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| | | published Thursday, June 06, 2013 | 223 Views :: 0 Comments |
June 1, 2013 From the Associated Press
RICHLAND, Wash. — A stainless steel tank the size of a basketball court lies buried in the sandy soil of southeastern Washington state, an aging remnant of U.S. efforts to win World War II. The tank holds enough radioactive waste to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool. And it is leaking.
For 42 years, tank AY-102 has stored some of the deadliest material at one of the most environmentally contaminated places in the country: the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. This complex along the Columbia River holds a storied place in American history. It was here that workers produced the plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 — effectively ending the second world war.
Today Hanford’s legacy is less about what was made here than the environmental mess left behind — and the federal government’s inability, for nearly a quarter-century now, to rid Hanford once and for all of its worst hazard: 56 million gallons of toxic waste cached in aging underground tanks.
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| | | published Wednesday, May 29, 2013 | 289 Views :: 1 Comments |
May 25, 2013
While the House of Representatives is still looking to the stalled Yucca Mountain project to solve the nation's Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) problem, the Senate is moving ahead in a different direction. On April 25th, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee released a "discussion draft" of a bill to begin a pilot "consolidated interim storage" program.
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) does not support consolidated storage of SNF, as it does not solve the problem of SNF and would actually spreads the problem to new areas. Consolidated storage will expose communities across the country to increased radiation as nuclear waste rolls down highways and train tracks. Instead of consolidated storage, ANA supports the Nuclear Regulatory Commission mandating a system of Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS).
HOSS would keep SNF as close as safely possible to its site of generation, thereby exposing fewer people to radiation. A HOSS program utilizing passively cooled dry casks would be a solution to over-crowded spent fuel pools at reactors and provide increased protection from human or natural disasters, like terrorist attacks and earthquakes.
Read the full Senate Energy and Natural Resources "discussion draft" nuclear waste bill here.
Read ANA's response to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee here
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| | | published Tuesday, May 01, 2012 | 2276 Views :: 1 Comments |
Hanford Challenge Decries Appalling Lack of Oversight, demands
Immediate Stand Down and Complete Investigation
Immediate Release - April 30, 2012 Contact: Tom Carpenter (206) 419-5829 Richland, WA: The Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General released a report today that revealed a disturbing breakdown in Hanford’s quality program that allowed radioactive waste processing vessels to be installed without required documentation proving their integrity. This means that the Department of Energy is unable to prove the safety of the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP). The IG also found a critical lack of oversight on the DOE’s part, and a failure to collect the repayment of a $15 million assessment against Bechtel, the contractor, when DOE discovered a defective vessel.
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| | | published Wednesday, April 11, 2012 | 1407 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 Friday, February 10, 2012 | 1437 Views :: 0 Comments |
Tell the NRC to Securely Store Spent Nuclear Fuel
Feb. 10, 2012
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering a long-term extension to the Commission’s Waste Confidence decision and rule to account for the storage of commercial spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste for more than 60 years after the licensed life for operation of any commercial nuclear power reactor. Part of this process is the development of an Environmental Impact Statement. This report is the first step in the Environmental Impact Statement process, and public comments on the report will be accepted until February 17, 2012. Read the comment that ANA submitted here.
Submit your own comment!
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| | | published Thursday, February 02, 2012 | 2239 Views :: 1 Comments |
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.
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| | | published Monday, September 12, 2011 | 1751 Views :: 0 Comments |
Sept. 12, 2011
By Rob Pavey From the Augusta Chronicle
The National Nuclear Security Administration is more than six months late on its annual status report to Congress on the mixed oxide fuel project at Savannah River Site.
The document, mandated under the 2003 National Defense Authorization Act, was due Feb. 15 and was to include updated details on the $4.8 billion project’s construction progress and completion schedule, among other things.
Critics of the project say the delay is another sign the government’s program to dispose of surplus plutonium from dismantled nuclear bombs could be facing more problems.
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| | | published Sunday, August 14, 2011 | 2018 Views :: 1 Comments |
August 13, 2011
By Annette Cary
From the Tri-City Herald
The Department of Energy has taken a look at all the environmental cleanup yet to be completed at the Hanford nuclear reservation and come up with a big price tag: $115 billion.
That's what it projects will be required to finish environmental cleanup in about 2060 and then prevent any intrusion into areas, such as landfills holding radioactive waste, until 2090.
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| | | published Sunday, August 14, 2011 | 1947 Views :: 0 Comments |
ANA has been closely monitoring the situation reported on in the following article, which quotes ANA member Tom Carpenter and refers to 2011 ANA Whistleblower Award winner Walt Tamosaitis. We've strongly been urging Congress to require complete testing of Hanford's mixers and support the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in their Hanford oversight.
Engineers and scientists say equipment being installed by Bechtel Corp. at the Hanford site in Washington state poses risks, but the Energy Department is letting work continue.
August 14, 2011
By Ralph Vartabedian
From the Los Angeles Times
The Energy Department has asserted that Bechtel Corp. underplayed safety risks from equipment it is installing at the nation's largest nuclear waste cleanup project, according to government records.
A federal engineering review team found in late July that Bechtel's safety evaluation of key equipment at the plant at the Hanford site in Washington state was incomplete and that "the risks are more serious" than Bechtel acknowledged when it sought approval to continue with construction, the documents say.
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| | | published Friday, July 08, 2011 | 1390 Views :: 0 Comments |
July 8, 2011
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently solicited public comments on it's proposition for rulemaking on spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. ANA is firmly against reprocessing spent nuclear fuel or converting U.S. reactors to use Mixed Oxide plutonium fuel (MOX, which is the product of reprocessing). ANA took this opportunity to submit this comment opposing the rulemaking as an unnecessary use of tax dollars.
Even though the NRC official comment period ended on July 7th, the comment period was unusually short and our allies are still encouraging people to submit comments. Click here for resources to help you submit your own comment to the NRC.
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