After a delay of more than a year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on Tuesday gave Jacobs Field Services North America the green light to begin cleanup at the Shallow Land Disposal Area near Pittsburgh.
The Army Corps awarded the $350 million radiological remediation contract to the Houston-based Jacobs subsidiary in April 2017, then put it on hold following protests from one or more of the other bidders. In August 2017, the Army branch agreed to reassess all the bids on the project. After an extended process, it determined Jacobs still provides the best value, according to a press release from the USACE Pittsburgh District.
“We believe we have addressed the concerns and the issues that were raised by the protesting contractor,” Pittsburgh District spokesman Jeff Hawk said Wednesday.
Details regarding the procurement process – including the number of bids and protests, along with the reasoning behind the protests and the Army Corps’ decision – were not released this week.
On its website, the Pittsburgh District cites protests from “unsuccessful bidders” filed with the Government Accountability Office. The GAO closed those cases when the Army Corps agreed to re-evaluate the bids.
Jacobs will now begin developing the work plan for Shallow Land. That might involve a year of work covering development of the site safety protocol; site and security activities; material removal, storage, and transport operations; staffing needs; emergency response; and oversight.
That would be followed by infrastructure upgrades starting around the middle of 2020, assuming the work plan is ready, funding is appropriated, and weather allows. Actual cleanup would begin about a year later.
The project, carried out under the Army Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), involves removal of 21,300 cubic yards of soil, debris, and other radiological waste spread over 44 acres in Parks Township from work under contracts for the Atomic Energy Commission, largely for fuel for nuclear submarines and power plants.
Waste removal had been anticipated before the contract protest to begin in 2019 and last up to a decade. The protest delayed work by about 14 months, Hawk said.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday handed off some authority for regulation of radioactive materials in Wyoming to the state government.
The five-person federal commission unanimously approved establishing Wyoming as an NRC agreement state in votes taken from Aug. 30 to Sept. 6.
“In reaching its conclusion that Wyoming’s proposed program would be compatible with NRC’s program and adequate to protect public health and safety, the NRC staff evaluated Wyoming’s proposed program against 36 criteria related to radiation protection standards,
inspection, enforcement, personnel, administration, and other key aspects of an effective program. I found the staff’s evaluation to be thorough and its findings well-reasoned,” Commissioner Jeff Baran said in comments attached to his notation vote.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki and Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) signed the agreement.
This makes Wyoming the 38th agreement state to the federal agency. As of Sunday it will officially assume oversight of licensing, rulemaking, inspection, and enforcement responsibilities for “source material involved in uranium or thorium milling and the management and disposal of milling waste,” according to an NRC press release. That will specifically cover 14 uranium recovery licenses.
“Wyoming had to develop a program that would meet the NRC compatibility requirements to become an Agreement State,” Kyle Wendtland, Land Quality Division administrator at the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, said in a state press release. “In order to accomplish this goal, Wyoming had to implement new governing statutes, rules and regulations, guidance, and policies and procedures compatible with NRC’s requirements.”
If Wyoming had any nuclear power facilities, they would still be regulated by the NRC. The federal regulator will also retain authority over use of select radioactive materials in Wyoming by federal organizations and radioactive material applications that do not involve uranium and thorium milling.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved legislation intended to increase transparency in fee collection at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and promote establishment for local advisory boards to nuclear power plants undergoing decommissioning.
The Nuclear Utilization of Keynote Energy (NUKE) Act, from Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), passed on a voice vote. It was advanced to the Senate, which referred the legislation to its Environment and Public Works Committee.
Among the measures in the bill:
- In its annual budget proposals, the NRC would be required to “expressly identify” the funds it believes it would need to carry out its plan of work for that year. It should then take steps to use those funds for those purposes. The percentage of “corporate support costs” within the overall budget proposal would be limited at 30 percent from fiscal 2021-2022, 29 percent from fiscal 2023-2024, and 28 percent afterward.
- The NRC would have 18 months after the bill is enacted to provide Congress with a report addressing “best practices with respect to the establishment and operation of a local community advisory board to foster communication and information exchange between a licensee planning for and involved in decommissioning activities and members of the community that decommissioning activities may affect, including lessons learned from any such board in existence before the date of enactment of this Act.”
The trade group for the U.S. nuclear industry last week inked a formal cooperation agreement with the United Nations’ nuclear agency.
The “practical arrangement” between the Nuclear Energy Institute and the International Atomic Energy Agency provides for bilateral sharing of information and best practices on building, operating, and decommissioning nuclear power plants, according to an NEI press release. It also extends to fielding of nuclear technologies.
Another outcome will be increased communication between U.S. nuclear industry and its counterparts around the world, according to Dan Lipman, NEI vice president for suppliers, new reactors, and international programs. He signed the agreement Thursday in Vienna, Austria, with IAEA Deputy Director General Mikhail Chudakov.
“Because of our largely private, nongovernmental nature, the U.S. nuclear industry has long been challenged in effectively engaging with the IAEA’s member state structure,” Lipman said in the release. “Through this practical arrangement, NEI will be able to help bridge this divide—enabling increased cooperation, exchange of information, experience and practice with the international nuclear community.”
Washington, D.C.-based NEI represents members across a broad swath of the nuclear industry, including nuclear utilities, reactor designers, medical isotope makers, fuel providers, and others. The IAEA, meanwhile, is the United Nations’ lead agency for promotion of the peaceful uses of atomic energy and deterrence of nuclear proliferation.
In a separate release, the U.N. agency listed seven distinct areas of anticipated cooperation with the Nuclear Energy Institute, including: enhancing capabilities for “safe, reliable and efficient construction, operation and decommissioning of current and future nuclear power plants”; generally in dismantlement and decommissioning of nuclear plants; and addressing technical and economic issues for nuclear power in IAEA member states with ongoing nuclear operations.
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