Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) joined with the state’s full congressional delegation on Wednesday to demand the Department of Energy further study the potential earthquake risk to the location of the planned nuclear waste disposal facility under Yucca Mountain.
The letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry followed two earthquakes on July 4 and 5 in Southern California, about 100 miles southwest of where the waste repository would be built in Nye County, Nev. The earthquakes measured 6.4 and 7.1, respectively, on the Richter scale.
“The Ridgecrest earthquakes emphasize the necessity of reexamining the seismic hazards present at Yucca Mountain and specifically their linkage to seismic events in California,” according to the Nevada letter, which notes that both Ridgecrest and Yucca Mountain are located within the Walker Lane-Eastern California Shear Zone. “Recent events, our experts at [the University of Nevada, Las Vegas] conclude, suggest that the risk of destructive earthquakes will increase in the future. DOE has improperly minimized these risks.”
The letter was signed by Sisolak and the state’s two senators and four congresspeople. All but Rep. Mark Amodei are Democrats.
Supporters of the Yucca Mountain approach said after the California earthquakes that federal research to date has shown it to be well placed against seismic hazards. A safety evaluation report from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission identified the potential for a “low-probability, high-risk” earthquake at one in 100 million, according to Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.).
Nevada leaders at the state and federal levels have for decades opposed making their state home to other states’ nuclear waste, as directed in the 1987 amendment to the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Even as they called for more earthquake research, Sisolak and the congressional delegation said the state remains committed to fighting any attempt to resume the long-frozen licensing for Yucca Mountain.
The Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission together requested about $150 million for the upcoming fiscal 2020 to resume licensing, which the Obama administration defunded in 2010. The House has already rejected that request in a multi-agency “minibus” funding bill. The Senate has yet to issue any appropriations legislation for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. Congress rejected similar funding requests for fiscal 2018 and 2019.
The U.S. Department of Energy is seeking a consultant to assist in developing investment strategies for the federal fund that would pay for licensing, construction, and operation of a disposal facility for the nation’s nuclear waste.
The agency on July 9 issued a request for quotes for investment consulting services to the Office of Standard Contract Management within DOE’s Office of the General Counsel, “regarding strategy and investments in the Nuclear Waste Fund.” The deadline for responses is 3 p.m. Eastern time on July 23 via FedConnect, encompassing quote documents, a technical proposal, and a price proposal.
“The successful contractor shall provide support to the DOE Investment Manager with the purpose of assisting the manager in making appropriate investments for the Fund,” according to the Energy Department notice. “The DOE regularly invests fee income and portfolio interest and maturing securities. The investment manager, a U.S. government employee, selects appropriate investments for this available cash. The DOE is restricted to investments in U.S. Treasury Securities. No other asset allocation (e.g. equities, corporate bonds), nor are derivatives (e.g. options) is permitted as part of any investment strategy.”
The contract will be limited to small businesses. In descending order of importance, the DOE award will be based on: the small-business designation of the provider; key personnel; technical approach and understanding; corporate experience; availability of resources; past performance; and price.
The fund was established through the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. From 1983 through fiscal 2018, the account earned nearly $50.6 billion from three funding streams: receipts from commercial nuclear power operators; receipts from defense nuclear generators; and interest income, gains, and other revenue. Of that, $11.4 billion has been spent. The remaining balance as of the end of fiscal 2018, on Sept. 30 of last year, was $39.2 billion.
AECOM on Monday named a senior executive with the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to lead the international arm of the company’s Management Services nuclear and strategic environment branch.
David Batters will join AECOM on Sept. 1 as senior vice president and international sector lead for the Management Services nuclear and environment unit.
The Los Angeles-based infrastructure company said last month it will in 2020 spin off the Management Services business, which encompasses its U.S. government and commercial nuclear decommissioning contracting, into a separate publicly traded company.
Batters has 32 years of international experience, including the last nine years with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, AECOM said. Batters is currently group chief financial officer at NDA, with responsibilities ranging from finance to mergers and acquisitions from Europe to Saudi Arabia. Before NDA, Batters spent 23 years with BAE Systems.
In his new post, Batters will lead AECOM’s nuclear and environmental business for commercial and government clients in European and Asian markets.
“David Batters’ international experience and knowledge in the nuclear industry will allow us to further our momentum in the international government and commercial nuclear market,” John Vollmer, president of AECOM’s Management Services group, said in a press release. “This appointment strengthens our international presence in a key growth opportunity market as we implement the spin-off of our new company in 2020.”
AECOM says the as-yet-to-be named Management Services spinoff will have more than 25,000 employees and significant growth potential.
Batters will report to Mark Whitney, executive vice president and general manager of AECOM’s nuclear and environment strategic business unit.
AECOM is a big player in nuclear cleanup for the Department of Energy. Its Nuclear Waste Partnership joint venture with BWX Technologies is the management prime for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the federal transuranic waste disposal site in New Mexico. AECOM is also a partner in contractors for waste management at DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and remediation of the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
With the spinoff, the Management Services company aims to further grow its nuclear decommissioning business, such as its partnership with EnergySolutions for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California.
The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said Tuesday it had issued a three-year extension for a partnership encompassing 17 companies performing cleanup activities at the Sellafield nuclear site.
The Decommissioning Delivery Partnership, formed in 2016, will now remain on the job at least through 2026, according to an NDA press release.
The partnership to date has provided £385 million worth of project work and 4.5 million hours without a lost-time accident, the release says. Among its milestones are teardown of the Windscale Pile Chimney and removal of waste and sludge from the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond.
After operating for decades in support of the United Kingdom’s nuclear weapons and power sectors, the Sellafield site today is in the end stage of its nuclear fuel reprocessing mission and home to ongoing remediation overseen by the NDA-owned Sellafield Ltd.
The work handled by the Decommissioning Delivery Partnership is split into three “lots” covering different decommissioning projects at the Cumbria property.
Lot 1 covers remediation, the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo, the Pile Fuel Storage Pond, and other sizable projects. The companies there are: Integrated Decommissioning Solutions (Atkins, Altrad Hertel, North West Projects and Westlakes Engineering), Nexus Decommissioning Alliance (Costain, Mott Macdonald, Nuvia, and Squibb Group); ADAPT (Orano, Doosan, and Atkins); Cumbria Nuclear Solutions Ltd. (Jacobs, React, James Fisher Nuclear, Shepley Engineers, Westinghouse Electric Company, and WYG Engineering).
Lot 2 covers the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond. The company there is the Decommissioning Alliance (Jacobs, Atkins, Westinghouse Electric Co. UK Ltd.).
Lot 3 covers the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo. The company there is I3 Decommissioning Partners (Wood, Altrad Hertel, and Shepley Engineers).
From The Wires
From CNN: Columbia University researchers determine sections of the Marshall Islands, used for U.S. nuclear testing during the Cold War, are more radioactive than site of Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster.
