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| | | published Monday, April 16, 2012 | 289 Views :: 0 Comments |
Federal agencies find room to improve in some areas
April 13, 2012
By Rob Pavey From the Augusta Chronicle
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions earned most of its 2011 performance fees, according to the U.S. Energy Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The management contractor for Savannah River Site, which employs 4,978 workers, was eligible for $49.75 million in “performance-based incentives,” and was awarded $44,329,841 from the Energy Department, according to a letter from site manager David C. Moody.
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| | | published Thursday, April 12, 2012 | 494 Views :: 0 Comments |
April 12, 2012
In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by ANA member group Nuclear Watch New Mexico on March 28, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has released the Performance Evaluation Reports for its eight nuclear weapons sites. These reports are the government's scorecard for awarding tens of millions of dollars to nuclear weapons contractors, and were available to the public until 2009. But since that time NNSA has withheld them in a general move toward less contractor accountability.
Click the links below to download the Performance Evaluation Reports for each nuclear weapons site (PDFs) Note: the Sandia National Laboratory report is still undergoing review by the NNSA before it is released.
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| | | published Wednesday, April 11, 2012 | 412 Views :: 0 Comments |
The following article quotes ANA Nonproliferation Policy Director Tom Clements talking about proliferation concerns related to new uranium enrichment technologies being licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
April 5, 2012
By Elaine M. Grossman From the Global Security Newswire
WASHINGTON -- A Nuclear Regulatory Commission response to a proposal that the agency demand a proliferation assessment for each new materials-processing facility license application has been delayed until next fall (see GSN, Jan. 12, 2011).
A staff recommendation on the matter had been widely expected by this spring, potentially followed by a vote on the prospective rule change by the agency’s five presidentially appointed commissioners. However, that outlook has changed.
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| | | published Wednesday, April 11, 2012 | 223 Views :: 0 Comments |
The following piece quotes ANA Nonproliferation Policy Director Tom Clements talking about the need for safety requirements at U.S. nuclear power facilities in the wake of last year's Fukushima Di-ichi catastrophe.
April 5, 2012
By Julie Rose From WFAE, Charlotte Public Radio
Around 8 p.m. Wednesday night, the power went out at Duke's Catawba Nuclear Station on Lake Wylie, triggering an emergency response and ongoing investigation.
Duke says back-up generators kicked in immediately and the public was never in any danger, but there are details of the incident that trouble regulators.
A nuclear power plant needs huge amounts of outside electricity to run the systems that cool off the reactor and spent fuel. Plants have back-up generators in case the power goes out.
"But as we learned at Fukushima, if you lose that backup system, there is a serious, serious problem and meltdown of the reactors could occur quite quickly because there's no ability to circulate the cooling water," says Tom Clements, a spokesman for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability.
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| | | published Wednesday, April 11, 2012 | 189 Views :: 0 Comments |
The following article quotes ANA Nonproliferation Policy Director Tom Clements discussing how recently licensed nuclear power projects have not incorporated important lessons that we should have learned from the Fukushima Di-ichi disaster.
March 30, 2012
By Brian Wingfield and Julie Johnsson From Bloomberg News
Scana Corp. (SCG) won U.S. approval to build nuclear reactors, the second construction permit issued by regulators in more than 30 years for units that may be among the nation’s last erected this decade.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission today voted 4-1 to approve the Cayce, South Carolina, company’s plan to construct and operate two units at its Virgil C. Summer plant, about 26 miles (42 kilometers) northwest of Columbia. Chairman Gregory Jaczko dissented, citing pending safety rules in response to the Fukushima Dai-Ichi disaster in Japan last year.
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| | | published Monday, April 09, 2012 | 386 Views :: 2 Comments |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 4, 2012
Santa Fe, NM - In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by Nuclear Watch New Mexico on March 28, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has released the Performance Evaluation Reports for its eight nuclear weapons sites.* These reports are the government’s scorecard for awarding tens of millions of dollars to nuclear weapons contractors, and were previously available to the public until 2009. However, since that time the NNSA has withheld them in a general move toward less contractor accountability. We sought to help reverse that wrong direction through our litigation.
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| | | published Monday, April 09, 2012 | 206 Views :: 0 Comments |
The following post quotes ANA board member Ralph Hutchison and elucidates ANA member group Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance's position on safety requirements as the Department of Energy designs the new Uranium Processing Facility to be located at the Y-12 national nuclear security site.
April 4, 2012
By Frank Munger From the Knoxville News' Atomic City Underground blog
In an April 2 letter to NNSA chief Tom D'Agostino, the chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board raises concerns about the preliminary safety design for the Uranium Processing Facililty.
"The Board has determined that safety is not adequately integrated into the design," DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur wrote. "Multiple significant unaddressed and unresolved issues exist with the (Preliminary Safety Design Report) and the development of the underlying safety basis for the facility."
The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance used the safety board letter and information contained in the newly released performance evaluation for Y-12 contractor B&W to criticize the government for moving forward with a plan to accelerate construction of the multibillion-dollar project.
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| | | published Monday, April 02, 2012 | 339 Views :: 1 Comments |
April 1, 2012
The following segment from CBS's Sunday Morning features an interview with ANA member Marylia Kelley from Tri-Valley Communities Against Radioactive Environments (Tri-Valley CAREs) discussing the prospects of achieving "ignition" and developing commercial fusion power production at the National Ignition Facility located inside of Lawrence Livermore Lab in California.
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| | | published Monday, April 02, 2012 | 306 Views :: 0 Comments |
Local Organizations Frustrated as Federal Agency Fails to Fully Consider Fukushima Lessons
March 30, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Rennicks, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, 865-235-1448; Susan Corbett, Sierra Club, Chair SC Chapter, 803-609-6343; Tom Clements, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, 803-834-3084 or 803-240-7268
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Just weeks after the one-year anniversary of the devastating nuclear disaster in Japan, today, in a 4-1 vote, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a final license for two new reactors at the site of South Carolina Electric & Gas’ (subsidiary of SCANA Corp.) currently operating V.C. Summer nuclear power plant. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko again was the sole dissenting vote as he was last month when the Commission approved the license for two new reactors for Southern Company’s Plant Vogtle in neighboring Georgia. The South Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club along with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) believe the NRC has once again made a serious mistake by ignoring the lessons learned from the Japan Fukushima nuclear disaster.
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| | | published Monday, April 02, 2012 | 530 Views :: 0 Comments |
The following article quotes Tom Clements, ANA's Nonproliferation Policy Director, discussing cleaning up nuclear waste in South Carolina.
March 29, 2012
By Sammy Fretwell From The State
Two Savannah River Site storage tanks that contained deadly high-level waste have been cleaned out after decades of work, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday.
The cleanup marks the first of underground storage tanks at SRS in 15 years and the first nationally since 2007, said Thomas D’Agostino, a deputy undersecretary with the DOE.
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