for immediate release: Thursday, January 26, 2012

for further information, contact:

Bob Schaeffer: 239-395-6773

Katherine Fuchs: 202-544-0217, ext. 2503

local contacts listed at end of advisory

The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future report released today received mixed reviews from groups that monitor sites where large quantities of radioactive waste are stored. The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) said major flaws in the report include the Commission’s “failure to advocate prompt removal of commercial spent fuel from reactor cooling pools with placement in hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS) to safeguard commercial spent fuel at nuclear power plants.” ANA and hundreds of community groups had told the Commission that HOSS could protect the heavily reactive material for the decades needed to develop a scientifically sound and publicly acceptable waste disposal program.

For immediate release: January 27, 2012 

For further information, contact:

31 JANUARY 2012 

Article Highlights:

January 17, 2012

By H. Darr Beiser
From the USA TODAY

HANFORD SITE, Wash. – Seven decades after scientists came here during World War II to create plutonium for the first atomic bomb, a new generation is struggling with an even more daunting task: cleaning up the radioactive mess.

The U.S. government is building a treatment plant to stabilize and contain 56 million gallons of waste left from a half-century of nuclear weapons production. The radioactive sludge is so dangerous that a few hours of exposure could be fatal. A major leak could contaminate water supplies serving millions across the Northwest. The cleanup is the most complex and costly environmental restoration ever attempted.

And the project is not going well.

A new agreement between the state Environment Department and Los Alamos National Laboratory would accelerate shipments of radioactive waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad (pictured)—but would also leave more than half the waste on the hill indefinitely.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is trumpeting a new radioactive waste cleanup agreement that would allow it to leave half of its radioactive waste in place indefinitely—and defy federal environmental protection guidelines.

December 1, 2011

PRESS STATEMENT

Contact:Tom Carpenter, 206-419-5829, tomc@hanfordchallenge.org

Seattle, WA:  Hanford Challenge today sharply criticized a report from a team of contractorselected experts that it says downplayed the seriousness of safety culture problems at the Hanford nuclear site.  

“The report is a veiled attack on safety-culture oversight.  It failed to acknowledge some of the most explicit indicators of the vit plant’s flawed safety culture.  There was no mention of disclosures from three important safety experts on the Waste Treatment Plant who have gone public and filed concerns about suppression of technical and safety issues and putting schedule and cost before safety,” said Tom Carpenter, Executive Director of Hanford Challenge. Carpenter noted that this includes the Manager of Nuclear and Environmental Safety, DOE’s top scientist on the project, and the former Manager for Research and Technology.