Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, August 30, 2007
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Tri-City Herald
August 28, 2007
Crowd says no to more waste at Hanford
Annette Cary
Herald Staff Writer
TROUTDALE, Ore. -- A standing-room-only crowd near Portland had a clear message for the Department of Energy on Monday night: Send no more radioactive waste to the Hanford nuclear reservation.
It's different than the usual "not in my backyard," said Ken Niles, assistant director of the Oregon Department of Energy.
"We're saying no more in our backyard because it is so horribly contaminated already," he said.
DOE is looking at Hanford as one option for disposing of an estimated 7,280 cubic yards of radioactive waste generated through 2062.
It's a relatively small volume of waste compared with the vast amount of waste already planned to be disposed of at Hanford. But the amount of radiation it contains is significant.
It has an estimated 130 million curies of radioactivity. That compares to the 190 million curies of radioactivity in the millions of gallons of waste held in underground tanks from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program, much of which DOE plans to dispose of off Hanford.
DOE officials faced a crowd of about 80 people Monday who ranged from skeptical to hostile.
"I'm outraged. It's a lie. Isn't it?" demanded Gerald Pollet, executive director of Heart of America Northwest, when a DOE official identified a pictured waste container that was apparently abandoned as one that was being used. Similar waste vaults are being considered for disposal at Hanford, eight other sites or undetermined commercial facilities.
"We're being massaged with a lot of statistics," said Ruth Currie of Portland, who also said she didn't think DOE knows what it is doing.
Problems at Hanford and other DOE sites were a recurring theme, with public comment hitting on delays in construction at the Hanford vitrification plant, last month's spill of high level radioactive waste at the Hanford tank farms and doubts that DOE would ever open the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada.
Given DOE's long history of waste and cleanup mismanagement, a proposal to bring more waste to Hanford is essentially a plan to turn Hanford into a permanent national sacrifice zone, according to comments by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, read into the meeting record by a congressional staffer.
"Hanford should be cleaned up, not dumped on," according to Wyden.
Some of the waste proposed to be sent to Hanford is extremely long-lived and must be isolated for eternity, said Bill Mead, director of the Public Safety Resources Agency in Portland.
The meeting was an early step in determining what to do with radioactive waste that includes activated metals from decommissioning nuclear power plants and high-activity radioactive materials used for medical diagnosis and treatment. More than half would be from DOE nondefense work, with much of that coming from a West Valley, N.Y., project.
DOE is considering sending the waste to a geological repository deep underground, such as Yucca Mountain, or burying it at a site such as Hanford in a deep bore hole or waste containers closer to the surface of the ground.
The international nuclear community has settled on deep bore hole disposal as the preferred option for similar waste, said Christine Gelles, director of DOE's environmental management office of disposal operations.
Keeping the waste on site where it is generated and adding protection to keep it safe from terrorists is a better option, said Angela Crowley-Koch, executive director of the Oregon Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Keith Harding of Hood River had another suggestion for where to store the waste -- a certain ranch in Texas, he said, alluding to President Bush's home.
Another public meeting will be held at 6 p.m. today at the Red Lion Hotel, 2525 N. 20th Ave., Pasco.
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Press-Register
August 27, 2007
Solving nuclear puzzle
America Needs to expand its nuclear power, and the Tennessee Valley Authority may be in a position to help.
TVA, which operates three nuclear power plants in Tennessee and Alabama, has applied for a pilot project that could help solve the daunting problem of what to do with "spent" fuel.
The nation's largest public utility, TVA was the first utility to bring a nuclear power plant on line in more than 20 years when it restarted Browns Ferry Unit 1 this year near Athens, in north Alabama. The utility also wants to build more nuclear plants.
TVA said last week that it is vying to win a pilot U.S. Department of Energy project that will test the feasibility of reprocessing nuclear waste. It's believed about 80 percent of the waste can be reclaimed as useable fuel.
There's reason to be optimistic. France, which relies on nuclear power for much of its electricity, has been reprocessing fuel for years.
Four U.S. groups, including TVA, have applied for the pilot federal project. If TVA wins, the utility will reprocess waste from its Tennessee plants.
Nuclear waste remains one of the hardest-to-solve problems of nuclear energy, which is otherwise relatively free of pollution. Reprocessing spent fuel could minimize the amount of waste that has to be buried.
A burial site for nuclear waste is proposed at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but it is controversial.
Meanwhile, if the nuclear power industry builds more plants in the next two decades - and it should - the country will need six more burial sites within 50 years.
But if reprocessing works, most of the waste can be reclaimed.
Obviously, reprocessing nuclear waste would be preferable to burying it. If TVA officials can help the industry learn how to do it, more power to them.
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Tri-City Herald
August 27, 2007
Oregon officials oppose adding radioactive waste at Hanford
Annette Cary
Herald staff writer
The state of Oregon opposes a Department of Energy proposal to send more radioactive waste to Hanford for permanent disposal.
Residents from Washington and Oregon have a chance to comment at public hearings today and Tuesday. In all, there are hearings planned in nine cities across the nation, including tonight in Troutdale, Ore., and in Pasco on Tuesday.
The Pasco meeting will be held at the Red Lion Inn, beginning at 6 p.m.
DOE announced last month that it planned to conduct an environmental impact study looking at options for disposing of 7,280 cubic yards of radioactive waste. It plans to consider Hanford as a disposal site, among about nine other sites.
A little less than half of the waste is from commercial operations, such as decommissioning nuclear power plants, sterilizing medical equipment and irradiating food.
The remainder of the waste was generated by the Department of Energy in nonweapons work.
Together the waste includes an estimated 130 million curies of radiation, according to the state of Oregon. In comparison, 2,100 tons of uranium would have 14,000 curies of radiation.
While transuranic waste from Hanford -- typically debris contaminated with plutonium -- is sent to a national geological repository in New Mexico. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant now does not accept nonweapons waste.
DOE is considering whether the 7,280 cubic yards of radioactive waste should be disposed of at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and Yucca Mountain -- deep geological repositories -- or at another site, such as Hanford.
If Hanford is selected, the waste might be deposited in a bore hole drilled deep into the ground. In a second alternative being considered for Hanford, the waste might be buried nearer the ground's surface in engineer trenches or vaults.
They would offer better containment that a lined landfill such as the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, which was built to hold 12 million cubic yards of low level radioactive waste from Hanford cleanup.
Added features might include deeper depth, barriers or increased waste packaging.
For more on the hearing, see Tuesday's Herald.
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Pahrump Valley Times
August 25, 2007
In Brief
NWTRB to meet in September
The U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board will meet in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Sept. 19.
The Board is charged with performing an independent review of the technical and scientific validity of U.S. Department of Energy activities related to implementing the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Such activities include characterizing the proposed repository site for disposing of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, and packaging and transporting the waste.
The focus of the meeting, which will be open to the public, will be repository surface facility designs and other operations; other technical issues also may be discussed.
Final meeting agenda will be posted on the Board web site (www.nwtrb.gov), or by telephone request approximately one week before the meeting.
The meeting will begin at 8 a.m., at the Atrium Suites Hotel; 4255 S. Paradise Road in Las Vegas. Contact numbers are (tel) 702-369-4400; (res) 866-404-5286, and (fax) 702-369-4330.
Time will be set aside at the end of the day for public comment. Those wanting to speak should sign the Public Comment register upon arrival. Written comments may be submitted for the record.
A block of rooms is reserved for participants at the Atrium Suites. Tell the reservation desk you are attending the event to receive the meeting rate. Reservations should be made by Aug. 27.
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Seattle Times
August 25, 2007
Hanford eyed for additional nuclear storage
By Scott Learn
Newhouse News Service
The Hanford nuclear reservation is on the federal government's short list of sites for storing radioactive waste that could include contaminated metal from more than 100 U.S. nuclear plants.
The waste, classified as low-level, also includes radioactive detritus from medical procedures and research projects. But by far the most radioactive components would be waste from decommissioned nuclear plants and from the West Valley Demonstration Project near Buffalo, N.Y., where the government is cleaning up a former nuclear fuel-reprocessing center.
The amount of radiation in the inventory of current and projected waste is 140 million curies, equal to the contamination estimated from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown, or about three-quarters of the radiation already contained in 177 leak-prone tanks at Hanford.
Regulators and environmental groups are sounding alarms in advance of a public meeting on the proposal Monday in Troutdale, Ore.
Ken Niles, assistant director of the Oregon Department of Energy, calls Hanford's inclusion "ludicrous" given widespread contamination at Hanford, its proximity to the Columbia River and a cleanup at the former plutonium production site that is expected to cost $50 billion or more.
Under orders from Congress, the U.S. Department of Energy is trying to find a place for a projected 200,000 cubic feet of waste to fill a hole in the nation's controversy-ridden disposal system.
The waste is the most radioactive in the low-level category. Federal officials concede that some of it is as radioactive as high-level waste, which includes spent nuclear fuel. The inventory also contains "transuranic waste," often contaminated with plutonium and likely to remain radioactive for thousands of years.
Seven other sites are in the running, including the Yucca Mountain Repository in Nevada, not yet open, and the Idaho National Lab, a research site undergoing its own cleanup.
Christine Gelles, the DOE's leader on the project, said the waste could be split among several sites. The department is gathering information for an environmental-impact statement and is not leaning toward one site or another, she said. Public comments are due by Sept. 21. Congress will have to approve a final plan.
The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb. The reservation ultimately housed nine reactors to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.
Hanford and five other sites are candidates for burying the waste in trenches, vaults or boreholes, according to the DOE proposal. Two sites, including Yucca Mountain, are candidates for deep burial.
Oregon Energy Department officials say shipping to Hanford would be a big mistake. In 2005, the agency urged the feds not to consider near-surface burial or disposing waste at sites undergoing cleanup.
"Both of those recommendations were ignored," Niles said. The federal government isn't safely managing the waste already on the site, Niles said in an e-mail alert this week.
New waste coming into Hanford, including reactor compartments from nuclear submarines, is a relative trickle now, he said. "Adding more waste — especially waste that is highly radioactive and long-lived — is contradictory to the cleanup effort that we all support."
Washington's Department of Ecology, which successfully fought to prevent the import of another category of low-level waste three years ago, is studying the latest proposal, spokeswoman Sharon Braswell said. But the state is "concerned about any activity that would distract from or delay the cleanup at Hanford."
Watchdog groups, including Heart of America Northwest and Columbia Riverkeeper, issued warnings about the plan.
Greg deBruler, Riverkeeper's Hanford technical consultant, called the proposal "the most ill-conceived I have seen in 20 years working on Hanford cleanup issues."
Gerry Pollet, executive director of Heart of America Northwest, said it appears the government is targeting Hanford or the Nevada Test Site north of Las Vegas for the disposal, given obstacles at other sites on DOE's list.
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State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
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