The Department of Energy is teaming up with Leidos and the Conductive Group to develop a plant at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio to recycle radiologically surface-contaminated nickel, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), said in a press release this week.
DOE previously sought expressions of interest for parties interested in developing such a facility at the former gaseous diffusion plant. “For two decades, the United Steelworkers have been trying to unlock the potential of recycling the nickel from the DOE Portsmouth site to support reindustrialization,” said Herman Potter, President, Local USW Local 689 in the Brown press release.
DOE has said there is more than 6,000 tons of surface-contaminated nickel at Portsmouth, which could be used in modern battery products including those used with electric vehicles.
Since the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant started operating in 1999, shipments of transuranic waste have traveled more than 17 million miles on the way to the underground salt mine near Carlsbad, N.M., DOE said in a press release this week.
CAST Specialty Transportation is Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)’s transportation contractor. The carrier established itself as the waste hauler to WIPP in 2003 and has held the business since then, according to the company website.
CASTS’s current Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract is worth up to $100 million and began in June 2022 and extends into June 2027, according to DOE data.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is celebrating its 35th anniversary on Friday Oct. 18, the agency said in a press release.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was created by Congress in the fiscal 1989 National Defense Authorization Act and signed into law on Sept. 29, 1988 by President Ronald Reagan, according to the board press release. Creation of the agency led by a five-member board was sparked by 1980s concerns about the safety of the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex.
“The defense nuclear landscape is continually evolving, and safety standards and innovation should continue to evolve as well,” DNFSB Chair Joyce Connery said in the release “This anniversary is a moment to celebrate our achievements, and to recommit ourselves to the critical mission of safeguarding our nation’s defense nuclear facilities.” DNFSB provides the secretary of energy with outside safety analysis and recommendations. The secretary is not required to follow the recommendations but must respond to the DNFSB in writing.
