Highly enriched uranium

The Y-12 plant at Oak Ridge will replace the Portsmouth enrichment plant as the supplier of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to the US Navy for submarine fuel. However, Y-12 will withdraw the HEU from its stock rather than produce the HEU through enriching uranium. DOE reports that Y-12 is likely to prepare and package about one metric ton of HEU in FY 2001, but that no shipping schedule has been set up. The material will presumably be shipped at a future date to BWX Technologies in Lynchburg, Virginia, or to Nuclear Fuel Services in Erwin, Tennessee, both of which have contracts with the Naval Reactors Program. (BWX Technologies, together with Bechtel National, recently received a contract to manage Y-12.) As of December 31, 1993, Y-12 stored 168.9 metric tons of HEU. Because of the large number of weapons dismantled at the plant since that date, the stock of HEU is presumably bigger now. DOE has proposed building a new storage facility for HEU as part of a modernization plan for Y-12. (Frank Munger, News-Sentinel, 10/1/00)

Investigative report

DOE’s Office of Oversight, Environment, Safety and Health released the third of its reports on the gaseous diffusion plants October 11, "Independent Investigation of the East Tennessee Technology Park." Like the reports on Paducah and Portsmouth, the report on what was the K-25 enrichment facility consists of two volumes: the first on past environment, safety, and health practices, and the second on current, environment, safety, and health programs and issues. Both volumes paint a grim picture.

As at the Portsmouth and Paducah plants, a feed manufacturing facility; and disassembly, decontamination, and cleaning facilities were among the most hazardous locations for workers; but Oak Ridge supported hazardous activities not carried out at the other sites. One of particular interest today was gas centrifuges, developed and demonstrated at K-25 from about 1960 to 1985. "Past centrifuge workers indicated that exposure to epoxy and chemical fumes and vapors was common." "Housings were wiped down with solvents." "The worker studies state that bladder cancer rates for centrifuge workers were seven times greater than for the general population, and stomach ulcer rates for centrifuge wreck workers were six-and-a-half times greater than for the general population."

Among the many current problems are lack of care for cylinders of depleted uranium hexafluoride and inadequate monitoring of emissions. "UF6 cylinders and cylinder yards at ETTP are in poor condition and continue to degrade." "The continuing accelerated corrosion of 2,549 depleted UF6 cylinders at ETTP increases the risk of environmental contamination." "Weaknesses in the sampling and monitoring of air pollutant emissions from ETTP facilities raise concerns regarding the accuracy of public dose and exposure calculations." At the TCSA incinerator, for instance, "on two occasions in 1999, the magnetic lock on the relief vent has failed, activating the relief vent and releasing unmonitored radioactivity to the atmosphere." "BNFL [British Nuclear Fuels Limited] has not demonstrated appropriate technical expertise to support the air emission monitoring systems and did not provide information necessary to audit the adequacy of stack-monitoring systems under their control."

The thorny issue of the quality of the drinking water at K-25 was addressed in the report in a way that will support DOE’s critics. "Radionuclides from upstream sources have infiltrated the ORGDP sanitary water distribution system for decades." The intake for the gaseous diffusion plant’s water supply is located downstream of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. "Radioactivity [released from the plant] flowed down the river and entered the K-1515 [water treatment facility] in spikes. (The report is available at< http://tis.eh.doe.gov> )

When DOE released the two-volume report, it issued a list of corrective actions that DOE and its prime contractors at the site had undertaken because of the report’s findings. They include reconfiguring the stack monitoring system at K-33, initiating additional testing of the stack monitoring system at the TCSA incinerator, and conducting additional training of environmental, safety, and health staff. (DOE Press Release, 10/11/00)

Release of the report was not a public relations success for DOE. DOE held a public meeting October 12 at the American Museum of Science and Energy to address findings from the report. Workers and activists claimed that they had not had time to do more than skim the report. Furthermore, the meeting had a predetermined time limit. Journalists complained about a lack of opportunity to prepare for a media teleconference on the report. (Frank Munger, News-Sentinel, 10/18/00)

Investigation of drinking water

October 23, DOE announced the start of Phase 2 of its investigation of the quality of drinking water at Oak Ridge. Phase 2 will evaluate from a historical basis the water system and the likelihood of the water’s having contaminated workers. DOE has retained Parallax Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia to coordinate and facilitate Phase 2. An oversight team, similar to the Phase 1 oversight team, will be created for Phase 2. (Paul Parson, Oak Ridger, 10/24/00)

Whistleblower

The US Merit Systems Protection Board in Atlanta, Georgia, has ordered DOE to place Joseph Carson in a GS-14 position at Oak Ridge or explain to the full Merit Systems Protection Board in Washington, DC, why it should not be required to do so. The Merit Systems Protection Board is responsible for protecting the rights of federal employees. Carson, a licensed professional engineer, charged that attempts to report safety and security violations at several DOE facilities while working in a safety oversight role at Oak Ridge led to a lowering of his performance rating, loss of his surveillance responsibilities, and reassignment to another site. The retaliation began as far back as 1995, the Protection Board found. (Paul Parson, Oak Ridger, 10/11/00; Initial Decision of Merit Systems Protection Board, 4/29/99)

II. PADUCAH

Cleanup schedule

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 4, announced October 5 that DOE, EPA, and the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection have reached an agreement on a schedule for cleanup and assessment activities at the Paducah plant. The agreement is designed to ensure that DOE resources are used for the highest priorities, that is that problems that may cause off-site contamination are handled first, during FY 2001 and FY 2002. EPA recognizes that continuation of the level of funding in the FY 2001 allocation will not allow DOE to complete the cleanup by 2010. The FY 2001 allocation for cleanup at Paducah is $90,000. (Yahoo Finance, 10/5/00; James R. Carroll, Courier-Journal, 10/20/00)

Denial of temporary injunction

October 20, US District Judge Thomas Russell of Paducah denied the Regional Association of Concerned Environmentalists (RACE) a temporary injunction to prevent DOE from installing an underground wall across a zone of high contamination within the Southwest Plume. RACE contends that DOE has not conducted the necessary preliminary studies of the wall under the National Environmental Policy Act, also that DOE should conduct a site-wide environmental impact study before implementing individual projects (see UEN October 2000). (Joe Walker, Paducah Sun, 10/24/00; Mark Donham, Personal Communication)

Waste management

DOE held a workshop October 26 on management of the waste that has accumulated at the Paducah plant. Gary Bodenstein of DOE said that DOE plans to release a draft environmental assessment on the site’s waste for comment December 12. After a 30-day comment period, DOE will hold another public meeting. It intends to put out a revised plan in March. The waste at Paducah is stored in more than twenty indoor and outdoor areas. DOE plans to remove the 20% of the waste that is outdoors by 2005. Residents at the meeting expressed opposition to the transportation of waste off site. They fear transportation problems, question whether the facilities receiving the waste will be able to store it adequately, and brought up the question of construction of a long-term storage facility at Paducah. (Joe Walker, Paducah Sun, 10/27/00)

Maps of contamination

The Courier-Journal and the Washington Post brought to public attention October 1 maps showing plutonium levels around the Paducah plant. DOE had made them public as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request from the Courier-Journal. They showed plutonium at levels several hundred times above what could be expected from radioactive fallout. The maps were a composite of the positive results of tests of water and sediment for plutonium conducted by contractors between 1988 and 1998. The maps had been ordered by the DOE site manager at the plant as a reference tool for investigators. DOE said that the information in the maps had been available to the public in an annual federal waste cleanup report filed in the plant’s public document room. (James Malone, Courier-Journal, 10/1/00; Joby Warrick, Washington Post, 10/1/00)

DOE held a public meeting in regard to the maps the evening of October 5. Don Seaborg, DOE’s Paducah site manager, told participants that the maps contained no new information, although DOE had not done a good job of communicating the information to residents in the past. He also promised that DOE would "find all the sites where material was buried and clean it up." However, many in the audience made clear that they do not believe DOE’s promises. (James Malone, Courier-Journal, 10/6/00; Matt Sander, Paducah Sun, 10/6/00)

The day following the meeting there were revelations about additional maps that showed that eleven contaminants had spread widely beyond the plant. Neptunium was present at levels as much as 509 times higher than would be normal and cesium at up to 326 times higher. Beryllium had been found at higher than normal levels three miles from the plant’s security fence. Like the plutonium maps, these maps reflected tests carried out between 1988 and 1998. DOE initially said that researchers who authored the two-volume investigative report on the Paducah plant did not see the plutonium maps, but a spokesperson stated October 5 that the maps were among the team’s records. (James Malone, Courier-Journal, 10/6/00)

Cerenkov radiation?

The Courier-Journal of Louisville revealed that Ray Carroll also wrote a memo in October stating that a "blue glow" occasionally observed in the 1980s and 1990s over the C-746-F classified burial yard after heavy rains could be Cerenkov radiation, a phenomenon in which radioactive particles from a fission reaction give off a blue glow in water. He sought safety precautions in case fission is occurring. Don Seaborg, DOE site manager said that there are no indications that a fission reaction has occurred. Kimberlee J. Kearfott, a professor at the University of Michigan, said that a chemical fluorescence or phosphorescence or a glow from tritium were more likely causes than a criticality, which would require a large mass of fissile material. (James Malone and Michael Clevenger, Courier-Journal, 10/25/00)

Exposure assessment report

The Washington Post reported October 5 that the draft of a report on an "exposure assessment project" conducted for DOE states that workers at Paducah were exposed to plutonium and neptunium at much higher levels than had previously been realized. Some workers during the sixties could have received annual doses as high as 98 rem, almost twenty times the maximum allowable annual limit of 5 rem. Some four hundred workers were potentially exposed to annual radiation that approached or exceeded the regulatory limits. The researchers included scientists from the University of Utah’s radiology division and experts representing the PACE union. They used records of air monitoring and dust samples and interviewed people who had worked at the plant in the early years. DOE’s Oak Ridge operations office calls the report "intentionally biased." It is now undergoing peer review. (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, 10/5/00)

Lung screening

October 23 a mobile unit parked at the PACE (Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy) International Union hall at Paducah began screening workers and former workers for lung cancer. Within the next twelve months the unit will travel to Portsmouth and Oak Ridge. The mobile unit houses a low-dose, computerized axial tomography scanner that can detect lung cancer earlier than can conventional chest x-rays. The screening program is part of a Worker Health Protection Program, which is the second phase of a Former Worker Medical Surveillance Program presented by PACE and Queens College of the City of New York. The program is funded by DOE, but is executed independently of DOE and provides information directly to the individuals screened and their physicians. Background information is available at www.paceunion.org. (PACE Press Release, 10/23/00)

Contamination of guards and firefighters

Ray Carroll, a health physicist employed by the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) wrote a memo in mid-October calling for an investigation into what he described as the past practice of conducting anti-terrorist training for security guards and firefighters in highly contaminated buildings without furnishing the personnel with protective clothing or equipment. Training under these conditions occurred in the 1980s and possibly the early 1990s, Carroll wrote. The uniforms that trainees wore were taken home to be washed or were washed in a commercial laundry. He would like the affected people identified and the contamination that they underwent analyzed. USEC forwarded the memo to DOE, which is reportedly reviewing it. (James Malone, Courier-Journal, 10/25/00)

Plant operations

Last summer the Paducah plant ran for three months at only 6 percent capacity, because of the high cost of electricity. Workers shut down about 80 percent of production equipment in five weeks, two weeks faster than planned, and restarted most of the equipment in a forty-day period, ending October 1. Production in October was ten times that in July. (Joe Walker, Paducah Sun, 10/22/00)

Reprieve for Portsmouth

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced October 6 that DOE will maintain the Portsmouth plant on cold standby for five years for possible restart in the event of a significant disruption in the nation’s supply of enriched uranium. Meanwhile, DOE will develop gas centrifuge enrichment technology for use at Portsmouth and Paducah. The first year of work will take place at Oak Ridge; the work will then move to Portsmouth where existing centrifuge facilities will be refurbished. DOE hopes to complete the centrifuge development project in a total of five years. The agency will also accelerate cleanup of unneeded portions of the Portsmouth plant. It will finance the Portsmouth plan by spending $630 million from the USEC Revolving Fund as an "expense of privatization." (DOE Press Release, 10/6/00; www.nuke-energy.com)

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky stated that DOE should provide funding also for the Paducah plant, and he backed requests for aid for the conversion plant in Metropolis, Illinois. (The conversion facility, ConverDyn, is jointly owned by Honeywell and General Atomics. General Electric is acquiring Honeywell. ) Governor George Ryan, US Rep. David Phelps and others have called on DOE and Congress to provide funding to keep the conversion plant operating. The plant produces uranium hexafluoride (UF6) for enrichment. If the Metropolis plant were to close, the United States would have no facility capable of converting uranium oxides to UF6. Prices for Honeywell’s UF6 have shrunk by more than half in two years, in large part because of the US importation of low-enriched uranium from Russia and USEC’s sales of uranium from the inventory that it acquired when privatized. (George Lobsenz, Energy Daily, 10/17/00; Joe Walker, Paducah Sun, 10/17/00)

Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, sent Richardson a letter October 24 that severely criticized the plan on the grounds that it does not address the full scope of the threat to the US domestic uranium industry and that it draws on the Revolving Fund improperly. He asked for a full explanation of the decision with backup documents.

Investigation of safety practices

A draft report of the investigation into the August accident that severely burned a worker at Portsmouth states, "This accident and the resulting injuries were preventable." The "accident highlighted deficiencies in numerous aspects of safety management and emergency preparedness for the project," a research project on groundwater cleanup (see UEN September 2000). (Jonathan Riskind, Columbus Dispatch 10/12/00)

Independent assessment underway

Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security (PRESS) and the Uranium Enrichment Project held a press conference in Piketon October 26 to announce the start of an independent scientific and technical study of the environmental impact of the plant and the effectiveness of cleanup measures. Dr. Marvin Resnikoff of Radioactive Waste Management Associates, who will head the study, presented the project and answered questions. The two brief preliminary reports that were handed out at the press conference are available on the same Web site as this newsletter.

IV. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE)

Legislation to compensate ill workers

Key Senate Republicans put sufficient pressure on the House Republican leadership, to bring about a compromise on legislation to compensate workers made ill by nuclear weapons work. The senators were aided by publicity in the media about the House leadership’s support of a section of the defense authorization bill that would have increased medical benefits for Pentagon retirees at a cost greater than that of the nuclear workers’ compensation package, which they had stated was too expensive for passage.

Congress has now passed and President Clinton has signed, as part of the Defense Authorization Bill for FY 2001, legislation establishing the "Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program."

The program is to cover qualified Department of Energy employees, uranium miners, and employees of DOE contractors that were beryllium vendors or that processed or produced radioactive material for atomic weapons. The uranium miners were already covered under another law, but the new legislation would raise their benefits. To receive compensation an employee must have occupationally caused cancer, chronic silicosis, or an illness stemming from beryllium. People who worked for at least a year at the Oak Ridge, Paducah, or Portsmouth enrichment plants or who worked at Amchitka Island, Alaska before 1974, belong to a "Special Exposure Cohort," who will not have to prove that their cancers were caused by their work. For other workers the burden of proof is on the worker. Eligible workers or, if they have already died, their survivors will receive a lump sum payment of at least $150,000 each plus future medical benefits.

The legislation gives the president of the United States until March 15 to submit implementing legislation to Congress. He may, if he chooses, increase compensation, for example, to include lost wages; he must decide how the legislation is to be administered—whether, for example by the Department of Labor or by the Department of Justice; whether to "include other illnesses associated with exposure to toxic substances"; and whether to expand the categories of people in the Special Exposure Cohort. If the president does not submit implementing legislation to Congress, the terms of coverage in the recently passed legislation will stand. However, the "default" provisions do not specify how this existing legislation would be implemented, except by making the president of the United States responsible for the implementation.

The Occupational Illness Compensation Program is an entitlement program. Congress authorized in passing it, $250,000 for implementation and $250,000,000 for the fund from which workers will be paid. However, when this money is exhausted, the Secretary of the Treasury will transfer from the General Fund of the Treasury, without further authorization, the funding needed to continue the program. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill will cost $1.9 billion over ten years (Rizzo, p. 3).

Advocates of compensation view the bill as only a beginning. They want the President to expand the terms of coverage and they want legislation to compensate neighbors of the weapons plants who have become ill from exposure to radioactive and chemical contaminants. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, speaking in front of the Mound nuclear weapons facility near Dayton, Ohio, October 25, said that DOE is "ready to look into" whether contamination from nuclear weapons facilities harmed residents of the area. The DOE, he reportedly said, is prepared to suggest independent scientific studies, if necessary. A working group composed of representatives of the Energy Department, Labor Department, Department of Health and Human Services, and the White House is working on the compensation package.

DOE has a compensation-help telephone service at 877-447-9756.

(George Lobsenz, Energy Daily, 10/10/00; James Hannah, Associated Press, 10/24/00; Associated Press, 10/1/00; FY 2001 Defense Authorization Bill)

V. U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION (NRC)

The NRC held a discrimination-complaints workshop at Paducah Community College October 19. It was the fifth in a series of workshops that NRC has been holding across the nation to review the agency’s handling of complaints by nuclear workers who claim that employers discriminated against them after they raised safety concerns. A summary of the workshop will be available from the NRC Public Documents Room (301-415-4737), but the workshop was not transcribed. A Discrimination Task Group will draft any needed changes in the regulations and make them available for public comment in mid-2001. For information about coming meetings, contact Barry Westreich at 301-415-3456 or BCW@nrc.gov. (Paducah Sun, 10/14/00}

The NRC has determined that any advanced uranium enrichment technology that USEC develops or obtains will have to be licensed under the NRC regulations at 10 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 70, before it can be used at an existing enrichment plant. USEC will not be allowed to license any advanced technology through an amendment of its existing NRC certificates under 10 CFR Part 76. The NRC will refuse to support amendments to the Atomic Energy Act to enable USEC to use 10 CFR Part 76 for this purpose. (FreshFuel, 10/30/00)

First quarter financial results

USEC reported earnings for the first quarter, which ended September 30, of $4.6 million or $.06 per share, compared to $16.1 million or $.16 per share in the same period the previous fiscal year, a drop of 71%. Nevertheless, USEC expects its net income for the year to range from $30 million to $35 million.

Revenue in the first quarter totaled $226.8 million, compared to $230.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2000. Sales of SWU were $223.0 million this quarter, a $17.8 million increase over last year when sales were $205.2 million. The increase reflects the timing of customer orders. The company anticipates lower revenue and lower sales volume this year than last.

Natural uranium sales totaled $3.8 million for the quarter, a decrease from $25.7 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2000. However, the company anticipates selling about as much natural uranium this year as last. Last year it sold $101.6 million worth. (USEC Press Release, 10/26/00)

Role of the Tennessee Valley Authority

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board chairman Craven Crowell told the press while in Paducah for a board meeting that he took a personal interest in helping USEC keep the Paducah plant operating. Nick Timbers, CEO of USEC, has said that USEC’s ability to make a favorable contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on electricity for the Paducah plant was the key factor in the company’s decision to continue to operate this plant and to shut down the Portsmouth plant. (Bill Bartleman, Paducah Sun, 10/26/00)

USEC announced in October that it has received from Russia, low-enriched uranium resulting form the downblending of 100 metric tons of high-enriched uranium (HEU), the equivalent of 4000 Russian nuclear warheads, USEC CEO William Timbers said. USEC is one fifth of the way through implementing the US-Russian Megaton to Megawatts program, which is to bring to the United States the equivalent of 500 MTU of HEU over a period of twenty years. The first shipment arrived at Portsmouth in June of 1995. In this calendar year Techsnabexport, the Russian executive agent, has delivered 18.l7 MTU of the 30 MTU due to be shipped. (USEC Press Release, 10/10/00; Nuclear News Flashes, 10/10/00)

October 31 DOE issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the design, construction, and operation of two facilities for converting depleted uranium hexafluoride, one at the Paducah plant and one at the Portsmouth plant,. DOE is open to a wide range of potential product forms and process technologies, the RFP said; and expects conversion of all the depleted uranium to take twenty-five years. Private companies have until February 1 to respond. DOE expects to award a contract in July. The RFP is available at www.oro.doe.gov/duf6disposition/ .

The energy and water appropriates bill for fiscal year 2001 signed by President Clinton includes $33 million for maintenance of the cylinders of depleted uranium hexafluoride at the three enrichment sites and towards preparatory work for construction of two conversion plants, one at Portsmouth and one at Paducah. DOE hopes that construction will be completed by February 2005 and the plants in operation by November of that year. (Joe Walker, Paducah Sun, 11/1/00)

See also Investigative report, under Portsmouth.

Recycling at Oak Ridge

A report released September 19 by DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman states than an independent verification team hired by DOE’s Oak Ridge office found that the radioactivity of 22 out of 639 lots of metal that British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) had cleared for release exceeded the BNFL administrative limit and two of the 22 exceeded DOE release criteria. The discrepancies between BNFL’s readings and those of the survey team were significant in several cases. For example, a lube oil pipe had 110,000 disintegrations per minute per 100 square centimeters of surface, but BNFL had noted down only 530 disintegrations per minute. The limit for DOE is 5000 disintegrations per minute. (George Lobsenz, Energy Daily, 10/4/00)

Proposed directives

DOE has begun a public comment period for proposed directives governing the release of potentially contaminated materials. On July 13 Secretary Richardson had suspended release of scrap metals from radiological areas for recycling pending the establishment of new directives. The proposed new directives are in the form of changes to DOE Order 5400.5, "Radiation Protection of the Public and Environment."

According to the proposed changes, no scrap metal that contains or is suspected of containing residual radioactive material may be released for recycling into general commerce or transferred to another party that will recycle it into general commerce unless it has been surveyed and there is reasonable assurance that no residual radioactivity is detectable using appropriate commercially available technology and a comparison with activity levels of similar non-impacted materials. Scrap metal that does not meet the requirements may be deposited in an authorized low-level radioactive waste site, deposited in permitted waste landfills if certain requirements are met, or released for restricted recycling for a designated use, as in waste containers, and reasonable reassurance that the metal will not be recycled into general commerce.

Before any unrestricted release of recycled metal can take place, a process to implement the above DOE requirements and other DOE requirements must be in place, and the local public must have participated in the decision-making in regard to that process.

The comment period will close December 4. The proposed changes to DOE Order 5400.5 can be downloaded at http://www.eh.doe.gov .