DC appeals court sets date in nuclear dump lawsuit
LAS VEGAS -- A Washington, D.C., appeals court plans oral arguments March 22 in a lawsuit aimed at keeping plans on track to bury the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada.
South Carolina, Washington state, Aiken County, S.C., and three Washington state business owners claim the Obama administration overstepped its authority in cutting funding for the Yucca Mountain project.
Plaintiffs argue the shutdown leaves states dealing with tons of radioactive material that should be buried in the proposed repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The Energy Department argues the administration has the right to change federal nuclear waste policy.
Fueling America’s nuclear renaissance by reprocessing nuclear fuel
By Dr. Bernard L. Weinstein - 12/21/10 11:43 AM ET
Earlier this year, President Barack Obama did an about-face and started voicing support for a revival of America’s nuclear power industry. To that end, he proposed a sizeable increase in federal loan guarantees to stimulate the construction of new commercial reactors. Then a few weeks ago, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu stated that Congress should include nuclear power as part of any renewable energy mandates.
But at the same time, the president continues to insist that Yucca Mountain in Nevada — the intended repository for spent nuclear fuel — be abandoned as a disposal site even before it opens. Should this happen, some 60,000 metric tons of spent fuel will remain in temporary on-site storage at 65 plants, and the power industry’s interest in building new nuclear plants could quickly evaporate.
Since 1982, utilities have paid almost $17 billion into the Nuclear Waste Fund, an account administered by the DOE that continues to grow by $800 million annually, to cover the costs of permanent disposal. Even after spending $10 billion at Yucca Mountain, with accumulated interest the fund balance is currently around $20 billion. Not surprisingly, 16 utilities, along with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, have sued the DOE to halt further collection of fees, arguing that the country no longer has a disposal plan after ruling out Yucca Mountain.
The Obama administration now says it supports the temporary storage of spent fuel at power plants while technology paves the way for an alternative solution. In fact, that technology already exists — nuclear fuel reprocessing. Given the uncertainty over the future of Yucca Mountain, and the potential explosion of litigation that will only increase taxpayer exposure, why not rethink the decades-old ban on this technology? The ban was first imposed by President Jimmy Carter in the mid-1970s on the grounds it could lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. But that hasn’t stopped France, Britain, Russia, China and South Korea from pursuing fuel reprocessing; and no plutonium has ever been diverted from recycling facilities for weapons production in these countries.
With reprocessing, a technology that was developed in the United States, valuable plutonium and uranium in spent fuel are removed and then chemically processed into a mixed-oxide fuel that can be used again in a reactor to generate additional electricity. Up to 95 percent of the spent fuel volume can be reprocessed, leaving only about 5 percent to decay in a few centuries. Importantly, reducing the volume of spent fuel through reprocessing would simplify the challenge of storage and disposal. What’s more, squeezing more energy out of spent fuel would be beneficial both to the nation’s economy and the environment. By using reprocessed fuel, we generate more electricity for American homes and businesses while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
One reprocessing facility is already being constructed in South Carolina to recycle surplus plutonium from nuclear weapons into a mixed-oxide fuel for use in nuclear power plants. Some of the funds that have accumulated in the Nuclear Waste Fund could be used to build a similar plant for recycling used fuel from commercial nuclear facilities.
About a year ago the DOE appointed a blue ribbon commission to evaluate policy options for a safe, long-term solution to nuclear waste disposal. The 15-member Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, co-chaired by former Congressman Lee Hamilton of Indiana and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, and including scientists, industry representatives, and heads of environmental research organizations, will issue its final report by January 2012.
Recycling of spent nuclear fuel should be at the top of the Commission’s agenda. Reprocessing, along with centralized interim storage, makes a lot more sense than banking used fuel at nuclear plants indefinitely. At the same time, we should be doing everything we reasonably can to advance America’s nuclear renaissance, a task made more difficult by the ongoing uncertainty regarding the final disposition of spent fuel.
Dr. Weinstein is associate director of the Maguire Energy Institute in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Between 1985 and 1995, he was with the speakers’ bureau of the Nuclear Energy Institute. His email address is bweinstein@smu.edu
New approaches needed to support new nuclear projects The drive for new nuclear plants can be maximized if the financial and regulatory risks are minimized, writes L. Preston Bryant Jr., a former secretary of natural resources in Virginia. Lawmakers need to reshape the terms of loan guarantees to shield companies from economic uncertainties, he argues. State and federal regulators should also curtail their processes to lessen the upfront funding necessary for building, he adds. The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
2010 again left the "nuclear renaissance" in the Dark Age that defines the technology. But an Armageddon-style battle looms when Congress returns next year.
Report: Energy Dept.'s funds focused on nuclear hub, loan guarantees The Department of Energy recently released its self-compiled list of 2010 accomplishments, which includes as much as $122 million for the development of a Nuclear Energy Modeling and Simulation Energy Innovation Hub and the loan guarantee for Southern Nuclear's Plant Vogtle in Georgia. "Over the past year, the Department of Energy accelerated the drive toward our clean energy economic and security goals, creating tens of thousands of jobs and helping the country to lead the way in science and innovation," the Energy Department said in its year-end report. The Hill/E2 Wire blog
The WWSIS study area consists of land in 5 states in the U.S., the “West Connect” group of utilities, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada (WY, CO, NM, AZ, NV) which are in the Western Interconnection in the United States. The Western Interconnection includes nearly the western 1/3 of the U.S. from Washington down to California, and its eastern border includes the states from Montana to New Mexico (see figure below).
This post presents a critical review of the Western Wind and Solar Integration Study (WWSIS) published by NREL and GE Energy earlier this year. The goal of this multiyear study was to determine the feasibility of incorporating large amounts of wind and solar energy into the Western U.S. and determine the effects of doing so.[i] An earlier Department of Energy study, 20% Wind Energy by 2030, found that in order for the continental U.S. to achieve 20% as a whole for wind energy consumption, 25% would have to be produced in the Western Interconnection. The authors of the WWSIS study conclude that it is possible (with a few caveats) to absorb and manage highly variable production from high penetrations of wind and solar energy, up to 30% wind and 5% solar. This post provides an overview of the assumptions and models used in the study, reports major findings, and considers what may be flaws inherent in the NREL/GE Energy efforts. (An executive summary of their project, models, and findings can be found here, and the full study here.)
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed Congressman Bart Gordon’s bill to ensure robust research and development efforts in the United States nuclear industry.
“Nuclear power will need to remain a component of America’s energy portfolio, whether our goal is energy independence or responsible climate policy,” said Gordon, who chairs the House Committee on Science and Technology. “This bill invests in research to develop nuclear power technologies that are more efficient, more cost effective and more secure.”
Gordon’s bill, the Nuclear Energy Research and Development Act of 2010, promotes work on Small Modular Reactors, reactors that are significantly smaller and present much lower up-front costs than large traditional nuclear power plants. SMRs have the potential to increase the safety and reliability of nuclear generation while making it more cost effective for nuclear energy providers.
The bill also authorizes research into technologies to prolong the life of the United States' 104 existing commercial reactors, which currently provide 20 percent of the country's power and 70 percent of its emissions-free power.
This bill also devotes resources to addressing the safety issues associated with storage and disposal of nuclear waste. A new fuel cycle research program at the Department of Energy will take a comprehensive approach to safe waste management, including reprocessing technologies and advanced storage methods.
Gordon has been a leader on responsible nuclear waste disposal policy, opposing efforts to process other countries’ nuclear waste in Tennessee and passing the Radioactive Import Deterrence Act to limit imports of foreign waste.
The Nuclear Energy Research and Development Act was based on broad bipartisan efforts from the Committee of Science and Technology.
“When I became the Committee’s chairman in 2007, I wanted it to become the committee of good ideas and consensus,” said Gordon. “This bill is just one of the legislative accomplishments we’ve achieved by working in that spirit.”
In the current congress, Gordon has championed legislative efforts from tornado research to oil spill cleanup technology to national cybersecurity. The House reauthorized Gordon's landmark bill the America COMPETES Act earlier this year to protect America’s economic competitiveness by investing in research and science, technology, engineering and math education.http://www.dnj.com/article/20101201/NEWS01/101201026/1002/House+Passes+Gordon%E2%80%99s+Nuclear+Energy+Bill
In 2006, the U.S. Department of Energy Biomass Program implemented the Biofuels Initiative. The initiative calls for the replacement of 30 percent of gasoline levels by ethanol by 2030 and the reduction of ethanol costs to prices competitive with gasoline by 2012. In the Mississippi Delta, implementation of this initiative resulted in a 47-percent decrease in the number of acres dedicated to producing cotton, which resulted in a corresponding 288-percent increase in corn acreage in the region from 2006 to 2007.
WritersWashington DC (SPX) Dec 01, 2010 Growing corn for biofuels production is having unintended effects on water quality and quantity in northwestern Mississippi. More water is required to produce corn than to produce cotton in the Mississippi Delta requiring increased withdrawals of groundwater from the Mississippi River Valley alluvial (MRVA) aquifer for irrigation. This is contributing to already declining water levels in the aquifer.
In addition, increased use of nitrogen fertilizer for corn in comparison to cotton could contribute to low dissolved oxygen conditions in the Gulf of Mexico.
These are some of the key findings from a study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to assess water quality and quantity in the Mississippi Delta, in relationship to biofuels production.
"Because corn uses 80 percent more water for irrigation than cotton, exchanging corn for cotton will decrease water-levels," according to Heather Welch, USGS Hydrologist and author of this USGS Report. Declining water levels in the MRVA aquifer are particularly significant in the Mississippi Delta, where the infiltration of rainfall to replenish the aquifer is low.
"This is a low flat area. When it does rain, much of the precipitation is lost through evapotranspiration and to streamflow, so the rainwater never reaches the aquifer," explains Welch.
In 2006, the U.S. Department of Energy Biomass Program implemented the Biofuels Initiative. The initiative calls for the replacement of 30 percent of gasoline levels by ethanol by 2030 and the reduction of ethanol costs to prices competitive with gasoline by 2012.
In the Mississippi Delta, implementation of this initiative resulted in a 47-percent decrease in the number of acres dedicated to producing cotton, which resulted in a corresponding 288-percent increase in corn acreage in the region from 2006 to 2007.
Using the USGS SPARROW model (SPAtially Referenced Regression on Watershed), scientists found that the conversion of cotton to corn acreage (comparing 2007 to 2002) is estimated to have increased the nitrogen load for the Yazoo River by 7 percent.
The Yazoo River Basin has been identified as a contributor of nitrogen to the Gulf of Mexico. Levels of nitrogen in the Gulf of Mexico have resulted in low dissolved oxygen conditions which can impact fish and bottom dwelling organisms.
Locally, water level declines and decreasing water quality contributes to the Delta's poor ecosystem health. "We are seeing a loss of habitat complexity, and lowered water levels have decreased baseflow to streams," says Jeannie Barlow, USGS Hydrologist and co-author of the study. "Some streams have remained dry for months in the summer and fall during periods of low rainfall," says Barlow.
According to data provided by the Yazoo Mississippi Delta Joint Water Management District (YMD), the total amount of water stored in the aquifer has declined since 1980, and current withdrawals from the aquifer are greater than the amount of water entering the aquifer.
These USGS findings provide essential scientific information about the effects of corn-based ethanol on water resources that Delta producers can use when making their planting decisions.
WASHINGTON -- A new Republican majority in the House is poised to assert itself on nuclear waste matters in the upcoming Congress, with newly re-elected Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada set to guard again that the Yucca Mountain repository plan is not revived.
President Barack Obama with strong direction from Reid, the Senate majority leader, shut down the Nevada program once envisioned for burying 77,000 tons of highly radioactive used nuclear fuel and waste materials into the Nye County ridge, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
A blue ribbon commission that Obama established to study alternatives is expected to release a draft report next summer, with a final version due early in 2012.But there still is a twitch in the Yucca corpse. Two years ago the Department of Energy under President George W. Bush sought permission from government nuclear safety regulators to build out the Nevada site. Despite the change in White House leadership and policy, that application remains alive for now, if only on paper.
A variety of state leaders, congressional officials, energy consultants, environmental advocates and industry lobbyists said the ultimate fate of the Yucca program might be decided in the courts. But in the meantime, they said, a stage is being set for low-grade conflict over the two years of the next congressional session, with a possible window for change opening when the blue ribbon commission issues its recommendations.
By the 2012 elections, the Nevada repository plan could be doornail-dead and long gone if a new nuclear waste management strategy emerges and gains consensus, or it could be poised for an attempted resurrection if one does not. http://www.lvrj.com/news/gop--reid-headed-for-more-conflict-over-yucca--nuclear-waste-107602518.html?ref=518
"The fear of drinking water contamination from CO2 leaks is one of several sticking points about CCS and has contributed to local opposition to it," says Jackson, who directs Duke's Center on Global Change.
could bubble up into drinking water aquifers near the surface, driving up levels of contaminants in the water tenfold or more in some places, according to a study by Duke University scientists. Based on a year-long analysis of core samples from four drinking water aquifers, "We found the potential for contamination is real, but there are ways to avoid or reduce the risk," says Robert B. Jackson, Nicholas Professor of Global Environmental Change and professor of biology at Duke.
"Geologic criteria that we identified in the study can help identify locations around the country that should be monitored or avoided," he says. "By no means would all sites be susceptible to problems of water quality."
Storing carbon dioxide deep below Earth's surface, a process known as geosequestration, is part of a suite of new carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies being developed by governments and industries worldwide to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions entering Earth's atmosphere.
The still-evolving technologies are designed to capture and compress CO2, emissions at their source - typically power plants and other industrial facilities - and transport the CO2 to locations where it can be injected far below the Earth's surface for long-term storage.
The U.S. Department of Energy, working with industry and academia, has begun the planning for at least seven regional CCS projects.
"The fear of drinking water contamination from CO2 leaks is one of several sticking points about CCS and has contributed to local opposition to it," says Jackson, who directs Duke's Center on Global Change.
"We examined the idea that if CO2 leaked out slowly from deep formations, where might it negatively impact freshwater aquifers near the surface, and why."
Jackson and his postdoctoral fellow Mark G. Little collected core samples from four freshwater aquifers around the nation that overlie potential CCS sites and incubated the samples in their lab at Duke for a year, with CO2 bubbling through them.
After a year's exposure to the CO2, analysis of the samples showed that "there are a number of potential sites where CO2 leaks drive contaminants up tenfold or more, in some cases to levels above the maximum contaminant loads set by the EPA for potable water," Jackson says.
Three key factors - solid-phase metal mobility, carbonate buffering capacity and electron exchanges in the overlying freshwater aquifer - were found to influence the risk of drinking water contamination from underground carbon leaks.
The study also identified four markers that scientists can use to test for early warnings of potential carbon dioxide leaks.
"Along with changes in carbonate concentration and acidity of the water, concentrations of manganese, iron and calcium could all be used as geochemical markers of a leak, as their concentration increase within two weeks of exposure to CO2," Jackson says.
The study was funded by the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory and Duke's Center on Global Change.
The study appears in the online edition of the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Sergei Tolmachev, left, succeeded Tony James as director of the U.S. Transuranium and Uranium Registries, which studies donated organs and tissues from people with documented exposures to uranium and plutonium in order to study the long-term effects of exposure.
The rows of freezers in a new metal building near the Richland airport hold tissue samples from the women who used radioactive radium in the 1920s to paint the glow-in-the dark dials of watches and clocks.
With them are organs waiting to be processed and tissue samples from their more recent counterparts - former DOE nuclear weapons workers, including those at Hanford, who were exposed to radioactivity on the job and later volunteered to donate their bodies to science when they died.
Shelves hold boxes filled with organ samples dissolved in acid and preserved for future research. Other boxes hold bones, potentially contaminated, that have been turned to ash.
Work stops at 27 Hanford buildings for beryllium check
Washington Closure Hanford has stopped work at 27 buildings at Hanford as it makes sure they have no beryllium contamination.
The 27 buildings are among a couple of hundred under the contractor's control and have not been sampled for beryllium, in some cases because they are new structures.
An independent inspection released by the Department of Energy Office of Health, Safety and Security on June 2 found a new sitewide program to prevent chronic beryllium disease at Hanford had shortcomings.
Report urges better beryllium protection at Hanford
Hanford needs to do more to prevent chronic beryllium disease in its workers, moving more quickly and aggressively to implement a new protection program, according to the report on a three-month investigation released Wednesday.
An independent inspection by the Department of Energy Office of Health, Safety and Security found that the nuclear reservation's new Hanford-wide Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program was a step in the right direction. But there have not been clear plans for a timely implementation of the site-wide plan, the investigation concluded.
It found that many of the key shortcomings in protecting Hanford workers had been identified earlier -- including in a 2002 Hanford Joint Council report -- but issues had not been addressed.
Richland starting a Hanford-wide program to protect workers from beryllium disease is a step in the right direction, but improvements are needed to give the program a strong foundation, according to the Department of Energy.
DOE’s Office of Health, Safety and Security investigated the Hanford Site Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program (CBDPP) this spring in response to concerns of workers with the disease, the Hanford Advisory Board, Heart of America Northwest and others.
The results of the investigation were released Wednesday.
Review helps Hanford workers with vapor protection (w/document)
HANFORD — The program to protect Hanford tank farm workers from chemical vapors has room for improvement, according to a new review by independent experts.
The review was sponsored by the Hanford Concerns Council, an independent panel that handles worker health and safety concerns, at the request of Hanford Challenge and Washington River Protection Solutions, the contractor overseeing Hanford's tank farms.
Hanford Challenge is a nonprofit organization that advocates for worker safety.
t's the nation's collection of physical evidence amassed to provide clues to how exposure to actinides such as plutonium and uranium affect the human body -- the goal of the U.S. Transuranium and Uranium Registries.
The program is operated by the Washington State University College of Pharmacy and paid for with grants from the Department of Energy. Programs at different DOE sites were consolidated in Washington in 1992, but more recently all of the nation's archives of data and samples -- both recent and decades old -- have been consolidated in Richland.
It's the only program in the world that tracks large amounts of data obtained from studying material collected at autopsies with medical and exposure information to learn more about the affects of radioactivity on the human body, said Anthony James, the just-retired director of the registries.
Opinion: 0% interest loans for plant construction would revive industry President Barack Obama should consider pushing a nuclear plan that would help address the financing issues and red tape that are restricting the growth of the U.S. nuclear industry, writes Joe Klein. Providing "direct, no-interest construction loans" instead of loan guarantees would be a boost for the sector, he writes. Such a program would create up to 70,000 construction jobs, as well as help the U.S. reach its emissions-reduction and energy-independence targets, Klein adds. More at: TIMEhttp://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2027941,00.html
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has struck a deal that could lead to research support for the company's Generation IV PRISM reactor as part of a demonstration of small modular reactor technologies at the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site.
At a Tuesday morning news conference in Aiken, SC, GE Hitachi and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions announced an agreement to explore the potential of using a PRISM reactor in the demo project..
Garry Flowers, chief executive of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, noted this is the second research alliance to be discussed as part of the small-reactor project. The first pact, announced in early September, set the stage for talks with Hyperion Power about development of its 25-megawatt "mini" nuclear power reactor.
AIKEN, S.C.—GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions LLC said Wednesday that they have agreed to look into setting up a prototype of GE Hitachi's generation IV PRISM nuclear reactor that would be part of a small modular reactor technology demonstration that is proposed to be set up at a Department of Energy's Savannah River Site.
The companies said their agreement may lead to talks about the possibility of Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing and rolling out a PRISM reactor at the Savannah River Site.
EDF Group indicated Wednesday that the French energy company hopes to renew efforts to secure a federal loan guarantee to help finance the construction of a proposed third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs in Southern Maryland.
This latest development comes after EDF and Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group agreed to a $250 million cash and stock settlement that gives EDF full ownership of their Unistar nuclear development company, which includes the Calvert Cliffs project.
The deal, reached late Tuesday, ends their joint venture and helps mend a relationship that had been strained since Constellation abandoned negotiations this month with Obama administration officials over the federal loan guarantee for the $9.6 billion project.
"The loan guarantee process is an essential step for anyone who wants to build new nuclear in the U.S. market," an EDF representative said. "Now that EDF is the sole owner of Unistar, EDF will be focused on next steps and will, of course, be talking with the [Department of Energy] about the process moving forward." http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-constellation-edf-calvert-cliff20101027,0,186420.story
The president-elect of the American Nuclear Society said the US
Department of Energy's loan guarantee program needs changes if it is to
increase the number of nuclear power plants in the country.
The current program "is in need of reform," Eric Loewen said Monday at a
Nuclear Energy Insider-sponsored conference in Charlotte, North Carolina,
citing Constellation Energy's withdrawal earlier this month from consideration
for a loan guarantee for a planned reactor project in Maryland.
The government's offer of a $7.5 billion loan guarantee with an attached
fee of $880 million shows the program needs revisions, Loewen said.
"The Office of Management and Budget has set terms and conditions [that]
may destroy the project's economics and prevent the project from going
forward," he said. More at:
Feds may ship depleted uranium oxide to Nevada facility The Department of Energy is seeking to transport 9,400 drums of depleted uranium oxide from South Carolina for disposal in the Nevada National Security Site, formerly known as the Nevada Test Site, according to Nevada officials. Spokeswoman Jen Stutsman said the Department of Energy is evaluating its waste-disposal options, but no decision has been made. KTVN-TV (Reno, Nev.)/The Associated Press
3 Questions: ARPA-E chief on the energy challenge
During a visit on Wednesday to MIT, Arun Majumdar, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), discussed the global energy challenge and the role his agency plays in trying to foster transformational energy research and development. Majumdar’s presentation to a standing-room-only crowd in Bartos Theater served as both a wake-up call (the U.S. spends more on dog-food R&D than it does on electrical-power R&D, he noted) and a source of inspiration (Majumdar discussed some of the very real and exciting energy projects his agency is funding, including several here at MIT).
By Nancy E. Roth, Managing Editor
Reliable industry sources have told FCW that the high credit subsidy fee Constellation Energy criticized in a scalding letter to the U.S. Department of Energy last Friday by no means represents all of the company’s motives in withdrawing from discussions of a loan guarantee in support of its Calvert Cliffs new-build project.
More at:
