VII. DEPLETED URANIUM

December 1, Foster Wheeler formally launched a $200-million project to prepare some 4000 cubic meters of waste for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico (waste containing transuranics) and the Nevada Test Site ("low-level" waste). The company has a contract with the US Department of Energy (DOE) under which it leases land on the Oak Ridge Reservation and finances construction of the treatment facility. DOE pays Foster Wheeler when the company passes certain milestones, the first of which was completing the design and obtaining necessary environmental authorizations. The company expects to process the first batch of waste in December 2002, when it will again receive payment. It will compact some solid trash and treat liquids and sludges thermally. (Frank Munger, News-Sentinel, 12/1/00)

DOE has proposed leasing for development the 450 acres of land surrounding the former K-25 enrichment plant. The new development would be known as ED-3. Among those opposing the development are the Citizens’ Advisory Panel of the Local Oversight Committee for DOE and the organization Advocates for the Oak Ridge Reservation (AFORR). AFORR in a letter to Congressman Wamp and others charged that the plan would severely impact the site and physical remnants of the former Wheat Community and reduce the area of ecologically valuable unfragmented forest habitat on the Oak Ridge Reservation without bringing economic benefits.

DOE has also proposed transferring 182 acres of ecologically rich land in the Clinch River floodplain to the future owner of the adjacent inland property, a developer. The inland property is presently owned by Boeing. This initiative is likewise under attack.

Comments on Environmental Assessments of the two projects were due in late November and early December. Frank Munger published a strong editorial in the News-Sentinel (Nov. 15) asking DOE to leave the land at the Reservation alone to serve as a wildlife sanctuary, recreational site, and research park.

DOE is holding a public meeting on land use planning for the Oak Ridge Reservation, Tuesday, January 30, at 6 pm at the Oak Ridge YWCA, 1660 Oak Ridge Turnpike. (The AFORR Web site, www.korrnet.org/aforr/, tracks, from a conservationist perspective, issues relating to development at the Reservation.)

The Toxic Substances Control Act Incinerator burned only about 500,000 pounds of mixed waste during fiscal year 2000, an all-time low for the facility, due in part to a leak at the discharge end of the kiln that allowed air to enter the system. The leak reduced the efficiency of the incinerator and necessitated a month of repairs in the late summer. During fiscal year 2001 operators will assume, based on past readings, that only 30% of the radioactivity in burned waste is ejected from the stack rather than the 100% previously assumed. The change will mean that they will be permitted to burn radioactive waste with higher levels of radioactivity. DOE expects to close the incinerator permanently by the end of 2003. (Weapons Complex Monitor, 12/4/00)

Removal of Drum Mountain will cost DOE approximately 40% more than the $7 million bid submitted by Bechtel Jacobs, the cleanup contractor. The firm attributed the overrun, which DOE will pay, to the presence of far more "non-conforming" material—non-standard drums and metal pieces—than anticipated. (James Malone, Courier Journal, 21/11/00)

As of late November, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) believed that it might still be able to issue a Compliance Evaluation Report (CER) in mid-February in regard to the upgrading of the Paducah plant to enrich uranium to 5.5% uranium 235. However, the agency expressed concern that USEC’s announced intention to delay submission of some of the analyses and evaluations necessary to the CER could delay the issuance of the CER. (William C. Wallack, Nuclear Fuel, 11/27/00)

Some 540 gallons of liquid containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that were shipped from Paducah, September 11, inside discarded electrical capacitors have been illegally buried with the capacitors in a Model City, New York, hazardous waste landfill. The liquid was to be incinerated at Port Arthur, Texas. However, the shipping company, Clean Harbor Environmental Services, miscoded the shipment at a stopover point during transit. As a result, the capacitors were handled as though they contained no PCBs. The week of November 12, Bechtel Jacobs learned from its waste-handling subcontractor WESKEM that the PCBs had been lost. The fate of the PCBs had been determined by late November. (Joe Walker, Paducah Sun, 11/22 and 11/28/00)

December 21, DOE’s Oak Ridge Operations Office issued two reports dealing with metals recovery at Paducah from 1952 to 1986: the "‘Work for Others Program’ including Weapons Support and Disposition" and the "Metals Recovery Program.". According to available records, the Paducah plant recovered and shipped between 2800 and 5300 pounds of gold and about 7650 pounds of silver. Other metals processed included nickel, copper, monel (an alloy of copper and nickel), aluminum, steel, beryllium, and lead. The metals recovery caused health and environmental hazards. DOE’s Office of Environment, Safety and Health should review the information in the reports to see whether action is needed, the reports stated. The outside work performed at the plant included recovering metals from damaged and retired nuclear weapons, making components for nuclear research reactors, fabricating moon landing parts for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, assembling parts for missile systems, and recycling metals from electronic equipment. The reports can be found at: www.oakridge.doe.gov/foia/new.htm (Joe Walker, Paducah Sun, 12/22/00)

The Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUCO) agreed November 21 to allow USEC to receive approximately $44 million in revenue resulting from its reduction in electricity use during the summer. USEC had in effect resold a portion of the electricity that would have been available to it, to the Ohio Valley Electricity Corp. (OVEC), which had sold it to other customers. Congressman Ted Strickland and Governor Bob Taft had notified PUCO that they objected to USEC’s reselling electricity from its power contracts. However, they dropped their opposition as a result of USEC’s agreeing to provide $2 million to the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative for economic development in the region and to commit $18 million, by means of the purchase of surety bonds, to workers laid off between November 2000 and October 2003. The $18 million commitment includes $8400 for each laid off worker in addition to existing benefits guaranteed by the federal government and existing collective bargaining agreements. Senators Mike DeWine and George Voinovich and Local 5-689 of the Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical and Energy International Union participated in the negotiations. (Press Release, Bob Taft, 11/21/00; John McCarthy, Associated Press, 11/21/00)

USEC planned to cut its use of electricity at Portsmouth from 1300 MW to 800 MW January 1, 2001, as a result of a reduction in production. The company has told OVEC that electricity use will drop to 700 MW in March and will be at 600 MW from April through August. Electricity demand under the contract between DOE and OVEC will cease August 31. (Nuclear Fuel, 12/28/00)

October 7 President Clinton issued an executive order setting up the basic administrative framework for the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program established as an entitlement by a law signed by Clinton October 30 (see the November UEN). The executive order designates the US Department of Labor as administrator of the program. The department is to promulgate regulations by May 31, 2001 and to make application forms available by July 31, 2001. The Department of Health and Human Services is to determine how the likelihood that a cancer is work related will be judged and how radiation doses will be estimated in the absence of records. The Department of Energy is to provide information on worker exposures and data on claims submitted and the outcome. The order set up an Interagency Working Group that was, by January 1, 2001 "to develop a legislative proposal to ensure the Program’s fairness and efficiency" and also an Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health.

December 15 Congress appropriated $60.4 million to administer the new program. The appropriation was part of the Labor and Health and Human Services funding bill for fiscal year 2001. (In the Compensation Program legislation, Congress authorized money for implementation, but did not appropriate any funds.)

October 27 a class action suit was filed against USEC in the US District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. The suit alleges that USEC and certain of its officers "disseminated to the investing public false and misleading statements" in connection with the Initial Public Offering for the company in July 1998. The complaint was drafted by the New York City law firm Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes & Lerach. Two similar complaints from other firms have since been filed. USEC claims that the US government should be named as the principal defendant. However, the Privatization Act forbids suits against the government in connection with the privatization. (Press Release from Milberg Weiss, 11/13/00; Michael Knapik, Nuclear Fuel, 11/27/00)

The German utilities that own shares in Urenco have rejected as too low, offers from USEC Inc. and Duke Power to buy the shares. Given the strong position of Urenco in the enrichment market, they have, in fact, decided not to sell the shares at all at the present time. The Dutch government still intends to sell its shares. (Mark Hibbs, Nuclear Fuel, 11/27/00)

December 7, USEC filed petitions with the US Department of Commerce (DOC) and the US International Trade Commission (ITC), charging that Eurodif and Urenco are selling enriched uranium into the US market below their cost of production and benefiting from unfair government subsidies in their home markets. Their activities have materially injured the domestic enrichment industry, USEC claims. DOC announced December 27 that it will investigate whether dumping and unfair government subsidization have taken place. The Department has until April 26 to make a preliminary ruling. The ITC, which is investigating claims of material injury as a result of the alleged practices, expects to make a preliminary determination by January 22. If DOC and the ITC decide against the European companies, tariffs could be imposed. Eurodif and Urenco deny the charges. (Press Release, USEC, 12/28/00; AFP-Extel, 12/29/00; Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated Press, 12/30/00)

Speaking at USEC’s annual shareholders meeting November 8, board chairman James Mellor said that when restrictions on owning more than 10% of USEC Inc.’s stock expire in July of 2001, the board will look at whatever they can do to enhance shareholder value. Options to be examined will include a government buyback. William Timbers noted at the meeting that USEC expects several customers to pay for SWU in 2001 by the delivery of electric power to USEC’s partner Enron. He also told shareholders that the company is looking into opportunities to earn revenue by carrying out decontamination and decommissioning and the processing of depleted uranium for DOE. USEC expects to reach a decision on an advanced enrichment technology in 2001, likely gas centrifuges or Silex, stockholders were told. (USEC Press Release, 11/9/00; Michael Knapik and William C. Wallack, Nuclear Fuel, 11/13/00)

VI. RUSSIA

Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) have floated a plan to lend Russia up to $1 billion in return for its placing plutonium and highly enriched uranium under international safeguards. The program would supplement the present US-Russian HEU Agreement and a program to use 34 tonnes (metric tons; hereafter "t") of plutonium in commercial reactor fuel. Russia would receive a loan of $20 million for each two tons safeguarded (one ton of uranium and one of plutonium). Domenici has termed the plan the Fissile Materials Loan Guarantee Act. (Energy Daily, 12/20/00)

The Russian news agency Interfax released a text November 30 on Russia’s uranium stockpiles. They are currently composed of 80,000 t of low-enriched uranium (LEU) plus 1400 t of highly enriched uranium (HEU), the equivalent of 420,000 t of LEU, for a total equivalent to 500,000 t of LEU. Russia and the Eastern European nations consume approximately 16,000 t of LEU per year, with Russian nuclear plants taking 4500 t and Russian submarines 1000 t. Russian mines produce no more than 2500 t of LEU per year. Russia has committed to sending to the United States a total of 150,000 t of LEU derived from 500 t of HEU from dismantled warheads to the United States. Thus it has in effect only 350,000 t of LEU to compensate for the gap between production and use.

In separate reports from Russia, the director of the Russian Chemical Technology Institute said that Russia currently uses more than 8000 t of LEU per year, half for Russian reactors and half for export. The shortfall is being met by inventory, but Russia wants to double uranium production to 4000-5000 t per year by 2010.

The Russian State Duma committee on defense will hold parliamentary hearings on the US-Russian HEU agreement. According to the defense committee what "Russia [will] have upon the processing of 500 t of HEU remains an open question," which the proposed hearings are expected to clear up. (TASS, 12/22/00)

The December issue of the Yaderny Kontrol journal published an analysis by Foreign Minister Vladimir Rybachenkov of Russia’s international cooperation involving nuclear materials. Rybachenkov stated that Russian specialists developed a unique dilution technology to produce natural or low-enriched uranium to meet US standards. This process is employed at factories in Yekaterinburg, Tomsk, and Krasnoyarsk. The United States has received 2800 t of low-grade uranium worth two billion dollars that have been used to raise the safety level in the nuclear power industry, convert military nuclear factories, and develop fundamental and applied sciences. (ITAR/TASS 12/14/00)

VII. DEPLETED URANIUM

At a November meeting of the American Nuclear Society, Jonathon Haire, head of a Depleted Uranium Uses Research and Development Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, described the Program’s research. Subjects under study include use of depleted uranium as a semiconductor, as a catalyst to aid the decomposition of volatile organic compounds, and as a shield for waste storage and transport casks. Richard Miller, a consultant to the PACE Local in Portsmouth, Ohio, urges that the government simply covert the depleted uranium to oxide, package it, and bury it in abandoned uranium mines. (Maureen Conley, Nuclear Fuel, 11/27/00)

Scientists at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore Laboratory have proposed using the AVLIS technology to recover uranium 235 from the depleted uranium hexafluoride stored at the gaseous diffusion plants. AVLIS, they say, could re-enrich at a profit to DOE, the 60% of the tailings containing more than 0.24% uranium 235. According to an article in the November 30 Nuclear Engineering International that reports their views, USEC’s abandonment of AVLIS was a result of USEC’s financial situation not of problems with the technology.