Yucca nuclear dump a threat to Nevada military bases, Rosen says By Ray Hagar, Nevada Newsmakers, Las Vegas Sun, Sept. 16, 2018
Nevada 3rd Congressional District Rep. Jacky Rosen looks at the controversy over a proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain through the eyes of a member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee. The transportation and storage of nuclear waste at the site — less than 100 miles from Las Vegas — would pose a threat to national security because of the U.S. military bases that surround the area, Rosen said Thursday on Nevada Newsmakers.
“We have Nellis Air Force Base, the premier pilot-training (facility) throughout the world. We have the Nevada Test and Training Range where we do all that training — 70 percent of the Air Force’s live munitions lives there,” Rosen said.
“We have Creech Air Force Base, where we have our unmanned aerial system,” she said. “We train those Topgun naval aviators in Fallon. We have a Hawthorne Army Depot, a Nevada Test Site and Area 51.”
“Yucca Mountain sits right in the center of all that,” Rosen said. “Nevada is critical to our national security, our homeland security and safety. And anything that could compromise that, moving nuclear waste through the Nevada Test and Training Range or any of those other routes, could put us at risk.”
Storage of nuclear waste near U.S. military installations is only one problem with Yucca, Rosen said. Another is moving it there through wide swaths of the United States.
“There are 75,000 metric tons of nuclear waste. At three loads a week via trains or trucks on our freeways, going through over 44 states and 300 counties, it will take 50 years to transport it,” Rosen said. “So don’t tell me that within that 50 years, there is not going to be some kind of accident.”………https://lasvegassun.com/news/2018/sep/16/yucca-nuclear-dump-a-threat-to-nevada-military-bas/
September 17, 2018
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Nuclear waste bill that could aid Zion awaiting presidential signature , Chicago Tribune, 15 Sept 18 Legislation to help communities 
such as Zion with stranded nuclear waste issues has passed both houses of Congress, and now awaits President Donald Trump’s signature to become law, according to a statement released Friday by U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider.
The 10th District Democrat said the measure — included in H.R. 5895, the Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act of 2019 — would require a report by the Department of Energy on existing public and private resources and funding available for municipalities in which a nuclear power plant is decommissioned, in the process of decommissioning, or plans to shut down within three years.
“Communities like Zion have been saddled with storing our nation’s stranded nuclear waste while the federal government has failed to meet its legal obligation to find a permanent repository,” Schneider said in a statement. “They deserve compensation, and this new report is a step toward connecting these communities with critically needed federal assistance.”
In May, Schneider said, he introduced a legislative amendment requiring the Secretary of Energy to assemble a task force to work across all federal agencies to identify existing resources and funding opportunities that could assist communities with decommissioned plants where nuclear waste is being stored.
Last October, Schneider introduced the Sensible, Timely Relief for America’s Nuclear Districts’ Economic Development (STRANDED) Act with Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.
“I urge President Trump to sign (H.R. 5895) into law,” Schneider added in Friday’s statement, “and I will continue to work to build on this progress by advancing the STRANDED Act to finally compensate communities like Zion what they deserve.”
In addition to forming a task force, the STRANDED proposal would compensate communities storing waste through economic impact grants and would establish tax credits to encourage development and homeownership in affected communities.
Last year, ZionSolutions, which is part of Utah-based EnergySolutions, said it will finish deconstructing and demolishing the deactivated Zion nuclear power plant and its 20-story containment silos in 2018, according to EnergySolutions Vice-President Mark Walker, but 61 casks full of spent nuclear rods will remain on-site until a repository is found.
H.R. 5895 does not address long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel, but it does require the Department of Energy to “submit to Congress and the State of Nevada a report on the potential of locating a reprocessing or recycling facility for spent nuclear fuel near the Yucca Mountain site.”………http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/news/ct-lns-schneider-nuke-bill-st-0915-story.html
September 17, 2018
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Work to demolish Hanford plutonium plant could resume next week https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/hanford/work-to-demolish-hanford-plutonium-plant-could-resume-next-week/281-594811180
Demolition work on Hanford’s plutonium finishing plant could resume next week after the U.S. Department of Energy stopped work at the site last December. September 15, 2018
Work to demolish a former nuclear weapons production plant in Washington state could resume next week, nearly nine months after a spread of radioactive contamination forced a shutdown.
Demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation was halted in December after a spread of radioactive particles. In all, 42 workers were found to have inhaled or ingested small amounts of radioactive particles and workers drove contaminated cars off the nuclear site.
Also see | “It was complete chaos” says Hanford worker who inhaled plutonium
The Tri-City Herald reports that the planned restart is limited, focusing on less hazardous work.
The U.S. Department of Energy this week approved the resumption of demolition.
The plant for decades helped make plutonium, a key ingredient in nuclear weapons.
September 17, 2018
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Daily Mail 15th Sept 2018 ,A unique wildlife refuge on the site of a former nuclear weapons plant in
Colorado is opening its gates on Saturday, after a confusing day when
officials first said they would not open the refuge and then said they
would.
The opening of Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, where the U.S.
government made plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs, has been in the works
for months, surviving court challenges and protests.
But the plans were upended Friday when Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said he would keep the
refuge closed until he could get more information about public safety.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-6170525/Former-nuclear-site-open-public-wildlife-refuge.html
September 17, 2018
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Yucca Mountain Halted Again as GOP Aims to Retain Senate
Nevada’s Dean Heller among blockers this time, Roll Call, Jeremy Dillon, 12 Sept 18 ……….
Nevada says ‘no’
“……..Nevada has long opposed hosting the nation’s nuclear waste, especially since it does not have nuclear power plants within its borders. Opponents say the site and the movement of waste there represent significant public health and safety risks that could expose Nevadans and others to deadly radioactivity in the event of accidents or groundwater leakage.
….. Heller wasn’t the only Nevada lawmaker to oppose restarting the Yucca project. His challenger, Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen, was equally eager to show Nevada voters she had what it takes to stop the project. Cortez Masto also mounted opposition on the Hill………http://admin.rollcall.com/news/policy/yucca-mountain-halted-gop-aims-retain-senate
September 17, 2018
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America’s Oldest Operating Nuclear Power Plant to Retire on Monday OilVoice Press – OilVoice 14-Sep-2018 The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, located 50 miles east of Philadelphia in Forked River, New Jersey, is scheduled to retire on Monday, September 17. The plant first came online on December 1, 1969, making it the oldest commercially operated nuclear power plant in the United States. Oyster Creek was previously expected to retire on December 31, 2019, but its retirement was accelerated by more than a year to coincide with the plant’s fuel and maintenance cycle…………
Oyster Creek will be the sixth nuclear power plant to retire in the past five years. After Oyster Creek’s retirement, the United States will have 98 operating nuclear reactors at 59 plants. Twelve of these reactors, with a combined capacity of 11.7 gigawatts, are scheduled to retire within the next seven years.
Oyster Creek is one of four nuclear power plants—along with Palisades Power Plant, Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, and Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station—that have planned retirement dates more than a decade before their operating licenses expire. Economic factors have played a significant role in decisions to continue operating or to retire nuclear power plants, as increased competition from natural gas and renewables has made it increasingly difficult for nuclear generators to compete in electricity markets……..
According to Exelon, Oyster Creek will undergo a six-step decommissioning process. The typical decommissioning period for a nuclear power plant is about 60 years, so parts of the Oyster Creek plant structure could remain in place until 2075. …..https://oilvoice.com/Opinion/22263/Americas-Oldest-Operating-Nuclear-Power-Plant-to-Retire-on-Monday
September 14, 2018
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U.S. needs a safer way to store nuclear waste, As Hurricane Florence bears down on the Carolinas, the country is confronting a reality it normally ignores. Newsday, The Editorial Board, September 13, 2018
As Hurricane Florence bears down on the Carolinas, the United States is confronting a reality it normally ignores. This nation has no permanent, safe disposal site for the 90,000 metric tons of nuclear waste it has created in power and weapons plants. This waste is largely stored where it was generated, often in vulnerable above-ground tanks — at 80 sites in 35 states, including New York.
Nine of those sites, from northern Georgia to North Carolina, are in the potential path of Florence. Several were built with the same technology as the Fukushima power plant in Japan, whose reactors and waste storage were tragically compromised by a tsunami in 2011……..
September 14, 2018
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Ken Raskin 14 Sept 18, There is no way to store nuclear waste safely. Uranium mine waste, can be diluted and reburied if it is done properly. Medical isotopes, any purified radionuclide, reactor waste, enriched uranium processing byproducts, residue from factories to make plutonium more- concentrated radionuclide waste and a large variety of the most dangerous man-manmade radionuclides. Like Hanford, WIPP, San Onofre, any casks or Used fuel rods full of Plutonium , cesium137/134, cobalt 60, strontium 90 , uranium 235 . Fuel rods Fuel storage pools around nuclear reactors, that are very vulnerable to catching fire because of their zirconium cladding.
There are more synthetic gamma and beta emitters and strong alpha emitter-radionuclides in the environment, than they want you to know about! They generate heat, from their radioactive-nature. Many are highly chemically-reactive too. They emit beta, gamma and neutrons that will change/degrade the walls of the material, they are encased in. They can generate gases. They can catalyze exothermic reactions, with substance in around, where they are stored. They can generate combustible-explosive gases like hydrogen. The nuclearists, have gone out of their way, to keep these things a secret for years. Dr Busby has gone out of his way to explain how many so radionuclides cannot be stored safely. Especially in the case of the Swedes wanting to use copper casks for nuclear waste
Some misinformants will say that radioactive elements do not do, decay heat. Some do more than others, otherwise they could not be used in radiosotope thermal generators. Heat decay was noted, to cause Hanford radioactive cesium tanks to leak.
The kitty litter in wipp did not spontaneously catch fire. The plutonium helped. Oxidized plutonium is also known to be pyrogenic.There is no safe way to store radionuclides. There was a large swath of of nuclear waste, that exploded in nevada. Two large casks exploded in idaho recently. More people, awakened to the dangerous nature of radionuclides and, how hard it is to store them. .
The Nuclear Industry and Govt, Do Not Want This Known.
I have been to Japan. I have been to Ukraine. Many peoples eyes are wide-opened, about the radionuclide apocolypse, that we are in the midst of.
WE ARE LIVING ON THE BEACH, IN THE USA. IN JAPAN IT IS MUCH WORSE! I have LIVED IN one of the worst radionuclide cancer and poison clusters, in the world. 3 generations of families wiped-out in small communities in the United States! Not just Mayak.
Burning coal and hyrocarbons pollutes the air, water, and food with megatons of radium, polonium, thorium and protractinium annually. It is one of the prime reasons, 200 million or more americans drink radioactive water.
These natural radionuclides also come from oil and chemical refineries concentrating them and dumping them into the air and rivers. Fracking does a great deal of dirty work this way too.
Humans are living in a world of self-created radiionuclide filth and sewer!
I am a trained medical toxicologist. I saw extreme radionuclide-exposures in the forms of radiopharmaceutical overdoses and severe radionuclide-industrial accidents. Accidents with exposures to things like radioactive cesium, used in radiography equipment.
Even the experts and antinuclear advocates, are reluctant to go into, how bad things really are. I have no corporate, right-wing extremist bias or government entanglements. I have been watching Fukushima since the beginning!
I wish nuclear-shills would take a basic engineering class, or a biochemistry or cellular biology class or even a modern basic biology class and be forced to rationally explain the disparities in their presentations between their rhetoric and reality. Of course they will not because, they are paid propagandists and liars.
There will be nothing left, unless the nuclear madness is stopped. Nothing left of life on earth because, in very small amounts radionuclides, destroy the capability of the biochemical reactions that give us life, to be possible. There will be no life Unless the continuance of the radionuclide tsunami is ended and radionuclides are sequestered, our end will be much sooner than later. There is no way back to the good ol days..
September 14, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
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Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South Australia, 14 Sept 18 This report on North Carolina reactors by the Union of Concerned Scientists –
“Today more than 3,400 metric tons of spent fuel is stored in North Carolina. Over 85% of that spent fuel is stored in large pools of water called spent fuel pools, which are equipped with systems to cool the water that surrounds the hot fuel rods.”
“While concerns about nuclear power safety often focus on the fuel in the reactor core, spent fuel stored in pools also can be a major source of radioactivity during an accident. If water drains from the pool for even a few hours or the cooling system is interrupted for several days, the spent fuel could overheat and its cladding could break open, releasing radioactive material. And because the pools are located outside the thick, concrete containment walls, it is more likely that this radioactive material would reach the environment”
The report was done back in 2011, so not sure if things have improved since then. https://www.ucsusa.org/…/nuclear-power-safety-in-north…
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/permalink/2113650401999939/?comment_id=2114177665280546¬if_id=1536813900482985¬if_t=group_comment
September 14, 2018
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Fluor Idaho resumes waste retrievalhttps://www.localnews8.com/news/fluor-idaho-resumes-waste-retrieval/793522258, IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) 13 Sept 18, – After revising its safety procedures, Fluor Idaho has resumed the removal of buried Cold War weapons waste at its Idaho facility.
The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory cleanup contractor suspended buried waste exhumation at the Accelerated Retrieval Project VIII facility after an April 11 breach of storage drums. The contractor revised its exhumation and repackaging process with additional controls to avoid the risk of a similar event.
Those controls include raking and thermal monitoring of exhumed sludge waste prior to repackaging. Meanwhile, cleanup of the facility continues.
To date, crews have removed buried waste containing plutonium, solidified solvents, and uranium from a combined area of 1.54 acres of ARP VII. The facility is 89.5 percent complete.
Waste generated during the development of atomic weapons was sent from the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver, to Idaho for buried disposal from 1954 until 1970. In 2008, the DOE, Environmental Protection Agency and state of Idaho agreed to remediate a total of 5.69 acres of buried waste and ship the material out of Idaho for permanent disposal. The overall buried waste exhumation effort remains ahead of schedule.
Once exhumation is complete in ARP VIII, work will begin in the nearby ARP IX facility to remove the last of the waste required by the 2008 agreement.
The Idaho Cleanup Project is a 5-year, $1.4 billion project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
September 14, 2018
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A Texas waste storage plan is back. So is the opposition, Edward Klump, E&E News reporter, Energywire: Tuesday, September 11, 2018 A proposal to send used nuclear fuel to West Texas didn’t end last year, but it did stall during a trip to corporate purgatory.
Now a joint venture called Interim Storage Partners LLC has the plan moving forward again. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently restarted its review of a consolidated interim storage application for a site in Andrews County, Texas. And the NRC staff’s safety, security and environmental reviews could be finished in summer 2020.
Critics are worried about what’s brewing. They’re asking questions and hoping for more public meetings. Some would like to halt the project. One of the chief opponents knows the proposal won’t be easy to stop, but she’s working to rally Texans and others against the plan.
“Most people don’t even know this is happening,” said Karen Hadden, executive director of the Texas-based Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition. “The public is unaware, and they’re unaware of the risks that they are about to be exposed to.”
The project is another flashpoint in a long-running debate over nuclear energy and associated waste after a number of U.S. nuclear plants stopped producing power or announced plans to close. Congress has considered legislation that could help pave the way for interim storage facilities in Texas and New Mexico as well as a longer-term site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Hadden has voiced concern about those three sites and potential plans to transport nuclear waste across the country.
The spent fuel storage plan for West Texas is tied to Waste Control Specialists (WCS), which has endured financial issues and houses low-level radioactive waste in the region. A plan by Valhi Inc. to unload WCS to EnergySolutions collapsed in 2017. Early this year, J.F. Lehman & Co. announced that an investment affiliate had acquired WCS. That was followed in March by news of a planned venture involving Orano USA and WCS (Energywire, March 19).
The new Orano-WCS entity — now called Interim Storage Partners, or ISP — later sought a restart of the NRC review that was halted in 2017. In August of this year, the NRC said the revised application was acceptable but that additional information would be sought.
“The NRC staff has reviewed your request and concludes that the revised license application provides information sufficient to resume its detailed review,” the NRC said in a letter.
Jeff Isakson, chief executive of ISP, said in a recent statement that ISP looked forward “to an energized and timely process.”
‘Snickering and giggling’
ISP said its venture initially is intended to store used nuclear fuel from shutdown reactor locations. That would lower the burden on U.S. taxpayers and allow sites to be redeveloped, it said. The application is for 40 years, though it could be extended by decades…….
A license application with the NRC said Orano USA ultimately is majority owned and controlled by an entity of the French government. But ISP has said its governing officers and management board members are U.S. citizens……..
Much of nuclear waste critics’ focus had turned to an interim storage proposal from Holtec International for New Mexico. That plan is also under review at the NRC (Greenwire, May 9).
While Hadden said there was “a nice reprieve” on the West Texas proposal, she said “the threat is ever-present and on the burner now.”
Instead of using the proposed interim sites or Yucca Mountain, Hadden would like to see the United States pursue a new location for a permanent repository that’s geologically sound and uses improved storage technology.
A public step in the process for the West Texas site was evident in late August: a meeting about the emergency response plan. Representatives of the NRC, ISP and other interested parties attended in person in Maryland or on the phone.
The meeting covered aspects of the response plan and gave people a chance to interact. At one point, a speaker said that “nobody lives anywhere near us.” That was followed by a description of the location as “in the middle of stinking nowhere.” The remarks drew laughter as well as an unhappy response from a listener on the phone who wasn’t sure who made them.
“There was a statement made about this site being in the middle of nowhere, and there was some snickering and giggling,” said Monica Perales, an attorney. “I live in the middle of nowhere, and that’s not appreciated.”
In an interview last week, Perales said the attitude during the meeting “made me feel as though we in West Texas are expendable.”
………Critics remain concerned about transportation, including the potential effects on cities and the potential for terrorists to target waste.
Hadden has called for public meetings in places such as Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Midland, El Paso and Andrews County to discuss issues related to possible interim nuclear waste storage in Texas. She’s working on a public awareness campaign that’s expected to take place later this month and run into October, featuring a full-scale mock radioactive waste transport cask.
Hadden argued future NRC requests for additional information could bring up new issues the public should be able to examine, so NRC deadlines should be extended. Critics say there is already a new financial situation to analyze in terms of ISP’s involvement.……….https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060096457
September 12, 2018
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Eureka 10th Sept 2018 , The cover story of Eureka’s September issue looks at the programme to
decommission the UK’s legacy nuclear power plant, with particular
emphasis on the opportunities this creates for engineering innovation. The
reasons for this are clear: radioactive environments represent some of the
most challenging engineering scenarios possible, with extended human
presence in them simply not feasible. This means that robotics have a
massive role to play and it is these solutions that are attracting much
investment.
What many may not understand is just how massive an undertaking
this decommissioning programme is. Decommissioning across 17 nuclear sites
will take more than a century and involve the expenditure of an estimated
£118 billion pounds over that period. Clearly this offers considerable
scope for investment in and applications of new technologies. The Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority currently offers significant funding for the
right solutions. With that in mind, it would seem a good time for the
UK’s design engineers to step up.
http://www.eurekamagazine.co.uk/design-engineering-blogs/the-decommissioning-dividend-1/182843/
September 12, 2018
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Radiation Free Lakeland 10th Sept 2018 , Springfields** This is from the 1990s. “You and Yours” BBC Radio 4 programme
describing the “biggest in the UK” radioactive discharges The
Springfields plant discharges directly into the River Ribble and has done
so since 1948. What has changed? Nothing, apart from the fact that any
mention of cancer and radioactive discharge by eminent doctors is now a
taboo subject.
https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2018/09/10/6th-installment-of-the-springfields-archive-prestons-radioactive-river/
September 12, 2018
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radioactive waste from one of the UK’s most important nuclear
decommissioning projects. Businesses in Lancashire, Cumbria and West
Yorkshire are joining forces to produce self-shielded boxes which will
store legacy waste from the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond (FGMSP) at
Sellafield. The 66-year old open air pond was originally used to store
nuclear fuel from the UK’s first generation of nuclear power stations. It
has been prioritised for clean-up by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
The clean-up work requires the manufacture of hundreds of boxes to store
material taken out of the facility.
http://www.thebusinessdesk.com/yorkshire/news/2025845-northern-collaboration-sellafield-n-plant-clear
September 10, 2018
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by Jeff Gillan , 9 Sept 18, LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Nevada’s elected officials reacted with alarm Thursday to a Department of Energy proposal to send a ton or more of weapons-grade plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site.
The security site, formerly known as the test site, has seen small amounts of plutonium before but that was for weapons testing.
This proposal, from the Department of Energy, would be the first time, according to Nevada officials, that plutonium would be stored here, potentially indefinitely.I have been made aware that @Energy intends to store plutonium in Nevada with no timeline for removal. I will fight this at every level,” Governor Brian Sandoval, R-Nevada, tweeted.
The plutonium up to a ton would be sent here by 2020 from South Carolina because a facility there has not been finished that would re-purpose the material. Another ton would be scheduled to be sent here in 2021.
“Doe is addressing South Carolina’s concerns by screwing Nevada,” tweets Congresswoman Dina Titus…….
Plutonium, at the security site, is a separate issue [from Yucca nuclear waste dump plan] . However, conservationists see another agenda by sending plutonium here.
“This is about a test run to see what storage and transportation of nuclear material looks like to Nevada,” says Andy Maggi, the Executive Director of the Nevada Conservation League.
State officials reacted to the proposal with alarm.
“Not only does shipping up to one metric ton of plutonium across the country likely present risks to those living along the proposed transportation routes, storing this material just a few miles from #LasVegas could threaten the health and safety of Nevadans and our tourism economy,” tweets Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nevada.
“I have serious concerns with (Department of Energy) Secretary Perry recklessly pushing this proposal forward without properly assessing the impact that transporting and storing up to one metric ton of weapons-grade plutonium would have on Nevadans’ health and safety. I urge DOE to conduct a full environmental analysis,” said Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, in a statement.
Yucca Mountain will take years – if ever – to become operational. One worry is also that DOE could reclassify the plutonium as nuclear waste and send it to Yucca when it’s ready.
“That’s not an inconceivable scenario,” says Greg Lovato, the Administrator of Nevada’s Division of Environmental Protection.
In the meantime, Nevada plans to fight plutonium coming here.
“We’re looking at all legal options because we believe that the supplemental analysis issued by the department is insufficient for this type of activity,” says Bradley Crowell. https://news3lv.com/news/local/department-of-energy-introduces-plan-to-store-plutonium-in-nevada
September 10, 2018
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nuclear-news 