April 20, 2012 - Statesman Journal - Feds should utilize salt beds for waste - Two or three times a day, trucks carrying radioactive drums loaded with transuranic waste from U.S. nuclear installations up to 1,000 miles away arrive at a non-descript building in the Chihuahuan desert in southeastern New Mexico. There, the containers are lowered a half-mile into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, the world’s only operating deep-geologic repository for nuclear waste. Since the facility opened in 1999, more than 200,000 tons of highly radioactive waste from the production of U.S. nuclear bombs — tools, machinery, gloves and clothes with small amounts of plutonium and other nuclear materials — has been placed in WIPP’s chambers. WIPP is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Mexico Environment Department. Nuclear waste has been shipped to WIPP smoothly and safely without a serious accident or injury over 12 million miles so far — equivalent to about 4,900 trips between Los Angeles and New York City. DOE expects the waste shipments to continue for another 25 to 35 years, at which time the repository will be closed and sealed — 2150 ft. below the ground. What’s noteworthy about WIPP is that it has the enthusiastic support of the local government in Carlsbad, a city of 25,000 people, 26 miles away. WIPP has provided 1,300 permanent jobs, including many for scientists and engineers doing research on nuclear waste, and an equal number of support jobs.
Aprl 20, 2012 - Power Engineering - NRC issues notice about updated aging management criteria - Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a notice called: Updated Aging Management Criteria for Reactor Vessel Internal Components of Pressurized Water Reactors. The notice, published in the Federal Register on April 19 by Mark S. Delligatti, Deputy Director, Division of License Renewal, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, states: "The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) is supplementing a notice published in the Federal Registeron March 20, 2012 (77 FR 16270), that requested public comments on draft license renewal interim staff guidance (LR-ISG), LR-ISG-2011-04, "Updated Aging Management Criteria for PWR Reactor Vessel Internal Components."The original notice provided the ADAMS Accession Number for the main body of LR-ISG-2011-04 but did not include accession numbers for Appendices A and B of the LR-ISG. This supplement provides the appropriate ADAMS Accession Numbers for the LR-ISG in its entirety, and does not change any other information in the original notice for public comment."
April 20, 2012 - The Oregonian - Wyden urges faster disposal of tainted debris - Sen. Ron Wyden is pressing the Japanese government to move faster to clean up — and contain — radioactive debris from the Fukushima Daiichi complex, the facility that was virtually destroyed last year by the double-fisted disaster of an earthquake and tsunami. “The Japanese are talking about a 10-year program to move (radioactive fuel rods and other waste) to dry storage,” he said in an interview. “That is not soon enough. It’s got to be done more quickly. ... To me this is not a debatable proposition.” Wyden, a senior member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said his anxiety increased after touring the ruins April 6. Wyden said a quicker pace on cleanup is in the United States’ interest because a release of the radioactivity from the nuclear cores could contaminate water and sea life and could be carried eastward toward Oregon by prevailing winds. A prompt and efficient response to the wreckage could also calm nerves about the future and safety of nuclear power, he said.
April 20, 2012 - Brattleboro Reformer - Critic cites 'poor management' at VY - A quarterly inspection report that identified two issues of very low safety significance reflects poorly on Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, said a nuclear safety advocate. "To be fair, Yankee is a large complex enterprise," said David Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Project of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Things can and do go wrong. But adding things that go wrong that could have been avoided to the list of things that go wrong unavoidable is just poor management." Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said it will be keeping an eye on how the situation is resolved. "The company will have to address the underlying issues via the plant's corrective action program," he said. "We'll follow up to ensure that has taken place." Yankee is owned and operated by Entergy.
April 20, 2012 - CBS News - Lawmaker wants papers on radioactive dump released - A lawmaker said Monday he has confidential documents detailing state officials' concerns about possible groundwater contamination at a radioactive waste dump in West Texas, and is seeking official permission to release them. State Rep. Lon Burnam wrote a letter to Attorney General Greg Abbott asking him to waive the confidentiality agreement for documents expressing the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's concerns about Waste Control Specialists LLC's application to build the site in rural Andrews County near the New Mexico border. Burnam, a Democrat from Fort Worth, said he obtained the documents under a 2009 open records request — and only after years of legal battles. He said he's not allowed to release what's in them but said they contain officials' concerns about the location of groundwater tables near the dump site; the margin of safety in the event of groundwater contamination; and the possible risk of public exposure to radiation.
April 20, 2012 - Associated Press - Idaho National Laboratory waste cleanup resumes after nearly 2-year hiatus - A federal cleanup project in southeastern Idaho resumed this week after a nearly two-year hiatus. The retrieval of transuranic waste at the Idaho National Laboratory was suspended in July 2010. That was six months after about 20 workers were exposed to radioactive waste when a plywood box broke open, though site managers said the doses were below acceptable levels. The project at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility was put on hold after a second incident, which also involved the retrieval of a wooden box. Last year, a new consortium led by Babcock and Wilcox and URS Corp. won a $417 million contract to finish up cleanup of the transuranic waste. The group, which calls itself the Idaho Treatment Group, took over for the existing contractor, Bechtel BWXT Idaho.