aDVANCED TECHNOLOGY
I. OAK RIDGE RESERVATION
Safety issues
In October John Conway, chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board sent a letter to Department of Energy (DOE) undersecretary Robert Card, which was highly critical of Oak Ridge's integrated safety management program." Conway said that DOE's Oak Ridge Operations Office and Bechtel Jacobs, the environmental contractor, had in many cases failed to correct long-standing problems. As a result of the letter, DOE revoked validation of the Integrated Safety Management System implemented by Bechtel Jacobs. The company will now have to go through the revalidation process.
Also in October, Jessie Hill Roberson, DOE's assistant secretary for environmental management, sent a series of critical memos to Oak Ridge management and revoked the authority of the Oak Ridge Operations Office to approve safety plans. Roberson visited Oak Ridge November 13.
November 8, DOE halted most work involving uranium at the K-25 site, because of various deficiencies, some of which concerned criticality regulations. British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL), which has a contract to remove equipment from the K-33, K-31, and K-29 buildings was most severely impacted by the halt. Work resumed the week of December 3, before BNFL had to furlough any employees. (Frank Munger, 11/9/01, 11/10/01; Paul Parson, Oak Ridger, 11/15/01; Walter Perry, DOE Public Affairs, Personal Communication)
Storage of Highly-Enriched Uranium
Federal officials have indicated that groundbreaking for a new storage complex for HEU at Oak Ridge's Y-12 plant is tentatively scheduled for April, 2002. A contract to design the facility will probably be awarded in February; a construction contract will be awarded later. The Y-12 facilities that currently store HEU are thirty-five to fifty-five years old and "require significant maintenance and funding." DOE released the site-wide Environmental Impact Statement for Y-12 in mid-October. (Frank Munger, [Knoxville] News Sentinel, 11/25/01; OREPA News, 11/01)
Possible health clinic
The Oak Ridge Reservation Health Effects Subcommittee is looking into the possibility of a health clinic that would assist residents and workers who have illnesses connected with DOE's. At a meeting in November, the Subcommittee heard from a representative of the Health Resources Services Administration, which helps to provide health care to low-income and uninsured people. The Subcommittee exists to provide recommendations in regard to health issues in Oak Ridge to certain federal agencies, including the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. (Paul Parson, Oak Ridger Online, 11/28/01)
Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee
An article by Paul Parson indicates that since fiscal year 1996 DOE has provided more than $26 million in funding to the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET), an economic development organization. Representatives of CROET and DOE say that the funding has created 2407 jobs in eastern Tennessee. CROET's president, Lawrence Young, says that the organization adopted a strategic plan last year, designed to make CROET less dependent on DOE grants. (Paul Parson, Oak Ridger, 11/27/01)
Authorization for restart of research reactor
November 30, DOE authorized the restart of Oak Ridge's High Flux Isotope Reactor, which had been shut down for over a year for maintenance, repairs, and upgrades. The reactor, reported to have "the highest thermal neutron flux in the world," uses uranium fuel "with an enrichment level in the 'high 90s,'" according to Larry Boyd of DOE's reactor oversight team at ORNL. The fuel assemblies are stored in a vault at Y-12, about ten miles away, and trucked to the reactor under heavy guard. In the interests of non-proliferation many research reactors around the world have been switched from HEU to uranium with an enrichment of below 20%. The High Flux Isotope Reactor has not been switched, because the change would significantly impair its performance, Boyd says. (Frank Munger, News-Sentinel, 11/5/01 and 12/2/01)
II. PADUCAH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT
Public meeting on depleted UF6 conversion
Citizens who had planned to attend a DOE-sponsored meeting November 6 to help prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on conversion of depleted DUF6, held an informal meeting on the subject that evening, because DOE postponed its meeting. Lisa Helms of the Maine-based Military Toxics Project and Vina Colley, a former worker at the Portsmouth enrichment plant, were among the participants. Helms explained that she hopes to coordinate public work on the conversion initiative in the Oak Ridge, Paducah, and Portsmouth areas and that her main concerns are that the UF6 be safely handled, transported, and, after conversion, disposed of. Ray English was among those expressing the concerns of local residents. The DOE meeting was rescheduled for December 9. (Joe Walker, Paducah Sun, 11/7/01)
Revision of contamination levels
DOE has taken new measurements of contamination around the Paducah plant and accordingly revised its maps depicting contamination. The new figures and maps indicate dramatically less contamination than was found by CH2M Hill, when it surveyed the area as much as a decade ago for DOE and Martin Marietta Corp. For instance, the new maps show not only fewer surface-water locations with plutonium, but reduce plutonium readings in a couple of locations to one fiftieth of the previous measurements. No neptunium is now shown in groundwater, and at only two sites is there now neptunium in the soil or sediment. (Revised maps for uranium are still being compiled.) John Volpe, manager of the Kentucky Radiation Health and Toxic Agents Branch, says that the original measurements included margins of error greater than fifty percent and contamination levels beyond those that the instruments were calibrated to detect. He is reviewing old data for the Energy Department and has already rejected about forty percent of the measurements that he has checked. Don Seaborg, DOE's site manager at the plant, says that the new figures do not change cleanup strategy. However, Mark Donham of the Site Specific Advisory Board, said that the new maps call DOE's "whole program into question. It's extremely hard for us to have any faith in their figures." A spokesperson for CH2M Hill said that the company is unaware of any problems with its past work.
The 153 plant neighbors who are suing past operators of the plant through Lockheed Martin Corp. fear that the new maps will hurt their legal case. Ronald Lamb of Kevil is among the neighbors. He told reporters that one of the original maps showed plutonium contamination 45 times greater than "background" at a site behind his house; the new maps show no contamination there. Critics of DOE claim that the new maps were intended to hinder landowners' claims. The trial in the landowners' suit is set for November 4, 2002 in US District Court in Owensboro. (James R. Carroll, [Louisville] Courier Journal, 11/25/01)
PACE contract
November 26 members of Local 5-550 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy (PACE) Workers International ratified by a narrow, undisclosed margin, an 18-month contract with USEC. All members of the union bargaining committee had recommended ratification. The new contract is retroactive to Jul 31 when the previous five-year contract expired, and extends until January 31, 2003. Members of the union had been working under a temporary no-strike/layoff agreement since August 29. The new contract is not tied to implementation of the US-Russian HEU agreement. Attempts by USEC to link the contract to USEC's remaining sole executive agent for the agreement had prevented the union and USEC from coming to an agreement in the summer. The new contract extends a four percent pay increase agreed upon in the summer until next July 31. A 3.4 percent increase will then take effect. It increases from 9% to 10% the union's part of the cost of insurance, but raises from $18 to $50 the amount that USEC adds to monthly pension payouts due to the rising costs of health care. (Joe Walker, Paducah Sun, 11/27/01)
Fiscal year 2002 Energy and Water appropriations
In the conference report on the Fiscal Year 2002 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, the Paducah plant received special attention. Under Environment, Safety and Health, $1.75 million was appropriated for the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky to perform epidemiological studies of workers. The conferees provided $13,329,000 for the Paducah Disposal Facility, the amount requested in the budget. On the other hand, the conferees stated their belief that the cleanup issues before DOE at Paducah require continued strong management oversight from headquarters. They directed the secretary of energy to provide for the management of environmental matters (including planning and budgetary activities) with respect to Paducah through the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management. She is to ensure that direct communication and thorough consultation exists at all times between herself and the head of the Paducah environmental cleanup programs. (The Conference Report does not give the total environmental management funding for the various sites for FY 2002. We are trying to obtain this information and will add it to this newsletter online if we succeed.) (Conference Report 107-258 available on
http://thomas.loc.gov; Jim Bridgman, Analysis of the Conference Report,
www.ananuclear.org ; and Jim Bridgman, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, Personal Communication)
III. PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT
Truck accident
October 14 a flatbed truck carrying two 30-gallon cylinders of "fissile" uranium hexafluoride (UF6) was struck a glancing blow by an out-of-control tractor-trailer on the West Virginia Turnpike near Beckley. According to a newspaper report, the truck with the UF6 "barely avoided rolling over." An Alberta, Canada, company, RSB Logistics Inc., which owns the truck, "could only confirm" that it "was coming from the Midwest United States with a radioactive cargo" and that the "fissile" designation meant that the UF6 had not been used in a reactor. Presumably the truck was carrying UF6 from the Portsmouth plant. (Charleston Daily Mail, 10/15/01)
Transfer of operations from Portsmouth to Paducah
USEC is considering moving transfer and shipping operations from the Portsmouth plant to the Paducah plant, although the company, earlier this year, promised to continue to ship from Portsmouth, product enriched at Paducah for four or five years. The Portsmouth transfer and shipping operation employs 430 people. Elizabeth Stuckle, USEC spokesperson, said that USEC will probably not make a decision before the end of December. The change could be complete by mid-2002. USEC officials met with members of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission November 20 to outline a proposed timetable for the move. The company hopes to receive NRC authorization by April 30 to have the shipping and transfer capability installed at Paducah and by June 30 to have other aspects of the move in place. USEC believes that the change would make the company more efficient. The PACE union, Governor Voinovich, Representative Ted Strickland, and Ohio's Senators are protesting USEC's change of plans. (Jonathan Riskind, Columbus Dispatch, 11/21/01)
Public meeting on depleted UF6
DOE held a public meeting November 28 at Vern Riffe Vocational School in Piketon to hear comments on the scope of an Environmental Impact Statement on the construction of facilities to convert depleted UF6 to a more stable form. The issue of possible off-site contamination of air, soil, and water was raised, as was effects on wildlife. The first draft of the statement is scheduled for June 2002; the final draft for January 2003. Construction is scheduled to begin by 2004. (Josh Hickle, Portsmouth Daily Times, 11/29/01)
IV. US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE)
Off-specification highly enriched uranium
A report by a DOE team recommends that the majority of DOE's surplus off-specification HEU be commercially processed to make reactor fuel. DOE has about 55 metric tons of off-specification HEU. It is off specification, because it contains abnormally high concentrations of certain isotopes, particularly uranium 236. The Tennessee Valley Authority is already scheduled to downblend 33 tons of off-spec HEU for fuel for its reactors. The report concerns the remaining 22 tons. Part of the portion that is not commercially processed could be reprocessed for reactor fuel at Savannah River Site's H Canyon; part could be immobilized as waste. (WNA News Briefing, 10/31/01-11/6/01; Platts Nuclear News Flashes, 11/1/01)
Whistleblower suit
The most recent deadline for the US Department of Justice to decide whether it will join a whistle-blower suit against Lockheed Martin and its predecessors expired November 12. Assistant US Attorney Bill Campbell filed a motion asking US District Judge Joseph McKinley Jr. for the eighth extension of the decision-making period-to February 15, 2002. According to the motion, the plaintiffs and defendants concurred with the request. The suit was filed in mid 1999 by the Natural Resources Defense Council, its nuclear program director Thomas Cochran, and three workers at the Paducah plant. Joseph Egan, attorney for the plaintiffs, reports that the plaintiffs will continue their case whatever the decision of the Justice Department and that "we found enough new material recently that we are considering a whole new case." (Bill Bartleman, Paducah
Sun, 11/14/01)
Worker compensation
Nancy Zuckerbrod of Associated Press reports that workers are asking to be better represented on a committee that will advise the government on implementation of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). The committee is primarily to advise on reconstruction of workers' radiation doses when official records are missing or insufficient. The legislation requires the White House to appoint a panel with "a balance of scientific, medical and worker perspectives." Ten people, only one of whom is a worker, have been selected. Some people work for DOE or affiliated organizations, a watchdog group reports. Two hundred and fifty claims for dose reconstruction have been submitted since the EEOICPA program officially began operation in July of this year. (11/09/01)
Access to information
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) faxed a letter to Secretary of Energy Abraham November 27 expressing its concern that "access to information necessary for monitoring DOE's compliance with air and water pollution control laws, regulations, and procedures, such as reports required to be made accessible under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), are being removed from public view under the guise of 'national security.'" The letter asked Secretary Abraham a series of questions beginning, "Under what legal authority is access to documents such as Environmental Impact Statements being reviewed, removed or restricted?" and ending "Is there any provision for appealing decisions to remove items from public purview?" The text of the letter is available at
www.ananuclear.org .
Low-level waste disposal
The conferees on the Fiscal Year 2002 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill stated that DOE, where cost effective, should use existing Federal contracts to dispose of low-level and mixed low-level waste at commercial off-site disposal facilities. Before proceeding with any new on-site disposal cell, DOE is directed to submit to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations an objective analysis comparing the life-cycle costs of on-site versus off-site disposal alternatives. Such a report should address the concerns identified by the General Accounting Office in its recent report GAO -01-441. They did not define "new on-site disposal cell" or specify any sites. Therefore, it is not clear whether the statement applies to Paducah or Portsmouth. (Conference Report 107-258)
V. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Legislation on nuclear security
November 29 Representative Edward Markey introduced in the House and Senator Harry Reid in the Senate legislation "to amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 to strengthen security at "sensitive nuclear facilities." The bills both include gaseous diffusion plants in the definition of "sensitive nuclear facilities." The House bill (HR 3382) has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce; the Senate bill (S 1746) to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The bills require the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure the protection of each sensitive nuclear facility against the design base threat. This threat must include an event similar to the events of September 11.
(http://thomas.loc.gov)
VI. UNITED STATES ENRICHMENT CORPORATION
Price Anderson Act
November 27 the US House of Representatives passed HR 2983, which extends the Price Anderson Act until August, 2017. The Senate does not have a bill devoted only to Price Anderson. Reauthorization of the act is included in various pieces of legislation that also cover other subjects. (Energy Communities Alliance, Bulletin, 11/01)
USEC's future
The Paducah Sun reported that, prior to the signing of a labor contract between USEC and PACE Local 5-550, the Bush administration was in the process of determining whether to maintain USEC's role as sole executive agent for the US-Russian HEU agreement and whether to assist the company in other ways. A summary of a two-option administration proposal was obtained by the Sun. The main plan would allow USEC to remain sole executive agent for the HEU agreement, if USEC submits a business plan that includes continued operation of the Paducah plant for ten years; deployment of a pilot centrifuge plant, using European technology, within five years; and construction of a centrifuge plant using new US technology within ten years. The pilot plant would presumably be at Portsmouth; the industrial plant at Paducah. If USEC cannot operate the Paducah plant for ten years, the government would, according to the main plan, take over operation. The alternative plan allows the utilities industry to begin buying Russian uranium in a market-based approach. USEC has stated that it needs the Russian uranium in order to continue to remain profitable. According to the summary, the government would run the Paducah plant, if this alternative approach is followed and brings about the collapse of USEC. The contract between USEC and PACE has been signed, but the Bush administration must still decide whether to retain USEC as the sole executive agent for the US-Russian HEU agreement. (Joe Walker, Paducah Sun. 11/10/01) For background on USEC's current situation see, under I.D. Enrichment,
www.earthisland.org/yggdrasil/uep11_01.html .
VII. RUSSIA
Agreement to purchase Russian natural uranium
Cameco, Cogéma, and Nukem have agreed to purchase a total of at least 56,000 metric tons of Russian uranium over the next twelve years. In March 1999, the companies signed a 15-year agreement with the Russian Techsnabexport (Tenex) giving them an option to purchase 72% of the natural uranium component of blended down weapons uranium that entered the United States as a result of the US-Russian HEU agreement. The new agreement is in the form of an amendment to the 1999 agreement, and binds the companies to buying at least an amount equivalent to the US sales quota. Over the next twelve years, Cameco and Cogéma will each purchase at least 24,000 tons and Nukem at least 8,200 tons. (Financial Post [Canada], 11/28/01) For background to this amendment, see the Uranium Enrichment Project's report "Privatization and the Russian HEU Agreement" at
www.earthisland.org/yggdrasil/uep112_01.html .
Purchase of HEU
The Uranium Enrichment Project's November report "A Viable Domestic Uranium Industry?" recommends that the United States buy outright from Russia all the HEU that it is willing to sell; enable Russia to downblend it quickly; and have it then stored in Russia.
(www.earthisland.yggdrasil/uep11_01.html )
VIII. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
China and centrifuges
Under a 1992 bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement, Russia is helping China to construct a centrifuge enrichment plant. The first and second lines of the plant, which are located in Hanjun in Gansu Province, went into operation in 1998 and 2000 respectively. The third line, which is located near Lanzhou in the same province, has just been completed, two years ahead of schedule. (Platts Nuclear News Flashes, 11/12/01)
Urenco in the United States
The Financial Times reported December 6 that the Urenco goup is "set to seek regulatory approval in January" to build a new centrifuge enrichment plant in the United States. Its partners will be Exelon and Duke Power. Other partners may be added, because Urenco plans to create a worldwide syndicate to raise the $1 billion that the project is estimated to cost. Klaus Messer, Urenco's chief executive, met with regulators in Washington the week of December 3. Urenco expects to construct the plant at a current nuclear site, and is considering both Paducah and Portsmouth. (Nancy Dunne, Financial Times, 12/06/01)