The Department of Energy’s Jacobs-led cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory failed to take proper precautions before a January 2023 worker exposure to carbon monoxide, DOE’s internal enforcement wing wrote in a recent letter.
An industrial hygienist suffered physical symptoms linked to “acute” carbon monoxide (CO) exposure immediately following detection of dangerous levels of the gas within the lab’s Naval Reactor Facility, DOE Enterprise Assessments’ Office of Enforcement said in a Jan. 31 letter to contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition. While the hygienist was cleared to return to work the next day, DOE cited many concerns.
For starters DOE said engineering controls were planned “informally”. The contractor failed “to require explicit compliance with the manufacturers’ instructions” saying the equipment involved should only be used outdoors. Workers also used pipe that lacked a tight seal and allowed exhaust to vent into the building. The contractor lacked sufficient monitoring equipment and also failed to properly report the exposure via DOE and the Occupational Safety and Health forms.
A January cold snap in Washington state caused frozen pipes and damaged at least one sprinkler system at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, according to a recent report by Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board staff.
In addition to snow days for much of the Hanford workforce, a heat pump failed during the cold snap at the 222-S Laboratory maintenance annex “leading to cold temperatures inside the building, freezing some fire suppression pipes and damaging several sprinkler heads,” according to the board report dated Jan. 19. The lab’s contractor suspended work in the area until repairs could be made.
At the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, the bitter temperatures caused a damaged fire main riser at the Direct-Feed-Low Activity Waste Facilities, the board reported. Freezing also caused blocked pipes in other systems around the vitrification plant.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said this week it has transferred 365 acres of reclaimed land at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee to a local non-profit for economic redevelopment.
The land, formerly part of the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant complex, is the biggest parcel ever transferred to the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET), DOE said in a Tuesday release. The land once held a large powerhouse that provided coal-fired electricity for the uranium enrichment operations, DOE said.
Later this year, DOE said another 100 acres of land from the federal complex is expected to be transferred to the City of Oak Ridge.
The Department of Energy and its semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration plan to hold an information day Feb. 13 in Las Vegas to discuss potential clean energy, such as solar, projects at the Nevada National Security Site, the agencies announced Friday.
DOE and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will issue a Request for Qualifications, expected next month, on such potential carbon-free power projects of at least 200 megawatts at the Nevada site. A draft request for qualifications was issued previously.
“This solar project makes good use of NNSS land, generates clean energy, and brings jobs and innovation to the state of Nevada,” said NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby.
Oklo Inc., an advanced reactor developer based in California, has taken an option to buy land formerly held by the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site from the non-profit Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative where two new nuclear units might be built.
Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI) acts as a DOE community reuse organization seeking economic redevelopment of the land. The land option, announced in a Feb. 1 Oklo press release, said that in exchange for an undisclosed upfront fee the company will receive right-of-first-refusal for the property. Oklo announced in May 2023 it plans to develop nuclear units at the property.
“We are also greatly appreciative of the efforts of the DOE Office of Environmental Management in making these public-private partnerships possible,” Oklo’s co-founder and CEO Jacob DeWitte said in the Feb. 1 release. The day before, Oklo said in a press release DOE has approved the safety design strategy for the Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility at Idaho National Laboratory. Oklo says its Aurora powerhouse can generate up to 15 megawatts of electricity.
