RW Monitor
11/13/2015
IN THE INDUSTRY
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a public meeting concerning the August uranium hexafluoride leak at the Honeywell uranium conversion plant in Illinois. The focus of the meeting, set for Nov. 19 in Metropolis, will be the commission’s recent inspection at the property.
The leak occurred Aug. 1 during maintenance activities, and officials declared an alert, which is the lower classification of NRC’s two emergency levels, prompting an NRC special inspection. No one was injured, and the inspection confirmed that no members of the public were exposed to the material.
For the inspection, the NRC examined the sequence of events, the company’s response, and information about the material, including the performance of the plant’s detection and sampling systems. The NRC inspectors also reviewed any corrective actions the company has taken or is planning to take.
The Nov. 19 meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. local time in the Community Center located at 900 W. 10th Street in Metropolis. NRC will answer questions from the public following dissemination of inspection results.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina have found a way to successfully isolate americium from eight other elements found in spent nuclear fuel, which could improve the way the U.S. handles its spent fuel.
A report recently published in Science magazine details how a team at Chapel Hill successfully isolated the highly radioactive element using simple electrolysis, a process that stimulates chemical reaction through electric current. Isolation of the volatile americium means researchers can separate the most dangerous elements in spent nuclear fuel, potentially resulting in safer fuel storage. Currently the research can only serve theoretical purposes, and many questions concerning the reprocessing of spent fuel remain.
As part of the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management’s West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) in upstate New York, high-level waste has been placed in long-term outdoor storage for the first time, EM announced on Tuesday. The agency is working with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and project contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley LLC to relocate 55 casks from the site’s Main Plant Process Building to an “interim storage pad” by the end of 2018, according to an EM press release. This is to make way for the subsequent demolition of that structure. All of the liquid waste was vitrified by 2002, the release states.
“I could not be more proud of this team,” EM WVDP Director Bryan Bower said in a statement. “This effort is a culmination of four years’ work to begin the safe removal of the high-level waste canisters from the former reprocessing facility, allowing for the eventual demolition of the building.”
West Valley once served as the first and only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the U.S. It sits about 35 miles south of Buffalo.
“The workers have dedicated the past four years working tirelessly to plan, construct, train, and operate the specialized equipment to perform this important work,” David Brown, CHBWV project manager for the HLW project, said in a statement. “This project is called the West Valley Demonstration Project, and once again this workforce demonstrated a first-of-its-kind operation.”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing a new rule concerning severe reactor accidents, partly in response to the 2011 disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and will accept public comments through Feb. 11.
The potential rule would apply to existing commercial nuclear reactors, proposed plants, and decommissioning facilities. As written, the guidelines would require nuclear plants to maintain a standard of resources and procedures in an event where air conditioning and electrical power sources are disconnected. Proposed requirements concern the provision of equipment that can measure spent fuel pool water levels after a severe event; integrated response capability; and enhanced on-site response capabilities.
Comments can be submitted at www.regulations.gov Via DOCKET ID NRC-2014-0240; faxed to 301-415-1101; emailed to [email protected]; or mailed to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C., 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff.
