ECA Update: September 14, 2012
Published: Fri, 09/14/12
Zack Colman, The Hill Separate Hanford, commercial waste, Cantwell tells U.S. commission
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald Key Republicans Look to Scrap Controversial Nuclear Security Legislation
Douglas P. Guarino, Global Security Newswire Spending Bill Approved Sans Drama
Billy House and Katy O'Donnell, National Journal Lawmakers scramble to stop sequestration
Kedar Pavgi, Government Executive White House issues veto threat of sequestration bill
John T. Bennett, Federal Times House Armed Services Committee hearing:
Y-12 Intrusion: Investigation, Response, and Accountability
House Armed Services Committee GAO Observations on the National Nuclear Security Administration's Oversight of Safety, Security, and Project Management
GAO Testimony Highly Radioactive Sludge Removal Complete: Historic Cleanup Effort Reduces the Risk along the Columbia River DOE Press Release |
Murkowski presses Obama official on late nuclear waste plan
Zack Colman, The Hill
September 12, 2012
Zack Colman, The Hill
September 12, 2012
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) pressed an Energy Department (DOE) official Wednesday for answers on why the Obama administration missed a summer deadline for finalizing a nuclear waste storage plan.
"The government's failure to address our nuclear waste issues is damaging to the development of future nuclear power and simultaneously worsening our nation's financial situation," Murkowski said during opening remarks at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. "We need to act, and we need to act soon."
The administration did not meet a scheduled July 31 deadline to complete its nuclear waste storage plan.
Peter Lyons, DOE assistant secretary for nuclear energy, told the Senate committee the administration is uncertain when the plan will be ready.
That plan is supposed to design a way to implement recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, a group formed by President Obama in 2009 to evaluate the nation's handling of nuclear waste.
"That work does continue and is nearing, I think, a conclusion," Lyons said. "The matter is very much ongoing."
When Murkowski asked Lyons to clarify whether a plan would be ready in a month, six months or a year, Lyons said he did not have enough specifics to comment.
The topic of nuclear waste became more highly politicized when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), under former chairman Gregory Jaczko, stopped reviews of the Yucca Mountain disposal site in Nevada.
The NRC said it lacked the money to continue reviewing the site. Republicans, however, charged that shutting Yucca down was a political decision led by the administration and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
A bill discussed at Wednesday's hearing recalled that dispute.
The bill (S. 3469), introduced by committee chairman Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), largely adopts the Blue Ribbon Commission's recommendations.
It would encourage moving nuclear waste currently stored at nuclear reactors to consolidated interim sites until Congress approves a long-term repository. It also would open up more potential permanent repository sites for consideration beyond Yucca.
But Murkowski said the bill would prohibit interim storage until the NRC receives a formal application for a permanent site. That could get the process ensnarled in legal and political battles much like Yucca, she said.
Bingaman said such a provision was necessary to ensure interim sites do not become de facto permanent sites.
That contention is what will prevent the bill from going forward this year, Bingaman and Murkowski said, adding they largely agreed on many of the bill's other provisions.
Bingaman, who is retiring after this session, said he called the hearing to set the table for negotiations next Congress.
Murkowski, who would be in line to lead the committee if Republicans take the Senate in the Nov. 6 election, said she wants to discuss nuclear waste more frequently.
Separate Hanford, commercial waste, Cantwell tells U.S. commission
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
September 13, 2012
Hanford and other nuclear weapons waste should be considered separately as the nation wrestles with the issue of waste disposal, said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., on Tuesday.
She spoke at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to consider the proposed Nuclear Waste Administration Act of 2012, which includes many of the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future.
The commission was formed to look at new options for used commercial nuclear fuel and high level radioactive waste from Hanford and other defense sites after the Obama administration moved to stop work on the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nev., repository.
Cantwell would need to see a specific disposal plan for Hanford's waste separate from plans for commercial waste before supporting any new legislation to address the nation's nuclear waste problem, she said.
Hanford officials had planned to send some unprocessed irradiated nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste that is glassified at the Hanford vitrification to Yucca Mountain. The waste is left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear waste program.
The defense waste is different from the used commercial nuclear fuel and should not be drawn into that debate "when this could be separated out, dealt with and moved forward," she said.
The Hanford tank waste that will be vitrified is a "witch's brew of materials" that cannot be reprocessed and reused as has been proposed for the used commercial nuclear fuel, she said.
Because Hanford's vitrified waste will not be reprocessed, retrieval of the waste from a repository does not appear to be an issue, she said.
The wastes are different, said Richard Meserve, who spoke at the hearing as a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission. The commission's report urged that the waste be considered separately, and the policy, which was established by the Reagan administration to have a single repository for both, be re-examined, he said.
Considering defense waste separately could speed up the removal of high level radioactive waste from Hanford, Cantwell said. If the vitrification plant starts on schedule, which may not happen, high level waste could be ready for disposal starting in 2019.
"(Hanford) is the largest cleanup site, probably in the entire world," she said. "And so getting it done and getting it tackled in the most efficient way and the most cost-effective way means not getting it tangled up in this larger debate."
The Tri-Cities has had the burden of radioactive defense waste for 70 years, she said.
"Now we would like to move on to the next chapter of economic development," she said.
She's interested in considering salt formations, such as those at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, for high level radioactive waste. Now the New Mexico repository accepts waste contaminated with plutonium and other transuranic isotopes from Hanford and other DOE sites, which is not considered high-level radioactive waste.
A recent report by James Conca and Judith Wright of the Tri-Cities put the cost of using salt formations for disposal at less than half that of using crystalline rock or volcanic tuff, according to Cantwell's staff. However, the nation's nuclear waste policy effectively excludes using salt formations for disposal of high-level radioactive waste because any deposits would be permanent and could not be retrieved.
The immediate issue at Hanford is stabilizing high-level radioactive waste stored in underground tanks, some of which have leaked in the past, Meserve said in response to questioning by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. But once the waste is stabilized there are ways to store it safely, he said.
"Storage on the banks of the Columbia River is not seen as a permanent solution in my part of the world," Wyden said, before giving the floor to Cantwell.
"It's unacceptable for this waste to be stored at Hanford," she said.
Key Republicans Look to Scrap Controversial Nuclear Security Legislation
Douglas P. Guarino, Global Security Newswire
September 12, 2012
The GOP leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is looking to override fellow Republicans on another panel and scrap legislative language that would reduce the Energy's Department's oversight of U.S. nuclear weapons facilities, a key lawmaker said on Wednesday.
Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of the energy panel's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, told Global Security Newswire that he hopes to have the controversial language removed from the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2013 during upcoming conference negotiations with the Senate.
Stearns spoke after chairing a hearing in which subcommittee members said a recent security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee showed that the changes called for in the bill are inappropriate. The lawmaker said he expected the conference negotiations to occur "sooner rather than later," noting that Congress does not "have many days in the legislative session left" before breaking for the November elections.
Championed by House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Mike Turner, the lower chamber's version of the authorization bill would remove the Energy Department's ability "to make policy, prescribe regulations and conduct oversight of health, safety and security in the nuclear security enterprise." These authorities would shift to the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semiautonomous division of the department that oversees the nation's atomic arms complex.
On July 28, an 82-year-old nun and two others were able to infiltrate the section of the Y-12 facility that houses a storage structure for weapon-grade uranium. In recent weeks, some House Democrats have told GSN that the incident demonstrates that the legislation is flawed and that nuclear weapons facilities need more DOE governance, not less.
Some GOP lawmakers now appear to agree.
"If there's ever a time for more-aggressive oversight, this is it," Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said during Wednesday's hearing.
Turner, though, has argued that that the Y-12 break-in proves that the current system of oversight is failing and should be overhauled as the language drafted by his committee proposes.
The House approved the bill in May.
The Democrat-controlled Senate has not included similar language in its version of the defense bill and the Obama administration also opposes the language. Preserving the House language in the conference talks could prove a challenge for Turner and his allies given Stearns' remarks on Wednesday.
"Our friends on the Armed Services Committee have moved legislation through the House that would dramatically limit DOE's ability to conduct independent internal oversight over its program management and the contractors," Stearns said during the hearing. "I recognize that NNSA has not been delivering all that is expected of it. But this committee, given its jurisdictional and longtime policy interests in effective DOE management, has to diagnose the problems for itself, independently."
Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats were even more direct in their criticism of the Armed Services panel's proposal.
Given the incident at Y-12, "I can't think of any reason why we would want to decrease our oversight of these facilities," said Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado, the top Democrat on the subcommittee.
Committee ranking member Henry Waxman criticized Energy and Commerce Republicans for not stopping the legislation from advancing through the House in the first place. He called the provisions in the bill that would curtail DOE oversight of security at the nuclear-weapons facilities "outrageous."
Spending Bill Approved Sans Drama
Billy House and Katy O'Donnell, National Journal
September 13, 2012
With the sideshow of vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan rep. Paul Ryan Republican Wisconsin, District 1 Read Full Almanac Profile » at the Capitol, casting votes and backslapping with GOP colleagues, the House approved a stopgap spending bill that allows $19 billion more in spending than the budget Ryan himself crafted.
The $1.047 trillion price tag, approved 329 to 91, represented a concession to Democrats by House conservatives, including Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman. The bill increases spending by $8 billion, which conservatives agreed to on the condition that it would fund the government past the anticipated lame-duck session. They did not want the threat of a government shutdown to become bargaining fodder while Congress addresses the so-called fiscal cliff after the election.
Ryan made no floor statements before voting on the continuing resolution. He arrived at the Capitol about an hour earlier and spent the time meeting House colleagues in a room in the office of Speaker John Boehner. On his short walk to the House floor, Ryan was met with a loud cheer from a gauntlet of lawmakers, including even some polite applause and greetings from Democrats.
Ryan's departure from the campaign trail provided Democrats the opportunity to highlight some of his controversial budget cuts and other proposals, such as those dealing with Medicare. Snarky comments hailing the "intellectual leader" of House Republicans and a video titled "Welcome Back Mr. Ryan!" courtesy of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi rep. Nancy Pelosi Democrat California, District 8 Read Full Almanac Profile »'s office greeted his return.
"It's nice to see Paul Ryan back here in Congress. It will be even nicer to see him back here as a full-time member in January," remarked Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., from the Senate floor.
Responded Brendan Buck, Ryan's vice presidential campaign spokesman: "With President Obama's failed leadership leaving us with 43 straight months of unemployment above 8 percent, another trillion-dollar deficit, and looming defense cuts that will devastate our military, do his allies in the Congress have nothing better to do than engage in stale political attacks?"
Aside from the theatrics of a presidential campaign, though, it was perhaps the least dramatic vote this House has taken on a spending bill.
"We have to pass this bill to maintain the continuation of our government," said a resigned Harold Rogers. Rogers has made no secret of his disdain for stopgap, catch-all measures.
A continuing resolution was necessary because Congress has not agreed upon any of the 12 annual appropriations bills. But resorting to stopgap bills has become the norm.
The last time Congress passed all the spending bills individually by Oct. 1, much of the country had just watched a white Ford Bronco crawl down the 405 trailed by a fleet of Los Angeles' finest; Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction were about to duel it out for the honor of Best Picture; and Ryan was fresh off a job wiping down tables at a Capitol-area eatery, Tortilla Coast.
That was 1994: Democrats approved the fiscal 1995 bills for President Clinton just before the GOP won the majority for the first time in decades. Since then, the process has deteriorated, with the last few years marking a particularly egregious breakdown in regular order.
Congressional leaders brokered this CR deal at the end of July, kicking a multitude of fiscal decisions into next year. For example, new programs or projects--government-wide, including those at the Pentagon--will go unfunded. Similarly, spending cuts or increases to programs, or project terminations and savings, will not go into effect. In addition, there will be no new policy riders.
There were rumblings before the vote that some members might object to the bill on foreign-aid grounds in the wake of the attacks in Libya.
In the end, there was no significant opposition.
The Senate is expected to vote on the measure next Thursday.
Lawmakers scramble to stop sequestration
Kedar Pavgi, Government Executive
September 13, 2012
Lawmakers are busy trying to delay or avoid altogether the threat of across-the-board budget cuts early in 2013.
A bipartisan group of senators is working to negotiate a $55 billion down payment that would give Congress an additional six months to negotiate a long-term deal for reducing the deficit, The Hill reported Wednesday.
House members also are devising plans to avert the cuts, known as sequestration and slated to take effect on Jan. 2, 2013.
The House on Thursday afternoon debated a bill from Rep. Allen West. R-Fla., aimed at protecting the Defense Department from sequestration. West's proposed National Security and Jobs Protection Act would force President Obama to come up with an alternative to the defense portion of the cuts.
According to Federal Times, the White House threatened to veto West's bill, saying it "fails the test of fairness and shared responsibility."
Both parties have denounced the automatic cuts, which were designed to encourage a bipartisan compromise on reducing the deficit. Many defense contractors were planning to release notices to employees regarding potential job losses close to Election Day, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz,, has argued vocally against the cuts.
During a press conference Thursday, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the gridlock was unacceptable and urged for some type of solution to the standoff.
"This is so immature, so irresponsible, so unworthy of the trust the American people place on us," Pelosi said.
Vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan R-Wis., was welcomed back to Washington with a video that House Democrats made highlighting the congressman's support for sequestration in 2011. He has disavowed that support on the campaign trail and has argued that his vote for the 2011 Budget Control Act was for other reasons. Ryan was scheduled to vote later Thursday for the six-month continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
White House issues veto threat of sequestration bill
John T. Bennett, Federal Times
September 12, 2012
The White House on Wednesday issued a sharp veto threat of a bill tailored to avoid Pentagon budget cuts slated to take effect in January.
The veto threat came in a state of administration policy that stated White House officials believe the bill "fails the test of fairness and shared responsibility."
The legislation, called the National Security and Job Protection Act, was introduced by Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., who stringently opposes new defense cuts. West's bill would slash $19 billion from discretionary spending accounts, and also contains language that would force the president to replace billions in cuts to planned Pentagon spending set to take effect Jan. 2.
West's legislation, not expected to be taken up by the Democratic-controlled Senate if the lower chamber passes it, does not cover the entire $1.2 trillion in automatic federal spending cuts that would kick in in January should lawmakers fail to pass a debt-reduction bill with that same amount of cuts.
As Pentagon officials have warned, the automatic cuts would be made through a process called sequester, which would simply take a certain percentage from all non-exempt federal accounts. Shy of strategy, the cuts could cause job losses and hinder national security, the officials have warned.
Specifically, the White House objects to "destructive cuts in investments critical to the nation's economic future, ranging from education to research and develop infrastructure." Spending on infrastructure enhancement programs has been a theme of President Obama's re-election campaign.
The veto threat statement also panned the bill for cuts it would allow to mandatory domestic programs like Medicare, which are favored by Democrats like Obama and viewed skeptically by conservatives like West.
The White House's statement also hits on several issues that have been at the forefront of the 2012 presidential election.
The Obama administration opposes the bill because it would slash federal discretionary spending below levels agreed to last summer by congressional leaders of both parties and the White House.
The White House would prefer a bill that raises new federal revenues "by asking the most fortunate Americans to pay their fair share." To help pare the federal debt, Obama wants to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans; GOP nominee Mitt Romney, on the other hand, opposes all tax increases.
The West-sponsored bill could hit the House floor as early as Thursday.
House Armed Services Committee hearing: Y-12 Intrusion: Investigation, Response, and Accountability
House Armed Services Committee
September 13, 2012
The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces held a hearing entitled, "Y-12 Intrusion: Investigation, Response, and Accountability" on September 13, 2012.
Deputy Secretary of Energy, Daniel Poneman, and Principal Deputy Administrator for NNSA, Neile Miller, testified at the hearing.
GAO Observations on the National Nuclear Security Administration's Oversight of Safety, Security, and Project Management
GAO Testimony
September 12, 2012
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a separately organized agency within the Department of Energy (DOE), has successfully ensured that the nuclear weapons stockpile remains safe and reliable by using state-of-the-art facilities as well as the skills of top scientists. Nevertheless, DOE's and NNSA's ineffective oversight of its contractors has contributed to many safety and security problems. As work carried out at NNSA's sites involves dangerous nuclear materials such as plutonium and highly enriched uranium, stringent safety procedures and security requirements must be observed. In response to numerous serious safety incidents over several decades, DOE has taken steps to improve safety oversight. Recently, laboratory and other officials have raised concerns, however, that federal oversight has become excessive and overly burdensome. To address these concerns, DOE completed a safety and security reform effort to streamline or eliminate many DOE directives. However, GAO reported in April 2012 that the benefits of this reform effort are unclear because DOE did not determine if the original directives were, in fact, burdensome. In addition, the reform effort did not fully address safety concerns GAO and others identified in the areas of quality assurance, safety culture, and federal oversight. For example, the reform effort gives the NNSA site offices, rather than DOE's Office of Independent Oversight staff, responsibility for correcting problems identified in independent assessments. Site office determinations of what issues require more formal contractor responses may be influenced by their responsibility for keeping costs under control and work on schedule. NNSA has also experienced security deficiencies, including numerous incidents involving the compromise or potential compromise of classified information that pose the most serious threat to U.S. national security. NNSA has made progress addressing these deficiencies--including the establishment of an effective headquarters security organization--but a recent and unprecedented security incident at an important NNSA site highlights the challenges the agency faces in fully implementing and sustaining safety and security improvements.
NNSA continues to experience significant cost and schedule overruns on its major projects. For example, NNSA's estimated cost to construct a modern Uranium Processing Facility at NNSA's Y-12 National Security Complex experienced a nearly seven-fold cost increase from between $600 million and $1.1 billion in 2004 to between $4.2 billion and $6.5 billion in 2011. In addition, NNSA's estimated cost to construct a new plutonium research facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory experienced a nearly six-fold increase from between $745 million and $975 million in 2005 to between $3.7 billion and $5.8 billion in 2010. The project has also been delayed between 8 to 12 years from NNSA's original plans. DOE has recently taken a number of actions to improve management of major projects, including those overseen by NNSA. For example, DOE has updated program and project management policies and guidance in an effort to improve the reliability of project cost estimates, better assess project risks, and better ensure project reviews are timely, useful and identify problems early. However, in GAO's view, DOE and NNSA need to (1) commit sufficient people and resources to resolve contract management problems, and (2) demonstrate, on a sustained basis, the ability to complete major projects on time and on budget.
Highly Radioactive Sludge Removal Complete: Historic Cleanup Effort Reduces the Risk along the Columbia River
DOE Press Release
September 13, 2012
Note: Video is available on YouTube at: http://ow.ly/dHmjZ; Photos are available on Hanford's website at http://ow.ly/dHpGt.
RICHLAND, WASH. - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M HILL) announced today the removal of the first phase of highly radioactive sludge from under water storage in the K West Basin about 400 yards away from the Columbia River.
"This is a major step forward in protecting the river and a historic accomplishment in environmental cleanup," said Tom Teynor, DOE project director for sludge treatment. "The successful removal of this highly radioactive material into safe storage now readies us for the next, and final, phase of this priority cleanup project."
The material, called knockout pot sludge, was stored 17 feet under water in a large concrete basin adjacent to Hanford's K West Reactor. Sludge is a dense, radioactive material that resulted from the corrosion of spent nuclear fuel stored in the basin and other debris left from plutonium production operations, more than 30 years ago. Knockout pot refers to a filter-like structure that captured coarse sludge during fuel washing activities.
CH2M HILL is the prime contractor managing DOE's Sludge Treatment Project to remove all sludge away from the river by September 30, 2015. The project is designated into two phases - knockout pot sludge and sludge contained in engineered containers.
"Removing sludge is a top priority in the DOE vision to reduce the active area of Hanford cleanup. It required careful planning in order to successfully handle this challenging material," said Mike Johnson, CH2M HILL, project director for sludge treatment. "Our engineers fine-tuned the loading projections in order to reduce the number of shipments, thus also reducing the need for worker handling."
CH2M HILL removed the knockout pot sludge in a total of five shipments which began in July.
Using long-handled tools, workers processed the material under water, transferring it into copper inserts and scrap baskets that were then loaded into stainless steel structures called multi-canister overpack containers. The containers were then transferred to a safe and compliant storage facility at the center of the site where they will remain until a final disposal alternative is available.
In addition to being a first-of-its-kind waste removal, the sludge's unique consistency (coarse metallic grit but almost twice as dense as lead and highly erosive) and high level of radioactivity make it a challenge to remove.
Workers spent months preparing for this high-hazard work in a building called the Maintenance and Storage Facility. CH2M HILL constructed a mock-up of the reactor basin to create a non-radiological site where workers could master the retrieval tools and processes.
"This full-scale test and training setup increases worker safety while reducing cost and schedule because our workers are able to successfully deploy their approach in the live environment," Johnson said.
CH2M HILL is preparing to remove the next and last batch of sludge, which is stored in engineered containers in the K-West Basin. This summer CH2M HILL completed an assessment to demonstrate the readiness of the technology that will be used to retrieve the material and awarded an $11 million subcontract to Federal Engineers & Constructors to modify a facility where workers will package the material for shipment and storage.
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