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January 18, 2008

Kansas City Plant - new $400-million facility gets final Congressional OK

The Kansas City Plant, operated by Honeywell FM&T, produces non-nuclear parts for the U.S. nuclear weapons program. A new facility, to replace the aging plant at the Bannister Federal Complex, could save the government -- the National Nuclear Security Administration -- more than $100 million a year in operating costs. The proposed plant north of the former Richards-Gebaur Memorial Airport in Kansas City has received final congressional approval from a House committee, the General Services Administration said Thursday. GSA expects to choose a developer for the $400 million plant by the summer. The developer will lease 185 acres northwest of Missouri 150 and Botts Road in Kansas City from the GSA. The lease contract's completion requires an environmental assessment of the property in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.

[Source: Kansas City Business Journal, "Nuclear-agency plant at Richards-Gebaur gets final OK", January 17, 2008]

March 11, 2004

* Missouri - Hidden corrosion likely contributed to density gauge source head breaking off

February 18, 2004

* Callaway - permanent repairs complete to emergency sirens re temperature sensitivity

August 13, 2003

West Valley spent fuel shipment last month prompts question of how adequately-informed the local officials along the way are required to be

Shortly after midnight on July 13, a seven-car train carrying 125 irradiated fuel assemblies left the West Valley site in New York, headed for disposal site in Idaho. The shipment arrived in Idaho four days later, apparently without incident. DOE officials have said that security and emergency preparedness were coordinated with state and tribal officials along the 2,360-mile route before and during the shipment, and the danger of the materials warranted secrecy from the general public. Public Citizen, a non-governmental organization, confirms that officials in Missouri were notified of the shipment and that it passed smoothly through that state, but the group is concerned that other localities which should have been informed were not.

Public Citizen cited Bill King, a town supervisor in Ashford, N.Y., where the West Valley facility is located, as saying local volunteer firefighters were not informed of DOE's schedule to ship the radioactive waste. Here's how the Las Vegas Sun editorial today told King's story: "Bill King certainly had good reason to be upset about being kept out of the loop. King... oversees the police force in the New York town where the nuclear waste was being stored, and he very likely would have been first on the scene if there had been an accident as the waste was first being moved. 'My own people, these volunteers that I have, could have been taken right into something that could have killed them,' King said. Other officials in nearby towns weren't told about the shipment, either, he added." And the local congressman, Rep. Amory Houghton, R-N.Y., has complained to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that he was not informed.

Public Citizen doesn't claim to know if any laws or regulations were violated, but have asked a National Academy of Sciences board that is studying nuclear-waste transportation to evaluate the issues involved. Public Citizen analyst Lisa Gue told reporter that "...it gets back to the question of whether existing regulations are sufficient to protect the public interest and we think not." The Las Vegas Sun editorial notes, with the disgust born of the prospect of 77.000 tons of spent fuel aimed at Nevada, that Congress is considering legislation permitting DOE to restrict the public's access to unclassified information about nuclear waste activities, such as transportation. The Sun recommends the opposite approach: forcing the Energy Department to be more open -- and not shut out the public -- when it comes to the transportation of man's deadliest waste, which is nuclear waste.

[Refs: Steve Tetreault (Stephens Washington Bureau), "Waste shipment raises concerns; Some officials complain that DOE didn't tell them of plan to ship irradiated fuel assemblies", Las Vegas Review-Journal, August 13, 2003; and Las Vegas SUN, Editorial, "Secrecy envelops nuke waste", August 13, 2003]

July 14, 2003