The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) this week confirmed a 2018 finding that exposure to contaminants from former radioactive waste storage near St. Louis, Mo., could have heightened the risk for various cancers among residents of the area.
The ATSDR on Tuesday issued its final report on cancer risks near Coldwater Creek, after releasing a draft version for comments in June 2018. The study was initiated at the request of area residents.
Located in north St. Louis County, Coldwater Creek was contaminated by residues from upstream storage facilities for radiological waste from Mallinckrodt Chemical Works uranium and radium extraction operations in St. Louis during the World War II Manhattan Project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) is charged with remediation of those properties.
The agency identified a potential greater danger for lung cancer, bone cancer, and leukemia among people who played in and around the creek or lived in its floodplain from the 1960s to 1990s. Daily exposures from the 2000s forward created a slightly greater danger of lung cancer, the report says. However, those heightened cancer risks are not likely to produce identifiably higher cancer rates throughout the community, according to ATSDR, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The ATSDR did not recommend general disease screening for former or current residents of the area. “The predicted increases in the number of cancer cases from exposures are small, and no method exists to link a particular cancer with this exposure,” the agency said, adding that the risk could be connected to separate exposure pathways.
The report recommends that residents who might have been exposed to radiological contaminants ensure their doctors know this is part of their medical history, and receive medical consultation if they face new symptoms. The state should also look at refreshing its analyses of cancer incidence, cancer deaths, and birth defects, ATSDR said.
Through FUSRAP, the Army Corps of Engineers should sustain remediation and investigation of sediments and floodplain soils at Coldwater Creek, the report says.
The Army Corps is now taking bids on the next remediation contract for FUSRAP properties in its St. Louis District. The ATSDR findings are being evaluated for possible impacts on the cleanup approach, an Army Corps spokesperson told St. Louis Public Radio.
Stephen Burns retired Tuesday after nearly five years as a member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, including more than two years as chairman.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday noted Burns’ retirement during a Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee on the NRC budget plan for fiscal 2020. The agency then confirmed his departure, which Burns had discussed publicly at least since the start of the year.
“He’s well respected in every position he held and I’d like to thank Stephen Burns for his service to our country,” Alexander said.
Burns became an NRC commissioner on Nov. 5, 2014. His term was officially scheduled to end on June 30 of this year. Burns did not say why he left early, an agency spokesman said Thursday.
From January 2015 to January 2017, Burns served as NRC chairman. He was replaced in that role by Commissioner Kristine Svinicki just days after President Donald Trump took office.
Burns’ service as commissioner followed an extended career as a staffer at the nuclear industry regulator, starting as an attorney in 1978 and including a stint as executive assistant to Chairman Kenneth Carr, according to his agency profile. Burns was the NRC’s deputy general counsel from 1998 to 2009, then served as general counsel until he left in April 2012 to become head of legal affairs for the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Burns’ retirement leaves the commission with one Democrat, Jeff Baran, and three Republicans: Svinicki, Annie Caputo, and David Wright. No more than three commission members can come from one political party.
Senate Democratic Party leadership is believed to be preparing a list of potential candidates for nomination by President Donald Trump. There was no word this week from the White House or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) regarding the process.
Christopher Hanson, a minority staff member on the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee, confirmed in March he had been contacted by party leadership regarding potential nomination. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board member Joyce Connery is among the other names said to be in the mix.
US Ecology said Thursday earned $8 million in net income on $131 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2019.
By comparison, the Boise, Idaho-based environmental services company earned $9.2 million in net income on $120.1 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2018, according to its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
This translated to $0.22 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2019, compared to $0.35 per diluted share in the same 2018 period.
US Ecology’s Environmental Service branch brought in $92.3 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2019, an increase from $86.5 million in the same period of 2018. The business manages its waste treatment and disposal facilities, including its low-level radioactive waste facility at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
“Revenue growth across our services lines was strong during the quarter, up 9 percent overall compared to the first quarter last year. This revenue growth was attributable to approximately 4 percent organic growth and incremental revenue from our strategic 2018 acquisitions. This solid revenue growth was achieved despite our Idaho facility operating at less than full capacity,” President and CEO Jeff Feeler said in a press release.
US Ecology is recovering from a Nov. 17, 2018, explosion that killed one worker at its 328-acre Grand View, Idaho, hazardous waste disposal facility. While insured for the damage, US Ecology did not receive its insurance recovery money during the first quarter of 2019. US Ecology expects the Grand View to be “largely” recovered by the third quarter of this year, Feeler said during the company’s quarterly earnings call Friday.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday gave prospective vendors a few days more to bid on the contract for a nuclear cleanup project around St. Louis, Mo.
The deadline for proposals for the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) project has been pushed back from May 9 to 2 p.m. Central time on May 14, according to the latest amendment to the solicitation issued last month.
The Army Corps hopes this year to issue a single-award task order for remediation operations covering two locations: the St. Louis Downtown Site, contaminated by Mallinckrodt Chemical Works uranium processing operations for the federal government from 1942 to 1957; and the St. Louis North County Sites, which cover several properties that for decades stored waste residues from the Mallinckrodt operation. The work would involve field engineering, remediation of contaminated soil, management services, and radiological and safety support.
“The work anticipated under this contract is primarily for, but not limited to, low level radioactive contaminated material removal,” according to the April 8 solicitation. “Radiological contaminates are primarily thorium, radium and uranium, with co-located non-radiological contamination such as cadmium and arsenic.”
HydroGeoLogic, of Reston, Va., holds the current contract, which is worth $50 million through March 2021, including all options.
From The Wires
From West Virginia Public Broadcasting: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declined to augment regulations on radioactive and other wastes from oil and gas production.
From Power Engineering: A confinement arch has been fully placed over Chernobyl reactor Unit 4 in Ukraine.
