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August 3, 2009

MOX fuel fabrication facility at SRS: One of the most expensive, most maligned but, many say, most valuable projects being constructed in the federal weapons complex

In 1999, NNSA signed a contract with a consortium, now called Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC to design, build and operate the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site.

Groundbreaking on the facility occurred on Aug. 1, 2007. In the two years since, significant progress has been made. Overall design, procurement and construction activities are proceeding on schedule and within budget, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration. Eight of the 17 auxiliary buildings needed to support construction and operation of the MOX facility have been finished, including the recently completed MOX Administration Building.

[Source: Mike Gellatly (Aiken Standard), "MOX construction marks second year", Aiken Standard (South Carolina), August 3, 2009

Janary 12, 2008

How did Savannah River environs get so polluted?

Savannah River Site spokesman Will Callicott is cited as saying that in the early 1950s, the accepted practice for disposing of hazardous waste materials was to collect them in a large basin. At Savannah River Project site, that approach allowed the waste to eventually seep into the ground.

[Ref: Liz Mitchell, Savannah River Site | Lawsuit sparks change", The Island Packet (Hilton Head SC), January 12, 2008, p. 1A]

* [2006-03-30] SRS to make case for reusing nuclear fuel
Josh Gelinas, Augusta Chronicle

* [2006-03-27] Foreign presence common for SRS
Josh Gelinas, Augusta Chronicle

* [2006-03-24] SRS work split subject of contention
Myrtle Beach Sun News

* [2006-03-23] DOE official disagrees with panel on number of SRS contractors
The State

* [2006-03-23] Energy Department official disagrees with panel on number of SRS contractors
Bryce Mursch, WIS-TV

* [2006-03-18] SRS' lab gains new status with agency
Josh Gelinas, Augusta Chronicle

* [2006-03-03] Group puts $1 billion pricetag on SRS delay
Josh Gelinas, Augusta Chronicle

August 23, 2005

DOE has no plan to meet 2006 deadline for removing plutonium from Hanford

The US has approximately 50 tons of plutonium no longer needed for weapons production. Most is at Hanford. As an interim measure, for security and cost reasons, DOE is considering consolidating all 50 tons at Savannah River until it can be stored permanently in a nuclear waste repository. Under an accelerated cleanup plan, plutonium must be shipped out of the Hanford site by the end of 2006. However, DOE has not yet completed a plan to process the plutonium into a form suitable for permanent storage and can't ship it, according to Government Accountability Office report to Congress last month which was publicly released Friday. For example, about 20 percent of Hanford's plutonium is in the form of unused 12-foot fuel rods from the Fast Flux Text Facility, a one-of-a-kind reactor at the site. The fuel rods are not scheduled to be disassembled under Hanford's cleanup plan, but storage at Savannah River would require the plutonium to be stored in 10-inch containers. "DOE is facing these storage challenges because of its failure to adequately plan for plutonium consolidation and disposition," the report said. Continued plutonium storage at Hanford will cost about $85 million annually. In its response, DOE argued it is developing its comprehensive plan for consolidation. A new committee was created to do that, DOE said. "This strategic plan will encompass the comprehensive strategy called for in your first recommendation," wrote Charles Anderson, DOE's principal deputy assistant secretary for environmental management, in a June letter to the GAO.

[Source: Associated Press, "GAO says Hanford cleanup may be slowed", Seattle Post Intelligencer, August 23, 2005]

* 2005-05-21: SRS might be home to new nuclear plant
Adrian Burns and Vicky Eckenrode, Augusta Chronicle

* 2005-05-15: Bush plans for MOX plant at SRS
Lauren Markoe, The State

* 2005-05-05: NOTICES Meetings: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory BoardÑ Savannah River Site, SC, 23854 [05Ð8974]
Energy Department

April 16, 2005

* CDC says it's 'committed' to learning nuclear effects
Joe Bauman, Deseret News

Kathy Harben, a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, responded to comments by Dr. Joseph L. Lyon, reported in Thursday's Deseret Morning News. After the CDC pulled funding for an extensive fallout-health effects study he and colleagues have been pursuing, Dr. Lyon wondered if someone was trying to cover up fallout harm. The study, which has cost about $8 million so far, has examined about one-third of the 4,000 subjects, seeking evidence of thyroid abnormalities. A subsection of the study also was planned to check for possible deaths from reasons other than thyroid disease that could be tied to fallout. According to Lyon, it was the only study in this country actually examining individuals who were exposed to radiation, looking for health effects. The main group in the study attended Washington County schools in 1965, and when Lyon and colleagues checked them years after fallout from the Nevada Test Site had ended, they found thyroid tumors at 3.4 times the expected rate. The follow-up study was launched because thyroid disease can materialize years after exposure to radiation. Some of the 4,000 make up a control group of Arizona residents. Lyon commented after reading a letter from CDC director Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, whose points were covered in the article Thursday.

Ms. Harben read the article and said Gerberding had made a good analysis of the CDC's reasoning. "That is a very good summary for the basis for the CDC's decision not to continue funding," she said. "Besides that, the CDC remains committed to evaluating the exposure and possible effects related to past radiation released from nuclear weapons production facilities," she said. "We continue to study the health effects of these types of environmental radiation exposures through the Hanford (Washington) thyroid disease study, the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project, the Savannah River (Georgia and South Carolina) Dose Reconstruction Project, the Los Alamos (New Mexico) Dose Reconstruction Project and the Idaho National Laboratories (Idaho) Dose Reconstruction Project." Harben added, "We do expect that findings from these studies will provide valuable information on the health effects of past radiation exposures."

* Professor joins study of radioactive waste
Lawrence Journal World (Kansas)

Don Steeples, Kansas University professor of geophysics and vice provost for scholarly support, will be one of 20 scholars participating in a study, commissioned by the National Academy of Sciences, examining radioactive waste stored at three federal nuclear facilities. The group will examine the Bush administration's plan to pump out most nuclear material from a site in Savannah River, S.C., and move it to a facility near Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Officials plan to seal the remaining sludge inside the tanks and leave them in place at the Savannah River site. The group also will examine a plan to manage leftover waste at sites in Idaho and Washington state.

October 1, 2004

* US weapons plutonium despatched

September 30, 2003

Savannah River sees potential in hydrogen R&D

The South Carolina Hydrogen Coalition is working on ways to better store hydrogen for long-term use. The coalition includes the Savannah River Site, which has developed a hydrogen-powered bus, the Aiken and Edgefield counties' Economic Development Partnership, and USC in Columbia. The project has attracted interest from more than 10 companies. For example, the guest speaker at the development partnership's annual meeting tonight is the director of General Motors' hydrogen fuel cell research, Dr. Jim Spearot, who is set to discuss the use of hydrogen in the automotive industry. "He's here because the Savannah River Site and the Savannah River Research Center has the world's greatest expertise in hydrogen-related issues," said Tom Hallman, the chancellor of the University of South Carolina Aiken, which has applied for grant money to help promote hydrogen research.