The Omaha, Neb., Public Power District has issued a contract for the final move of spent reactor fuel into dry storage at the retired Fort Calhoun Station nuclear power plant.
In a press release Wednesday, nuclear cleanup provider Orano USA (formerly AREVA) said its used fuel management branch Orano TN would move 944 fuel assemblies from the plant’s cooling pool to an on-site independent spent fuel storage installation. The assemblies will be relocated within Orano NUHOMS canisters and then placed in same-named horizontal storage modules.
The utility closed Fort Calhoun in October 2016, citing low natural gas prices and other market challenges that have afflicted nuclear power operations around the country in recent years. All used fuel was removed from the plant’s single reactor by November 2016. AREVA previously moved 320 assemblies to Fort Calhoun’s storage pad in 2006 and 2009.
The total value of the new contract was not released, but Orano said it is in the tens of millions of dollars. The company expects to begin relocating the fuel next year and to complete the project in the middle of 2020.
In the “pool to pad” approach, the used fuel will be placed within storage canisters and transfer casks while still in the cooling pool. After a moisture-removal period on a staging pad, canisters will be driven to the storage modules for interment.
The Omaha Public Power District expects decommissioning to cost nearly $1.4 billion over more than five decades, according to the post-shutdown decommissioning activities report (PSDAR) filed in March 2017 with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It would first place the reactor in SAFSTOR (safe storage) mode, under which nuclear power plants can delay full decommissioning for up to 60 years while radioactivity levels drop and additional funds are set aside for cleanup.
The preparatory phase of decommissioning is scheduled to end by July 1.
“We remain on schedule,” Tim Uehling, senior director for Fort Calhoun Station decommissioning, said by email. “The majority of the work has been focused on maintaining the systems required for spent fuel cooling, draining and removing energy from the systems no longer required, and removing hazards from the plant such as flammable materials, asbestos, and bulk chemicals. This work, along with dry cask preparation activities will remain as the other key activity through mid-2020.”
Valhi Inc. reported a pre-tax gain of $58.4 million in the first quarter of 2018 on its sale of Waste Control Specialists, according to the Dallas-based holding company’s latest earnings report.
That was good for a net of $38.2 million, $0.11 per diluted share, after income taxes, Valhi said in its 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The gain is included within Valhi’s discontinued operations line item.
The gain was recorded “because the carrying value of the liabilities of the business assumed by the purchaser exceeded the carrying value of the assets sold in large part due to the long-lived asset impairment of $170.6 million recognized in the second quarter of 2017 with respect to our Waste Management Segment,” the 10-Q says.
On Jan. 26, Valhi finalized the sale of Waste Control Specialists to J.F. Lehman & Co. The private equity firm is now owner of a 1,338-acre complex in Andrews County, Texas, for disposal of low-level radioactive waste and other waste types.
In the 10-Q, Valhi noted that Waste Control Specialists – which represented the entirety of its waste management business – had for years been a money loser due to challenges in producing “sufficient recurring disposal volumes.” The sale to J.F. Lehman should allow the company to focus on its other, higher-returning business lines: chemicals, component products, and real estate management.
Valhi made $100,000 in unspecified capital expenditures for its waste management business in the first quarter.
Company-wide for the quarter, Valhi reported $51.7 million in net income, $0.15 per diluted share. That represented a major spike from $14.4 million, $0.04 per diluted share, in the same period of 2017, largely due to increased strength in the chemicals business.
The United Kingdom’s Office for Nuclear Regulation said May 11 it would prosecute the entity that manages the Sellafield nuclear site for a February 2017 incident in which a worker was contaminated.
The office said little about the event, other than it occurred at a facility designated for work with special nuclear materials and led to “personal contamination to a Sellafield Ltd employee.”
“For legal reasons we are unable to comment further on the details of the case which is now the subject of active court proceedings,” an ONR spokesman said in a press statement.
The office investigated the incident and filed its case in Magistrates Court in Workington, near the Sellafield site in Cumbria.
The case is being handled under a 1974 workplace health and safety law, specifically a section that states: ‘It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.”
In a statement to RadWaste Monitor, Sellafield Ltd. said that for legal reasons it also could not comment on an active court proceeding.
Sellafield Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, a nondepartmental government body that oversees environmental cleanup of the nation’s nuclear facilities. It manages environmental remediation and nuclear reprocessing operations at Sellafield.
The London Guardian reported on May 11 that the incident involved an equipment-related injury to the employee, which made him vulnerable to internal radiation exposure. While he underwent decontamination, the worker might have received a dose that was threefold greater than the yearly maximum, the newspaper reported.
The potential fine could be significantly larger than the £700,000 ($947,925) penalty assessed during the last such prosecution of Sellafield, according to the Guardian.
Three European nations are being referred to the European Union Court of Justice for failing to demonstrate they had established mandatory domestic programs for managing spent nuclear reactor fuel and radioactive waste, the European Commission said Thursday.
In a 2011 directive, the Council of the European Union gave member nations until Aug. 23, 2015, to provide details of their waste management programs. Austria, Croatia, and Italy have failed to do so, despite multiple reminders after the deadline passed, the European Commission said.
“As the three Member States had only notified draft versions of their programmes, letters of formal notice were sent to Austria, Croatia and Italy on 29 April 2016 and were followed by reasoned opinions in July 2017,” according to Thursday’s announcement. “The Commission considers that it is for the authorities of these Member States to take all necessary measures to adopt their final national programme for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste and to notify it to the Commission.”
If the nations remain in breach of their obligations, they can face penalties from the Court of Justice. Fines are based on the importance of the violated rules, the length of time the nations have been in breach, and the government’s capacity to pay.
The Australian government aims to establish 45 additional positions for operation of the nation’s planned National Radioactive Waste Management Facility.
The staffing plan comes on top of 15 operational positions already established, the federal Department of Industry, Innovation and Science said.
“With 45 jobs, the final workforce design and structure will be based on a number of factors including advice from security agencies, the views of the independent regulator and the details of the final business case, with inputs from across government,” according to a fact sheet from the department.
The new employment plan covers 14 security and safeguards positions, 13 positions in waste operations and technicians, eight positions in site management and community outreach, five positions in environmental protection and quality control, and five jobs in safety and radiation protection.
Positions announced in January 2016 were general manager, at least one additional administrative position, a manager and supervisor for operations, leaders for low-level radioactive waste and intermediate-level radioactive waste, and no fewer than nine waste technicians.
The Australian government is studying three sites in South Australia – one at Wallerberdina Station and two at Kimba – for its National Radioactive Waste Management Facility. The site would be used for permanent disposal of the nation’s low-level radioactive waste (now at roughly 4,250 cubic meters of material) and temporary storage of intermediate-level waste (656 cubic meters).
The material is the byproduct of nuclear medicine and research reactor operations, along with other activities.
From The Wires
From Bloomberg: More than one-fourth of operational U.S. nuclear power plants at risk of closure.
From WEKU: Radioactive waste will be enclosed and remain in a Kentucky landfill.
From the Guardian: U.K. lawmakers criticize government’s compensation offer to local communities for storage of nuclear waste.
From the University of Alberta: New particle accelerator at university can produce medical isotopes.
From Courthouse News: NextEra Energy and the federal government go to trial over nuclear waste management fees.
