July 9, 2003

Suit now proceeds on cleanup challenge by plants neighbors , Paducah Sun

Attorneys will argue the merits of a lawsuit challenging a cleanup agreement for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant between the state and federal governments now that a judge has refused to dismiss the case. On July 1, Franklin Circuit Judge Roger Crittenden rejected a motion by U.S. Department of Energy lawyers to throw out the suit on grounds that the agreement should have been challenged administratively before going to court. They made the argument even though the secretary of the Kentucky Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet had already signed two final agreed orders with DOE.

http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2004/nn12084.htm

July 8, 2003

Two states to sue for U.S. review of Hanford, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

YAKIMA -- Washington and Oregon plan to sue the U.S. Department of Energy, demanding that the agency begin assessing what harm 40 years of plutonium production has caused to natural resources at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.  A letter notifying the Energy Department of the states' intent will be filed today, said Elliott Furst, senior counsel for the Washington Attorney General's Office.  "We're not asking for money for damages. It's very focused, asking that the court order the Department of Energy to start studying what injuries there will be to natural resources," he said.  Kevin Neely, a spokesman for Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers, declined to comment until the letter has been filed, but said the state has been discouraged by the federal government's position and is prepared to take action.  The Energy Department cannot respond until the letter has been received, spokeswoman Colleen Clark said.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/181225_nwbriefs08.html

Issues rise with nuke waste removal costs
Experts: Congress must approve more money to decontaminate sites, Chillocothe Gazette

WASHINGTON -- Congress is unlikely to quickly approve more money to mop up radioactive and chemical waste around nuclear weapons plants in the Midwest and South, leaving nearby residents vulnerable to toxins, scientists said Wednesday.  The General Accounting Office released a report Friday urging Congress to pump more money into a federal nuclear waste clean up fund. The Uranium Enrichment Contamination and Decommissioning Fund will run out of money before plants in Piketon, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; and Oak Ridge, Tenn., are decontaminated, the report said.  "Right now we know there is a fiscal crisis in Congress," said Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "There does not seem to be a lot of money around for properly disposing of nuclear waste."

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/news/stories/20040708/localnews/801876.html

July 7, 2003

Wamp: Oak Ridge plays 'key role' in removing Iraqi nuclear material , Tennessean.com

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- Experts from the Energy Department's nuclear weapons and research complex in Tennessee played a ''key role'' in removing radioactive material from Iraq that could be used in a dirty bomb, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp said.  Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced in Washington on Tuesday that DOE and the Defense Department removed 1.77 metric tons of low-enriched uranium and about 1,000 highly radioactive sources from a former nuclear research facility in Iraq.  The material was flown to the United States on June 23.  The uranium will be stored temporarily at a ''secure DOE facility'' and the radioactive sources were taken to a ''DOE laboratory'' for further examination, DOE said.  Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration, refused to identify the DOE installations as the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/04/07/53936299.shtml?Element_ID=53936299

July 6, 2003

Ohio Wants U.S. to Freeze Nuclear Waste Removal, New York Times

WASHINGTON, July 5 - A 12-year, $4.4-billion effort to clean up a nuclear weapons plant near Cincinnati was set to enter its final phase this week, with a contractor delicately removing some of the nation's oldest nuclear garbage, left over from production of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, and preparing it for disposal.  But the State of Ohio, after years of pushing for the cleanup, is demanding that the waste be left where it is, in silos at the Fernald Feed Materials Production Center, because the dump in Nevada where the uranium ore was supposed to go may no longer be available. A legal standoff is threatening to idle about 240 workers and extend a cleanup that costs $1 million a day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/06/national/06nuke.html?ex=1089691200&en=6e1911ee3d08a259&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE [$ after 7/12/04]

July 5, 2003

Ohio says U.S. needs to pay more for Fernald maintenance as natural area , Cin cinnati Enquirer

CROSBY TOWNSHIP - The state of Ohio and the federal government are sharply at odds over how much the feds will pay to manage the park left behind when the cleanup is finished at the old Fernald nuclear weapons plant. The state and federal government have worked together for more than a decade on the $4.4 billion cleanup. But a recent exchange between the U.S. Department of Justice and the Ohio Attorney General's Office reveals the two governments disagree over how much money is needed at the 1,000-acre site after the cleanup is finished in 2006. The dispute is more than a bureaucratic squabble. The long-term plan for Fernald calls for it to become an undeveloped park with forests, wetlands, floodplains and open fields.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/07/05/loc_loc1afern.html

July 3, 2003

Construction cost likely to rise for Hanford nuclear waste plant, The Hanfordnews.com

An Army Corps of Engineers report concludes construction costs may well increase at the giant Hanford plant being built to encase radioactive wastes in glass logs.... The vitrification plant, now estimated to cost $5.7 billion, is the federal government's largest construction project.  The report was requested by members of the U.S. House of Representatives, which approved full funding for Hanford cleanup as part of a major spending bill last week. Lawmakers noted that the Corps report reveals "uncontrolled cost growth" also is apparent at other Department of Energy sites. Underground tanks at Hanford hold about 53 million gallons of wastes left over from producing plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. Plant construction was estimated at $4.35 billion before a contract was awarded in 2000.  "The committee has little confidence in the accuracy of the current cost and schedule baselines for these projects and even less in the ability and motivation of DOE and its contractors to control these costs," the bill says.

http://www.hanfordnews.com/news/2004/story/5266559p-5203018c.html

June 26 , 2003

Ohio would sue over Fernald - Attorney general fights above-ground storage plan, Cincin n ati Enquirer

Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro vowed Friday to sue the U.S. Department of Energy if it tries to remove radioactive waste from silos at Fernald and store it in steel shipping crates at the Crosby Township site. Petro said temporarily storing the waste in the crates would pose an environmental hazard to ground water and the surrounding area. Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro vowed Friday to sue the U.S. Department of Energy if it tries to remove radioactive waste from silos at Fernald and store it in steel shipping crates at the Crosby Township site. Petro said temporarily storing the waste in the crates would pose an environmental hazard to ground water and the surrounding area. The threat to sue comes after Department of Energy officials in charge of the Fernald nuclear cleanup said they could begin removing waste from the silos by the end of June, even though they are not yet able to send it to a permanent storage facility.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/06/26/loc_loc1afernald.html

June 21, 2003

Funding approved to continue WIPP oversight , El Paso Times

SANTA FE -- The U.S. Department of Energy has approved $600,000 to fund the reopening of a state office to oversee operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad. The New Mexico Environment Department had operated a DOE Oversight Bureau in Carlsbad, but it was closed in 1996 due to a lack of funding. Gov. Bill Richardson said the new office will fill some of the void left by the closure of the Environmental Evaluation Group, an independent watchdog established in 1978 and dissolved two months ago because of a budget dispute with the DOE. "This office will pick up where the EEG left off," Richardson said in a statement issued Friday. "It is imperative for the state to provide proper oversight of WIPP." The Environment Department said former EEG employees are encouraged to apply to work in the oversight bureau, which could open late this summer. The state said an office manager, five technical personnel and an administrative assistant will be hired to monitor the underground depository for radioactive waste.

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20040621-133160.shtml

June 20, 2003

Washington voters hold Oregon fate -Oregon has little say over nuclear waste bound for the Hanford reservation over state highways , The Oregonian

SEATTLE -- The decision about whether to let thousands of truckloads of radioactive waste rumble across Oregon highways is, strangely enough, in the hands of Washington voters. Washington Initiative 297 would stop the U.S. Department of Energy from using the Hanford Nuclear Reservation as a national dump for "hot" trash from weapons stations across the country until the reservation's existing mess is cleaned up. On the surface, it looks like a Washington issue. After all, Hanford, an atomic-bomb-making relic that turned into North America's most polluted morass, is located in southeastern Washington. But the expressways for potentially tens of thousands of truckloads of Hanford-bound garbage would cut through Oregon. The amount of radioactive trash rolling north on Interstates 5 and 84 could increase tenfold and continue at that pace for 40 years if the Energy Department has its way.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/108764622932811.xml

June 18, 2003

Energy Department pledges to remove 99 percent of nuclear waste from tanks, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Energy Department is committed to removing 99 percent of the nuclear waste in underground tanks at weapons sites, and anything less is "off the table," the head of the cleanup program told lawmakers Thursday.  Assistant Energy Secretary Jessie Roberson told a Senate hearing that she saw no chance that as much as 10 percent of the waste might be kept in the tanks even if the department is allowed to keep residual sludge at the bottom of the buried containers.  The assurance came as Roberson was pressed by senators about the cleanup of highly radioactive waste left over from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons at the Energy Department's Hanford complex in Washington state as well as at sites in Idaho and South Carolina.  The department would like to reclassify the residual sludge that will be left at 177 buried tanks at Hanford and in dozens of similar waste tanks at the Savannah River site in South Carolina and the INEEL facility in Idaho as having a "low level" of radioactivity.

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-06-18/s

June 15, 2003

Senior Energy Official Resigns from Energy Dept ., Washington Post

Energy Secretary Jessie Roberson, who headed the environmental cleanup program at the department's nuclear weapons sites, resigned yesterday, citing a desire to spend more time with her family. Roberson's accelerated agenda for cleaning up weapons sites has been criticized by some state officials and environmentalists as an attempt by the Energy Department to scale back cleanup standards and saddle states with more of the highly radioactive waste.  Her resignation is the third by a senior Energy Department official closely involved in nuclear waste cleanup or environmental management in just over two months. Undersecretary Robert Card, the department's No. 3 official, who was closely involved in nuclear waste issues, and Assistant Secretary Beverly Cook, who reported to Card and was in charge of environmental and health management at nuclear complex sites, resigned in early April after tangling with Congress over a worker health issue.  According to DOE spokesman Joe Davis, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told Roberson that, in three years at the job, she had "fundamentally changed the management" of the waste-cleanup effort. Roberson was appointed to the post after working for the Energy Department office that oversees the cleanup of the Rocky Flats nuclear site in Colorado.© 2004 The Washington Post Company 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A44704-2004Jun15?language=printer

June 10, 2003

Safety board cautions DOE on delegating responsibilities, lamonitor

An independent federal safety board has asked the Department of Energy for assurances that safety standards won't be diluted in the nuclear weapons complex if responsibilities are delegated to field offices and contractors. The recommendation, published Monday in the Federal Register, calls for a clear acceptance of responsibility at the top by the Secretary of Energy for any transfer of authority over safety issues to local managers. "By itself, the act of putting responsibility down in the field can be a good thing to do, but not at a loss of responsibility at headquarters," said Gen. John Conway, DNSFB chairman by telephone on Tuesday from Washington, D.C. A spokesperson for the Department of Energy said the recommendation was under review.

http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2004/06/09/headline_news/news05.txt

June 8, 2003

Site here to control nuclear cleanups  -- 125 jobs coming , Cincinnati Enquirer

The cleanup of former nuclear energy sites from Washington state to South Carolina will soon be managed from a federal office in Cincinnati, bringing about 125 jobs to the area, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Monday.  The department's new Consolidated Business Center is part of a reorganization of the Department of Energy to centralize the department's environmental management activities. Each year, the government spends $7 billion to clean up 38 former nuclear processing sites such as Fernald in Crosby Township.  With that list changing each year as projects are closed and others are added to the list, it makes sense to centralize accounting, human resources and information technology in Cincinnati, Abraham said. 

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/06/08/loc_doe08.html

June 3, 2004~

Former governors raise concern about DOE bill on nuclear waste – Idaho Statesman
Two former Idaho governors urged Idaho's senators Wednesday to defend a 1995 nuclear waste agreement as they vote today on two Department of Energy issues. Former Govs. Cecil Andrus and Phil Batt raised concerns about an amendment to the $450 billion annual defense budget bill, which would allow DOE to leave some radioactive waste in the ground in South Carolina.   Cr itics say the bill threatens the agreement Batt negotiated for removal of nuclear waste from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Idaho's two Republican senators say it doesn't.   "We caution our congressmen not to adopt legislation which would in any way alter or jeopardize the full implementation of the agreement," Andrus and Batt said in a joint statement.   Idaho's Republican U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo and Larry Craig say they agree with Batt and Andrus, but believe the bill doesn't threaten Batt's agreement.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040603/NEWS0105/406030341/1001/NEWS

June 3, 2004~

Energy IG Finds No Misconduct at Hanford -- Separate Report Finds Fault With Contractor – Washington Post

SEATTLE, June 2 -- An investigation of contractors accused of altering medical records and covering up worker exposure to toxic vapors at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has found no evidence of criminal misconduct, the Energy Department's inspector general said Wednesday.    But a separate report on Hanford by the department's office of independent oversight has found "significant vulnerabilities" in efforts by CH2M Hill, a major contractor on the site, to protect workers from exposure to dangerous chemical vapors.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11086-2004Jun2.html

June 2, 2004~
Debate Intensifies on Nuclear Waste- Lawmakers in Affected States Press Bush Administration on Cleanup -  Washington Post

RICHLAND, Wash. -- Using the nation's largest and leakiest nuclear waste dump as a backdrop, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) complained last week that the Bush administration is using a "sneaky" legislative maneuver to avoid cleaning up Cold War-era poisons that are tainting groundwater here and oozing into the Columbia River.   "They are trying to create a loophole in the definition of nuclear waste big enough to drive a truck through and leave Washington state to deal with a mess that we don't want," Cantwell said, echoing the worries of state environmental officials who help monitor the federal Hanford Nuclear Reservation here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7951-2004Jun1.html

May 28, 2004~

Energy Department official says waste removal to begin in mid-June - Ohio News Network

CINCINNATI A U.S. Department of Energy official says cleanup from one of three silos at the former Fernald uranium processing plant could begin in mid-June, although it's still not clear what will be done with the material. The $4.4 billion cleanup plan calls for the waste to be shipped to Nevada, but officials there have said they will file a lawsuit in an attempt to prevent that. Bill Taylor, the Energy Department's project director for the facility, sent a letter to state and federal environmental officials Thursday telling them about the proposed timetable. He asked for their comments by June 11.

http://www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=1902890

May 27, 2004~

Energy Department issues final contract terms - Magic Valley Times

BOISE (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday issued its final requirements for companies that want to run the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The installation, which is being renamed the Idaho National Laboratory, is operated by Bechtel BWXT Idaho until Jan. 30, 2005. After Bechtel's contract expires, the contract will be split into two -- one for nuclear research and the other overseeing a cleanup of radioactive and toxic waste.

http://www.magicvalley.com/home/search/index.asp?DateID=5/27/2004&StoryID=10081&theDB=local_state_news&theIMG=LOCAL_STATE_NEWS&theQry=nuclear

May 26, 2004~

Bacteria found in Hanford waste- Toxic radioactive soil below leaking tank unlikely place for life- Seattle PI

Scientists studying the soil beneath a leaking Hanford nuclear waste storage tank have discovered more than 100 species of bacteria living in a toxic, radioactive environment that most would have thought inhospitable to all forms of life.  "Even in some of the most contaminated zones, we found a few living organisms," said Fred Brockman, a microbial ecologist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland. Brockman is presenting the findings today at the American Society for Microbiology's annual meeting in New Orleans. For most living creatures, the nuclear and chemical waste in the underground storage tanks on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is the deadliest mixture of toxins and radioactive muck on the planet.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/175015_bugs26.html

May 21, 2004~

Graham, Hollings clash on SRS cleanup- Radioactive sludge's future at heart of issue - Charleston-The Post

South Carolina's two U.S. senators squared off on the Senate floor Thursday over the future of the sludge from more than 30 million gallons of radioactive liquid being removed from the Savannah River Site. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham wants a provision to the national nuclear waste cleanup law that allows the U.S. Department of Energy to re-classify the sludge. That would allow the waste to be buried on site rather than having it moved to deep mountain storage, which the law originally required.

http://www.charleston.net/stories/052104/loc_21srs.shtml

May 20, 2004~

Arizona governor objects to Fernald waste shipments - The Cincinnati Enquirer

CROSBY TOWNSHIP - Another roadblock has been raised - this time in Arizona - that could jeopardize the Department of Energy's plan to dispose of radioactive waste from three Fernald concrete silos in Nevada.  Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano wrote Energy Department Assistant Secretary Jessie Roberson on May 11, saying the plan to truck Fernald waste through her state on the way to Nevada from Ohio is illegal. The letter doesn't threaten a lawsuit, but asks energy officials to "prevent the transport of waste" through Arizona. "DOE's plan to bring this dangerous waste through Arizona appears to be a violation of applicable federal and state laws," the letter says. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, along with the Ohio EPA, has approved the transportation plan for the 7,000 containers of powdery waste from Silo 3. EPA officials on Wednesday said they don't think the shipments would violate any law, but declined to comment further.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/05/20/loc_silos20.html

May 20, 2004~

AG seeks states' help to halt nuclear shipments- Ohio waste supposed to go to test site - Las Vegas Review Journal

WASHINGTON -Attorney General Brian Sandoval is attempting to recruit other states to help Nevada head off shipments of nuclear waste from a closed uranium processing factory in Ohio.  Sandoval said in a letter Wednesday that residents along shipping routes may be subjected to "significant health risks" from a special class of radioactive material the Department of Energy has proposed to send from its Fernald plant to the Nevada Test Site.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/May-20-Thu-2004/news/23926513.html

OAK RIDGE — The Energy Department has started formal investigations into two hazardous materials accidents at its Oak Ridge operations in the past two weeks, the agency said Tuesday.   The probes were launched because of the ''potential for harm'' to the public and because the cost to clean them up will exceed a regulatory threshold of more than $1 million, DOE-Oak Ridge spokes-man Steven Wyatt said.   The investigations, which could take a month, will determine what caused the accidents and all aspects of emergency response.   Wyatt said DOE already was reviewing a May 8 chemical fire near the former K-25 uranium enrichment plant that forced the closure of state Highway 58 and the evacuation of residents for about 24 hours.

http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/04/05/51584021.shtml?Element_ID=51584021

May 19, 2004~
Testimony scorns DOE changes to contracts- Tri City Herald

WASHINGTON -- Major changes in the Department of Energy's small-business contracting system would be a mistake that would have far-reaching consequences, a Senate committee was told Tuesday.  Until recently, prime contractors traditionally have taken the lead in ensuring that small businesses receive some of the work at the department's nuclear sites and laboratories, as required by federal law.  But a ruling by the White House budget office that the department instead needs to contract directly with small businesses has raised questions about that practice and created concerns about possible problems at DOE sites such as Hanford.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/business/story/5088782p-5016259c.html

May 15, 2004~

EPA calls Fernald plan illegal- Storing waste outside silos set for June - The Cincinnati Enquirer

CROSBY TWP. - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that short-term storage of radioactive waste from the Fernald silos at the site in northwest Hamilton County clearly violates legally binding rules that govern the $4.4 billion cleanup.  But EPA officials say they don't know what they can or will do if the material is temporarily stored at Fernald, outside of the silos that have safely held it for more than 50 years.  In a plan outlined to residents last week, Department of Energy officials in charge of the cleanup said they plan to remove the silo waste on schedule starting in June. That decision could leave bags of radiological powder stored in steel crates at Fernald for weeks or months.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/05/15/loc_silos15.html

May 11, 2004~

State review criticizes oversight at Hanford - Seattle Times

A new state review faults federal monitoring of chemical vapors venting from Hanford storage tanks, vapors that some workers say have caused bloody noses, fatigue and other health problems.  The state review, released yesterday by Gov. Gary Locke and Attorney General Christine Gregoire, says it is unclear what materials are in the 177 underground tanks that store more than 50 million gallons of chemical and radioactive wastes.  Moreover, the review says there needs to be better measurement of potentially toxic vapors that could waft through tank vents.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001925276_hanford11m.html

May 8, 2004 ~
S.C. lab to research nuke waste cleanup -- Savannah River center gets national designation, eligible for huge grants – The State

SAVANNAH RIVER SITE — The nation's newest national laboratory will focus on developing technology to help clean up nuclear waste, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Friday.   As expected, Abraham named the Savannah River Technical Center a national laboratory, a designation long sought by South Carolina as a way to attract millions in federal research dollars, and the jobs that follow.   The Savannah River National Laboratory will be able to compete as an equal with Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and other national laboratories for major research projects.   The designation also should help ensure the future of the Savannah River Site, which once produced material for nuclear weapons, but more recently has been focused on cleaning up waste from their production. While Abraham wouldn't discuss specifics, he said future missions at SRS will be “significant and robust.”

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/8618580.htm

May 3, 2004~

DOE Gives Georgia $300,000 to Continue Radiation Monitoring of Savannah River Site- Extension Ensures Work Through December, 2004 - Department of Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy today announced that it will provide the Georgia Department of Natural Resources $300,000 to continue its radiation monitoring activities of the Savannah River Site through December 2004. The extension will provide the Georgia Department of Natural Resources with more time to evaluate its needs for future monitoring and arrange for alternate funding.  The grant also requires that Georgia provide the Department of Energy any analysis of data and/or statistical evidence that would suggest the Department of Energy's comprehensive monitoring program be revised.

http://www.energy.gov/engine/content.do?PUBLIC_ID=15784&BT_CODE=PR_PRESSRELEASES&TT_CODE=PRESSRELEASE