety of spent nuclear fuel that is buried underground. As part of the studies, it will send researchers to Sweden, Finland and other countries, which have already buried spent nuclear fuel.
The government's nuclear fuel cycle policy has promoted a plan where spent nuclear fuel is transported from nuclear power plants to a reprocessing facility in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, to extract plutonium and reuse it as a component of mixed oxide (MOX) fuel.
However, operations have yet to get under way in the reprocessing facility because of a series of mishaps. Because of that, Japan's spent nuclear fuel is currently being reprocessed in other countries.
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