ECA Update: September 21, 2012
Published: Fri, 09/21/12
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Chairman Hastings' Statement on House Vote on Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act
House Natural Resources Committee Press Release
September 20, 2012
House Natural Resources Committee Press Release
September 20, 2012
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 20, 2012 - H.R. 5987, a bill to establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, was brought to the House floor today under "suspension of House rules." This "suspension" process allows for an expedited and abbreviated process for considering and voting on bills. However, in order for a bill to pass under suspension, it has to receive two-thirds support rather than a simple majority. While the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act did receive a bipartisan, majority vote of 237-180, it did not receive the two-thirds necessary to pass under suspension today.
"While it didn't receive the super-majority needed to be sent to the Senate today, a big bipartisan majority of the House voted to establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. We've shown there is support for this park and will be working towards the goal of enacting this into law before the end of this year," said Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04).
Senate Punts CR Vote to Weekend
Dan Friedman, National Journal
September 20, 2012
The Senate will not vote Thursday on a continuing resolution to fund the government, delaying the vote for at least a day, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced on Thursday afternoon. Democrats charged that Republicans delayed the vote to help colleague Scott Brown of Massachusetts avoid a debate in his hotly contested Senate race.
Reid was trying to schedule a vote on an amendment by Sen. Rand Paul to cut foreign aid to Egypt, Libya, and Pakistan and on a proposal backed by Sen. John Tester, D-Mont., to boost hunters' access to public lands.
The Senate is now scheduled to vote on the continuing resolution at 1 a.m. Saturday, although lawmakers could reach a deal to allow a Friday vote. The continuing resolution's final passage, while not in doubt, could be delayed until Sunday.
Reid, who agreed to allow a vote on Paul's amendment, accused Republicans of trying to give Brown cover to duck a 7 p.m. debate on Thursday against Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren.
"It's obvious to me what's going on," Reid said. "I've been to a few of these rodeos. It is obvious there is a big stall taking place. One of the senators who had a debate tonight doesn't want to debate. Well, he can't use the Senate as an excuse. There will be no more votes today," he added.
Earlier on Thursday, Brown said he would postpone his debate if the Senate could not wrap up its pre-election business in time. Brown said he was eager to return to Boston to debate and was urging Reid to cut a deal that allowed him to catch a 4:30 p.m. flight.
Brown is locked in a tight, expensive, and closely watched race against Warren. Brown said whether the debate occurs is up to Reid. The first-term senator said he will not attend the debate if it conflicts with a Senate vote.
Constituents "sent me here to vote," Brown said. "It's the only thing I can't delegate to my staff."
Brown had said that if he had to skip the debate, he would try to reschedule it for Monday.
If the Senate returns on Friday, it will have to work around another debate. Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill has an 11:45 a.m. debate scheduled against Republican Rep. Todd Akin in Missouri.
Democratic aides said that chamber is unlikely to schedule a vote until at least Friday afternoon when McCaskill can return to Washington.
Top Dems urge GOP to cancel recess, address sequestration
John T. Bennett, Federal Times
September 20, 2012
Top Democratic leaders are pressing U.S. House Speaker Rep. John Boehner to cancel a six-week recess, saying the lower chamber should stay in Washington and pass legislation that would avoid deep federal spending cuts.
"Democrats do not believe the House should recess this week, or at all, until we have met our responsibilities to the American people," House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, and other Democrats wrote in a Thursday letter to Boehner. "Our nation can ill-afford economic uncertainty that will result from Congress remaining idle for another six weeks."
The House is slated to adjourn by week's end and likely will not return until after Election Day, Nov. 6. That means House members would be focused on campaigning instead of finding common ground to avoid twin $500 billion cuts to planned defense and domestic spending.
Pentagon officials have warned the pending cut to planned defense spending would hinder force readiness, slow future weapon development and undermine national security. Economists are warning about the broader fiscal impact of both the defense and domestic cuts.
"At a minimum, before we return to our districts we must pass a comprehensive and balanced plan to prevent sequestration and responsibly reduce the deficit," the Democratic leaders wrote.
House Republicans are quick to point out that the lower chamber has passed five different bills that would cancel the defense cuts. Senate Democrats and the White House have rejected each one, saying they fail to adequately address the coming domestic cuts; Republicans say that claim is false.
During a House Armed Services Committee hearing, Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., said he plans to vote against a coming adjournment resolution because "walking away without passing some legislation ... is not very responsible."
Several GOP committee members responded to Andrews' remark and similar ones by other Democrats by pointing to the five sequester-themed bills the chamber has passed.
Chairman Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., said the House has acted, and if the Senate would pass some kind of sequester-voiding bill, any differences could be ironed out by a bicameral conference committee.
The Senate's agenda currently includes no such legislation.
Los Alamos smart grid project comes online
Dan Mayfield, New Mexico Business Weekly
Dan Mayfield, New Mexico Business Weekly
September 17, 2012
Los Alamos National Laboratory and Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization on Monday powered up the new Los Alamos Smart Grid demonstration project.
The $53 million project brings a photovoltaic array, a battery storage system and an energy management system to Los Alamos. It's designed to demonstrate the ability to stabilize solar photovoltaic output by reducing, or shaving, peak system demand.
The new smart grid will produce 2 megawatts of photovoltaic power and 8.3 megawatt-hours of battery storage. The power will go to a Los Alamos neighborhood with about 2,000 homes with the goal of reducing peak demand, such as on extremely hot days.
Gov. Susana Martinez, NEDO chairman Kazuo Furukawa and other dignitaries hosted a ribbon cutting at the project's new "smart house" Monday afternoon. The house was built by Los Alamos County and equipped by NEDO. It includes its own energy management system, a 3.4-kilowatt PV system, batteries and more.
NEDO's budget is $37 million. It's estimated that the project created 50 full-time jobs during the construction phase. Los Alamos National Laboratory partnered with 15 companies from around the world on the project.
NEDO recently funded a microgrid project at Mesa del Sol.
Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Program at Savannah River Site Hit with Major Setback
Thomas Clements, The Aiken Leader
September 17, 2012
Columbia, SC - In yet another series of significant set-backs for the Department of Energy's (DOE) troubled plutonium fuel (MOX) program at the Savannah River Site (SRS), a key Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) official has backed away from considering MOX use in TVA's aging reactors at this time.
The Decatur Daily, a newspaper located in Decatur, Alabama and just a few miles from TVA's Browns Ferry reactors, quotes Preston Swofford, chief nuclear officer at TVA, as saying that he's not at this point interested in MOX use and the agency is instead focused on a host of problems facing operation and management of TVA's nuclear plants. The official was quoted as a DOE hearing on plutonium disposition, including necessity of testing of MOX in the problem-plagued Browns Ferry reactors, was conducted near Decatur on September 13.
The paper quotes Swofford's negative comments about consideration of MOX: "It's just so low on my radar screen that I refuse to jump in the fray. I don't think I do service to the ratepayers of the Valley bringing on one more issue. Now three or four years from now, when the fleet's back to steady, we'll take a look at the product."
"Given TVA's reluctance in pursuing MOX and the fact that DOE has no customers to use experimental MOX fuel is reason to put the brakes on the entire MOX program and halt construction of the $6-billion MOX plant to nowhere," said Tom Clements, Nonproliferation Policy Director with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. "It appears that the MOX program continues to degrade into a big-government program with a singular mission: transfer of tax payer money into the pockets of the plutonium industry."
MOX Garners no Support at Plutonium Hearing near Browns Ferry Nuclear Reactors
At the DOE hearing on the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on plutonium testing and use in Browns Ferry, pro-MOX advocates were shocked that sixteen members of the public spoke against use of the experimental plutonium fuel in Browns Ferry while not a single person spoke in favor. Three people spoke in favor of pursuit of thorium reactors, not considered by DOE as an option for plutonium disposition.
Given the troubles with the Browns Ferry reactors, including have the worst rating by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of any reactors in the US, public sensitivity about the operation of the reactors is high. Comments from many members of the public who live nearby focused on increased risks to reactor operation if MOX is used in the GE Mark I reactors (Fukushima design).
According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a September 18 blog on "Mid-Term Grades Go Out For Nuclear Power Plants," the Browns Ferry reactors are in a unique, dangerous class when it comes to poor operation. The NRC states that "Browns Ferry 1 in Alabama, is in the fourth performance category and requires increased oversight due to a safety finding of high significance, which will include additional inspections to confirm the plant's performance issues are being addressed."
TVA is struggling to deal with the host of issue at the Browns Ferry Fukushima-design reactors and do not need to add to problems by taking on the dodgy MOX mission, according to ANA. "If the DOE tries to force TVA to commit now to MOX use in the Browns Ferry degraded reactors, which may never be able to perform at a higher safety level, I predict this arm-twisting approach will be seen for what it is and backfire into DOE's face," according to Clements. "If they were acting in a responsible manner, both DOE and AREVA would announce that the aging Browns Ferry reactors are off the table for testing and use of experimental weapons-grade MOX."
Also, at the hearing in Alabama, it was pointed out to NNSA by ANA, via a written comment, that a video being shown about MOX included an erroneous statement that there was a "treaty" with Russia for plutonium disposition. There is a only an "agreement" with Russia, which has much less status than a treaty which must be passed by the Senate. To its credit, NNSA has agreed to edit the video and fix the error.
DOE Won't Able to Legally Issue a Final Supplemental EIS on MOX Use in TVA Reactors?
Swofford's position and TVA's reluctance to look seriously into MOX use will likely have a decisive impact on DOE's legal ability to issue a final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (Final SEIS) on plutonium disposition. While DOE's "preferred alternative" is for MOX use in TVA reactors, the draft SEIS states (page S-iv) that "The TVA does not have a preferred alternative at this time regarding whether to pursue irradiation of MOX fuel in TVA reactors and which reactors might be used for this purpose."
As TVA owns the reactors which might test and use MOX and is charged with complying with regulations of the NRC in operation of the reactors, DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has no legal jurisdictional authority to direct TVA to accept MOX for testing and use.
Likewise, under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), DOE has no authority to dictate a "preferred option" to TVA. TVA is officially a "cooperating agency" in preparation of the draft environmental document and under regulations of NEPA, TVA does not have to adopt DOE's "preferred alternative." At this point, in addition to Swofford's statements, lacking a TVA-conducted EIS specific to the reactors, absent TVA management and board decisions, absent any applications to the NRC to test and use MOX in TVA reactors, and lacking formal public involvement process in TVA decision-making on this controversial matter, it appears that TVA simply can't even consider a leap to a "preferred alternative" in support of MOX testing and use without a much more lengthy and rigorous public process.
Experimental MOX made from weapons-grade plutonium has never been tested or used in a boiling water reactor (BWR) like Browns Ferry. Testing of MOX will take at least six years in one of the Browns Ferry reactors, according to an August 8 presentation to the NRC by Global Nuclear Fuel, meaning that MOX could not be used before 2025 at the earliest, resulting in a host of scheduling problems at the MOX factory, along with soaring costs which will raise the ire of Congress.
The DOE budget request for Fiscal Year 2013 estimated that yearly operational costs of the MOX would plant would be $499 million (see page 461), so costs will mount rapidly as BWR fuel could not even be considered for licensing by the NRC until the test of "lead use assemblies" (LUAs) had been completed, the spent MOX allowed to cool down and the fuel subjected to post-irradiation examination. Test MOX will have to be fabricated in the MOX plant at SRS, if licensed to operate by the NRC, as no other facility in the world would have the capability to fabricate MOX from weapons-grade plutonium.
"TVA's agreement with DOE's MOX use plan at this point would not only be premature but raise legal questions under NEPA as TVA has admitted that it is not ready to consider MOX use," said Tom Clements of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA). "TVA is now in a good position to protect its interest s and those of its customers from DOE and AREVA - it can't be legally forced to commit to a risky and potentially costly decision to test and use experimental MOX fuel."
DOE has refused at three MOX hearings and in a presentation on plutonium disposition to the South Carolina Governor's Nuclear Advisory Council on September 6, 2012 to answer any of some of the key questions about the MOX program, which have been submitted for the record. Of great concern is the overall cost of the MOX program, including the cost by Shaw AREVA MOX Services to construct the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site.
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) estimates that an additional $17.5 billion is left to be spent on MOX while disposing of 34 metric tons of plutonium as waste would cost less than $4 billion. "Based on costs alone, it is time to terminate the MOX boondoggle, from which AREVA and other special interests are getting rich off the U. S. taxpayer," said Clements. "We challenge DOE to step up to the plate and tell the public what the estimated price tag for this program will be. Failure to reveal MOX costs will result in continued erosion of what's left of DOE credibility related to this problem-plagued program."
DOE Awards Grant to New Mexico Environment Department for Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Oversight, Monitoring
DOE Press Release
September 19, 2012
DOE Press Release
September 19, 2012
Carlsbad, NM -- The Department of Energy (DOE) today awarded a grant for an estimated $1.6 million to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). The five-year grant funds an agreement for NMED to conduct non-regulatory environmental oversight and monitoring to evaluate activities conducted at DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico.
NMED evaluates DOE activities related to WIPP's environmental monitoring and cleanup. This award is made in accordance with the Department of Energy Organization Act, Public Law 95-91.
The DOE WIPP facility is designed to safely isolate defense-generated TRU waste from people and the environment. Waste temporarily stored at sites around the country is shipped to WIPP and permanently disposed in rooms mined out of an ancient salt formation 2,150 feet below the surface. WIPP began waste disposal operations in 1999. The facility is located 26 miles outside of Carlsbad, N.M.
Gov. Gregoire pushing Hanford nuclear cleanup
Associated Press
September 19, 2012
Associated Press
September 19, 2012
KENNEWICK, Wash. --
Gov. Chris Gregoire says cleaning up nuclear weapons waste at the Hanford nuclear reservation remains a priority, even as her term comes to an end.
Gov. Chris Gregoire says cleaning up nuclear weapons waste at the Hanford nuclear reservation remains a priority, even as her term comes to an end.
She says she wants the Energy Department to keep work and funding on track as she prepares to "pass the baton" to her successor.
Speaking Tuesday to business leaders in the Tri-Cities, Gregoire said he work on Hanford is a highlight of her career as governor and Washington attorney general.
KNDO reports ( http://is.gd/FcIeAx) Gregoire said she feels good about the work Energy Secretary Steven Chu is doing in making Hanford cleanup a priority.
CH2M Hill notified of problems in enforcement letter
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
September 21, 2012
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
September 21, 2012
CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. has received an enforcement letter for having inadequate controls over radioactive material at Hanford from the Department of Energy Office of Health, Safety and Security.
However, DOE has not issued a fine and plans to take no further action after finding progress toward improvements in CH2M Hill programs, the letter stated.
The incidents discussed in the letter occurred in late 2010 through spring 2011 at Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant and the K East Reactor. It pointed out that problems continued to occur in that time frame, despite efforts to make corrections that would prevent them.
But a surveillance this spring by Hanford DOE officials reported significant improvements in radiological work planning and execution, the letter stated.
The surveillance report identified more effective use of controls to prevent the spread of radioactive materials and a more disciplined use of procedures and critiques.
The letter also reported that CH2M Hill replaced key line management personnel in its decommissioning and demolition project in an effort to correct a culture that did not value procedural compliance.
While the DOE letter recognized CH2M Hill's progress toward improvements, CH2M Hill has taken the letter seriously, said Dee Millikin, spokeswoman for CH2M Hill.
Past events have shown a trend of deficiencies in planning and conducting work and CH2M Hill has been working with DOE Hanford officials to make improvements over the last two years, she said. Those improvements are not only in work management and operations, but also in its management of corrective actions and its self assessment, she said.
The DOE letter covered a problem at the K East Reactor in early 2011 with the horizontal control rods in the reactor core. Demolition work called for an excavator to shear off the rod extensions used to position the control rods, leaving the control rods in place inside the reactor core.
However, the work could not be completed and a photograph shows 11 control rods hanging from the outer control wall of the reactors' control rod room on Jan. 11, 2011, the letter stated. Work was stopped the next day.
Five of the control rods were radioactive, but CH2M Hill failed to analyze hazards and develop appropriate controls, the letter stated.
"The Office of Enforcement and Oversight considers this to be a near miss for a radiological exposure event," the letter stated.
The letter also listed four events at the Plutonium Finishing Plant that resulted in airborne radioactivity. In one incident, four workers inhaled small amounts of airborne plutonium, according to previous reports. Contamination was radioactively equivalent to two chest X-rays for the two workers with the most exposure.
During the time of all four incidents, work was under way to decontaminate glove boxes, detach them, and, in some cases, cut them up to fit into containers for disposal.
In two of the incidents workers were using a circular saw to cut a glove box. In another case, a crowbar was being used to remove a liner from the glove box. In the case in which workers inhaled plutonium, they were disassembling a Plexiglas window with a contaminated gasket.
In addition to those events, DOE Hanford officials reported problems with planning, hazard analysis and execution of radiological work that extended at the time to projects beyond the demolition of Plutonium Finishing Plant glove boxes, the letter said.
While the DOE Office of Health, Safety and Security sees no need for further enforcement action, it will continue to monitor CH2M Hill's safety performance, it said.
F Reactor Area Cleanup Complete
DOE Press Release
September 19, 2012
RICHLAND, Wash. - U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contractors have cleaned up the F Reactor Area, the first reactor area at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington state to be fully remediated.
While six of Hanford's nine plutonium production reactors have been sealed up, or cocooned, the F Reactor Area is the first to have all of its associated buildings and waste sites cleaned up in addition to having its reactor sealed up.
"The cleanup of the F Reactor Area shows the tremendous progress workers are making along Hanford's River Corridor," said Dave Huizenga, Senior Advisor for the DOE Office of Environmental Management. "The River Corridor is the complex's largest environmental cleanup closure project. The F Area cleanup has substantially reduced risk to the Columbia River."
F Area is home to F Reactor, the third of Hanford's nine plutonium production reactors built to produce plutonium for the nation's defense program during both World War II and the Cold War. The reactor operated from 1945 to 1965 and was placed in interim safe storage in 2003.
Cleanup contractors combined to demolish 112 facilities, clean up 88 waste sites and in so doing removed 1.5 million tons of contaminated material during cleanup operations on the two square mile F Area. The cleanup was completed under interim Records of Decision for the area.
The majority of the waste was transported to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility in central Hanford for permanent disposal.
Several of the waste sites were large burial grounds containing contaminated soil and debris. Workers also found anomalies, including bottles, drums, high-pressure cylinders, spent nuclear fuel, and high-dose irradiated items. Some of the anomalies required special methods to sample and characterize the material, which called for additional hazard controls to ensure worker safety.
DOE's current River Corridor contractor, Washington Closure Hanford, began working in F Area in September 2005 and completed the first phase of remediation in December 2008, by cleaning up 35 waste sites totaling more than 400,000 tons of waste material. During the final evaluation and confirmatory investigation process to check for any remaining waste sites, 20 additional sites were identified.
In 2010, Washington Closure began cleaning up the remaining sites using funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The waste sites included sodium dichromate pipeline, buried riverbank effluent pipeline, pipeline cradle debris, and septic lines. The project team transported nearly 240,000 tons of waste material to ERDF. In addition, workers removed about 200 gallons of sodium dichromate from pipelines, preventing potential leaks and groundwater contamination.
Retrieval of the Tenth Single-Shell Tank Complete at Hanford
DOE Press Release
September 17, 2012
RICHLAND -- Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has advised the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that they have completed retrieval of radioactive and chemical waste from the third single-shell tank (SST) this year. WRPS is the tank operations contractor for the DOE Office of River Protection (ORP).
An engineering evaluation in the field shows the waste volume in C-109 is below the regulatory requirement of 360 cubic feet of waste remaining in the tank. Video of the 530,000-gallon-capacity tank shows a large percentage of the tank bottom is now visible.
"The completion of retrieval activities in the second tank within a month and the third tank this year marks a historic achievement at Hanford tank farms," said Tom Fletcher, Assistant Manager for the Tank Farms Project. "Crews are working at an impressive pace to complete retrieval activities in the next tank by the end of October and begin removing waste from the next round of tanks by the end of this year."
Retrieval of C-109 began in June 2007 using modified sluicing as the first retrieval technology. This process used recycled liquid waste from a nearby double-shell tank to mobilize the waste to the center of the tank where it was pumped and transferred to a receiving tank. This process continued until July 2008 at which point the bulk of the waste was removed, leaving an estimated 8,600 gallons of hard-heel waste to be retrieved.
Deployment of a second retrieval technology in C-109 took place earlier this year, as crews began a two-step chemical soak process to dissolve the hardened remaining waste, first by performing a water soak and then adding sodium hydroxide to the tank to loosen and break down the hardened waste at the bottom of the tank. This chemical dissolution process has been used successfully in two other Hanford tanks this year, C-104 and C-108.
"As we continue to perform these activities we learn more about the chemical dissolution process," said Joanne Grindstaff, Federal Project Director for SST Retrieval and Closure. "A number of efficiencies are being gained through the ongoing deployment of this second technology, as the hard-heel waste becomes readily mobilized--an important step in maximizing the amount of waste that can be retrieved."
This past week, C-109 underwent a series of water rinses to further reduce the amount of residual waste in the tank.
In addition to C-109, crews this year also completed retrieval efforts in tanks C-108 and C-104. Waste has been removed from a total of 10 SSTs at the Hanford site, nine tanks in C Farm and one tank in S Farm. ORP and WRPS are committed to meeting the Consent Decree regulatory requirement to retrieve waste from all the tanks in C Farm by September 2014.
WRPS is the DOE ORP prime contractor responsible for managing the risk to the environment posed by Hanford's 56 million gallons of high-level radioactive and chemical waste stored in 177 underground tanks. ORP is responsible for safely retrieving and treating Hanford's tank waste, resulting from defense nuclear material production, and closing the tank farms to protect the Columbia River. WRPS is owned by URS Corporation and Energy Solutions, with AREVA as its primary subcontractor.
Almost 290 at Hanford to get layoff notices this week
Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
September 18, 2012
Close to 290 Hanford workers will receive layoff notices this week, with most receiving the bad news Monday.
The layoffs were expected, with primarily just the exact numbers to be announced and individual employees waiting to hear if they were included in the total this week.
Layoff notices this week are being handed out to 157 workers at CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., close to 120 employees of Bechtel National and its subcontractor URS, and 11 Mission Support Alliance employees.
In addition, Washington Closure Hanford is continuing its gradual ramp down of employment toward the end of its contract in 2015. It laid off fewer employees than expected in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, but plans to cut 385 positions in fiscal 2013.
CH2M Hill notified 157 workers Monday that their last day of work would be Sept. 27, the final work day of fiscal 2012. It was the second phase of a two-part layoff that started with layoffs in June and now totals 218 job cuts.
Those laid off Monday include 38 workers who volunteered to leave, bringing the total of voluntary layoffs for the contractor to 60.
The layoffs are split between 98 union workers and 120 nonunion workers. Union workers may be eligible for a "bump and roll," taking the job of a less-experienced worker elsewhere at Hanford who then is laid off.
Many CH2M Hill workers will receive the standard Hanford layoff package of one week's pay for every year worked up to 20 years. They also may be eligible for the Displaced Workers Medical Benefits Program.
CH2M Hill is making the job cuts as it wraps up work for fiscal 2012 and makes sure it has the skill mix needed in its work force for fiscal 2013. Some of the earlier layoffs also were the result of the completion of some Recovery Act work that continued into this year.
Its main focus in fiscal 2013 will be operating groundwater treatment systems, completing engineering work to remove the remainder of the radioactive sludge from the K West Basin and continuing cleanup of the Plutonium Finishing Plant.
Like CH2M Hill, Mission Support Alliance is concluding a two-part layoff. The 11 workers who will be paid through Sept. 27 bring its total layoffs to 100, the maximum earlier approved by the Department of Energy.
Mission Support Alliance provides sitewide services at Hanford, such as information technology and utilities, and is realigning its work force to adjust to changes in the overall work force at Hanford and prepare for a new budget year.
Bechtel National, which is building the vitrification plant, announced in April that it planned to lay off 200 to 300 nonconstruction workers through the end of the calendar year, after earlier reducing the number of construction workers on the project.
Monday it told employees that it would be giving 45-day notices to up to 120 employees this week. That will bring the total of employees laid off since April to close to 230.
In addition, 107 nonconstruction workers have found jobs at other Bechtel and URS projects around the world since April, and Bechtel and URS are continuing to look for transfer opportunities for workers.
Bechtel continues to do some hiring to get the mix of skills it needs in employees and has hired 42 people since April.
Construction on some parts of the vitrification plant have slowed while technical issues are resolved, and the vitrification plant budget is expected to hold steady at $690 million rather than some larger projections made earlier by DOE.
Because the vitrification plant is a construction project, its contractor and subcontractor employees are not covered by the Hanford severance package.
Washington Closure Hanford ended up cutting the jobs of 80 workers in fiscal 2012, which is fewer than previously announced.
It had expected to cut 210 jobs under a DOE-approved restructuring, and by summer had reduced that to 110 jobs. Fewer reductions were made as newly discovered contamination was found in reactor areas along the Columbia River that needed to be cleaned up.
However, next year it expects to have far more layoffs as it cuts an anticipated 385 positions as it finishes more work to clean up Hanford along the Columbia River.
Washington River Protection Solutions, the Hanford tank farm contractor, has announced no layoffs.
Hanford workers who are losing their jobs are encouraged to attend a job fair open to the public from noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 11 at Washington State University Tri-Cities' Consolidated Information Center on the Richland campus.
41 layoffs at K-25/K-27 cleanup projects
Knox News
September 21, 2012
Knox News
September 21, 2012
OAK RIDGE -- The U.S. Department of Energy's cleanup manager confirmed that 41 employees were laid off Thursday, reducing the workforce on the K-25 and K-27 decommissioning and demolition projects.
Wayne McKinney, a spokesman for URS | CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), said the job cuts were done to prepare for the transition to Fiscal 2013, which begins Oct. 1.
McKinney said the layoff notices were issued among the subcontractors that have been augmenting the UCOR staff on the cleanup projects. He said the job cuts were part of the "normal ebb and flow" of the subcontractor workforce at the Oak Ridge site.
With all the uncertainty in Washington, D.C., regarding funding plans and the looming threat of budget sequestration after the first of the calendar year, a number of DOE contractors in Oak Ridge have been taking steps to cut costs and prepare for tighter budgets.
UCOR recently announced that demolition of the east wing of the historic K-25 uranium-enrichment facility was nearly complete. The only remaining section has been segregated to deal with possible contamination of radioactive technetium-99, which poses special hazards if released into the environment and must be handled cautiously.
About 500 people are working on the K-25 project, while fewer than 100 are assigning to the K-27 project, which is just getting started with some pre-demolition activities. As the K-25 work ramps down, workers are expected to be transferred to K-27.
Of the 41 layoffs Thursday, 35 were from the K-25 group and six were from K-27, McKinney said. UCOR announced similar layoffs in May and July.
Follow-up Audit of the Stockpile Surveillance Program
DOE IG Report
September 13, 2012
The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) stockpile surveillance program provides information on the status of the Nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. In 2007, NNSA initiated the Surveillance Transformation Project (STP) to accelerate the surveillance program to look for changes in an aging stockpile. The transformation called for an increase in evaluations of nonnuclear components and materials (CMEs) and a reduction in annual tests of weapons systems (laboratory) tests.
Our review disclosed that NNSA had taken actions to mitigate the STP transition challenges identified in the 2010 Surveillance Enterprise Study. The Study stated that there were gaps in surveillance data that were further exacerbated by the decline in laboratory tests. Furthermore, evaluations of nonnuclear components and materials CMEs were not being achieved as rapidly as expected. To mitigate these challenges, NNSA achieved increased surveillance data through expanded laboratory tests and increased funding. In addition, NNSA developed a comprehensive plan to complete baselining nonnuclear CMEs by the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. Although NNSA had mitigated STP transition challenges, we noted that it had not established an effective system of performance measurement over the Enhanced Surveillance subprogram. After discussing our performance measurement concerns with NNSA officials, the measure was replaced in FY 2012 with one that more accurately reflects performance. Therefore, we made a suggestion to management to closely monitor progress made in meeting CME requirements.
Comparative Environmental Evaluation of Alternatives for Handling Low-Level Radioactive Waste Spent Ion Exchange Resins From Commercial Nuclear Power Plants
NRC Federal Register Notice
September 20, 2012
NRC Federal Register Notice
September 20, 2012
SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) is issuing for public comment the Draft Comparative Environmental Evaluation of Alternatives for Handling Low-Level Radioactive Waste Spent Ion Exchange Resins from Commercial Nuclear Power Reactors.
DATES: Please submit comments by January 18, 2013. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is able to assure consideration only for comments received on or before this date.
Deadline to apply for Community Involvement Fund extended to September 28, 2012
The New Mexico Community Foundation (NMCF), supported by a $300,000 grant from DOE, announced on August 3, 2012 the availability of nationwide Community Involvement Fund (CIF) grants to "community organizations representing the interests of the public." The original September 12, 2012 deadline has been extended to September 28, 2012.
Nonprofit organizations involved with active EM sites are eligible to apply for a grant. Grant awards will be limited to $25,000. DOE is not involved in the selection of grant recipients.
Japan govt appears to waver on commitment to quit nuclear
Risa Maeda, Reuters
September 19, 2012
TOKYO, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Japan's cabinet approved a new energy plan on Wednesday aimed at reducing reliance on nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster, but appeared to roll back its commitment to abandon atomic energy by the 2030s.
The approval coincided with the launch of a regulatory body to oversee the nuclear industry and end what critics saw as too cosy a relationship between previous bodies, plant operators and officials. The new body will play a key role in deciding whether to restart reactors since last year's disaster.
The decision to waver on a commitment, announced last Friday, to eschew nuclear power in the 2030s followed calls by powerful industry lobbies for a rethink on grounds it could damage the economy.
Trade Minister Yukio Edano, who oversees the energy portfolio, said other factors had also to be considered before making such an undertaking.
"Whether we can become nuclear free by the 2030s is not something to be achieved only with a decision by policy makers," Edano told a news conference.
"It also depends on the will of (electricity) users, technological innovation and the environment for energy internationally in the next decade or two."
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, speaking later on television, said it was difficult to meet the target date and still solve some of the industry's toughest issues, like reprocessing spent fuel and storing nuclear waste.
"There's no change in a zero-nuclear goal by the 2030s," Noda said. "We can go nuclear zero at the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle, but we cannot go nuclear zero so easily at the back end of the cycle," referring to reprocessing.
Before the March 2011 quake and tsunami that caused a series of meltdowns and crippled the Fukushima plant, Japan had planned to increase to more than 50 percent the share of electricity produced by nuclear power. It had supplied about 30 percent before the disaster, the worst such accident in 25 years.
The accident spawned an anti-nuclear movement that led to a reassessment of policy. It also led to the shutdown for safety checks of all 50 working reactors - though authorities restarted two units despite opposition from environmentalists and others.
As part of the new policy, Japan aims to triple the share of renewable power -- mainly solar and wind power -- to 30 percent of its energy mix by the 2030s. But it will remain a top importer of oil, coal and gas for some time.
GOVERNMENT SEEKS FLEXIBILITY
Finance Minister Jun Azumi told reporters the government's broad aims remained unchanged, but flexibility was needed. The public, he said, should not face additional burdens he public if power utilities ran into financial difficulty.
"We showed a broad direction towards creating a society that does not depend on nuclear energy," he said. "At the same time, however, reality calls for flexible responses, so I believe we could show efforts to achieve zero in 2030s as broad direction."
The new plan imposes a strict limit of 40 years for the lifetime of reactors with no new units to be built. It also said any restart of idled reactors was subject to the new regulator confirming their safety.
Edano said any decision on reactors operating beyond the 2030s would be taken later. At least two reactors are under construction - the 1,373-megawatt No.3 unit at Shinane run by Chugoku Electric Power Co and the 1,383-megawatt Ohma unit of the Electric Power Development Co.
The head of the new Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA), Shunichi Tanaka, said standards would be established to govern any restart of reactors, but this was unlikely by year-end.
The standards would replace stress tests that the government imposed last year to check the ability of reactors to withstand similar disasters to the March 2011 quake and tsunami.
Tanaka said the agency, replacing two mistrusted bodies, would be empowered to oblige power utilities to stick to safety regulations. Preventing new disasters was also a priority.
The NRA, he said, would set rules to restore public confidence, like requiring utilities to store spent nuclear fuel on the ground rather than near the top of a reactor, a major concern during the Fukushima crisis.
"We only check the risk involved with a reactor," said Toyoshi Fuketa, one of four NRA commissioners. "It is not our concern whether a reactor is needed (for power) or not."
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