Radwaste Solutions

Radwaste Solutions is a specialty magazine dedicated to the decommissioning, environmental remediation, and waste management segments of the nuclear community.


DOE awards $3 billion West Valley D&D contract to BWXT JV

November 1, 2024, 9:30AMRadwaste Solutions
The West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York. (Photo: DOE)

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced it has awarded a 10-year, $3 billion contract to West Valley Cleanup Alliance (WVCA) for decommissioning and demolition work at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York. WVCA is a newly formed limited liability company made up of BWXT Technical Services Group, Jacobs Technology, and Geosyntec Consultant. Teaming subcontractors include Perma-Fix Environmental Services and North Wind Portage.

Hanford treats 2,000 gallons of tank waste as part of TBI project

November 1, 2024, 7:01AMRadwaste Solutions
Using cameras placed inside a temporary shelter, nuclear chemical operator Joe McCoy monitors the pretreatment activities of the Hanford Site’s TBI demonstration. (Photo: DOE-EM)

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said that contractors have completed the treatment of 2,000 gallons of radioactive and chemical waste as part of the Hanford Site’s Test Bed Initiative project, which aims to demonstrate the feasibility of alternative options for retrieving and treating low-activity tank waste at the site in Washington state.

Amentum to consult on Ignalina decommissioning

October 31, 2024, 7:01AMRadwaste Solutions
The Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania. (Photo: INPP)

Chantilly, Va.-based Amentum has been awarded a 7-year contract estimated to be worth €5.5 million (about $6 million) to consult on the dismantling of steam drum separators in Units 1 and 2 of Lithuania’s Ignalina nuclear power plant. Once the country’s largest generator of electricity, Ignalina was permanently shut down in 2009 and the plant’s two RBMK-1500 reactors are expected to be fully decommissioned by 2038.

South Bruce votes yes on hosting Canadian repository

October 30, 2024, 9:47AMRadwaste Solutions
The municipality of South Bruce announces the unofficial results of the referendum to determine if South Bruce would be a willing host for a proposed deep geological repository. (Photo: NWMO)

The municipality of South Bruce, located near the Bruce nuclear power plant in southwestern Ontario, voted narrowly in favor of being a willing host to a potential deep geologic repository for Canada’s spent nuclear fuel. The official declaration of results from the municipality showed that 51 percent of South Bruce residents voted in favor of the referendum, with 1,604 voting "yes" and 1,526 voting "no." Voter participation was 69 percent, surpassing the 50 percent voter turnout required to make the vote binding by law.

TEPCO restarts trial retrieval of Fukushima fuel debris

October 29, 2024, 12:03PMRadwaste Solutions
Photo: TEPCO

Tokyo Electric Power Company announced yesterday that is has recommenced a trial exercise to retrieve nuclear fuel debris from Unit 2 of Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. TEPCO is attempting to retrieve a small amount of fuel debris from Unit 2’s pressure vessel for analysis before beginning a large-scale removal of the debris.

Sweden’s SKB approved to begin construction of spent fuel repository

October 29, 2024, 9:30AMRadwaste Solutions
Rendering of the Forsmark geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel in Sweden. (Image: SKB)

Sweden’s Land and Environmental Court has granted the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB, or SKB) an environmental permit to build and operate a geologic repository for the country’s spent nuclear fuel near the Forsmark nuclear power plant, about 86 miles north of Stockholm. The permit also includes the building of a spent fuel encapsulation plant at the central interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at Oskarshamn, about 200 miles south of Stockholm.

Ship shape: Dismantling the Navy’s surface ship support barge

October 29, 2024, 7:03AMRadwaste SolutionsBruce Fox, David Lowe, Jack Reust, and Sean McCutcheon
The U.S. Navy’s Surface Ship Support Barge arrives in Mobile, Ala., for demolition after being towed by sea from Virginia. (Photos: APTIM)

The U.S. Navy’s Surface Ship Support Barge, converted in the 1960s from a WWII T2 tanker to a support barge to accept spent nuclear fuel during the refueling of nuclear aircraft carriers, was dismantled and disposed of by the nuclear decommissioning company APTIM as a first-of-its-kind vessel dismantlement project for the Navy. The project was executed under contract with Naval Sea Systems Command; however, regulatory oversight was accomplished through an interagency framework agreement between the U.S. Navy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Workshop highlights commercial fabrication of universal waste canister

October 28, 2024, 9:30AMRadwaste Solutions
Members of the UPWARDS technical advisory committee stand in front of a prototype universal canister system. (Photo: Deep Isolation)

Deep Isolation announced that it hosted its third technical workshop for the UPWARDS project, a Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) initiative aimed at developing a universal canister system (UCS) for the disposal of radioactive waste streams from advanced reactors. The workshop, held at R-V Industries in Honey Brook, Pa., focused on the large-scale manufacturing and commercialization of the UCS.

Sellafield not “achieving value for money,” according to U.K. watchdog

October 25, 2024, 12:00PMRadwaste Solutions
The Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, England. (Photo: NEA/OECD)

Despite progress made over the past years, the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has not seen an adequate return on investment in cleaning up the Sellafield nuclear site on England’s Cumbria coast, according to a new report by the U.K.’s National Audit Office, which scrutinizes government spending.

BWXT approved to begin work under Hanford tank waste contract

October 21, 2024, 9:30AMRadwaste Solutions
Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, also known as the Vit Plant. (Photo: Bechtel National)

BWX Technologies announced that the Department of Energy has approved Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) to begin work under a contract valued at up to $45 billion to clean up tank waste at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash. H2C is a limited liability company made up of BWXT Technical Services Group, Amentum Environment and Energy, and Fluor Federal Services.

DOE plans removal of naval prototype reactor, opens public comment period

October 17, 2024, 12:00PMRadwaste Solutions
The S5G prototype, which was constructed to simulate submarine operations and could mimic ocean-like conditions, is positioned inside a subgrade basin. (Photo: IEC)

The Department of Energy is proposing to fully decommission the Submarine 5th Generation General Electric (S5G) prototype at the Naval Reactors Facility on the Idaho National Laboratory site. Along with the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Idaho, the DOE has initiated a 30-day public comment period (ending November 14) on the planned end state for the facility and its defueled reactor vessel.

Japanese fuel disposition mission starts at Savannah River Site

October 15, 2024, 3:00PMRadwaste Solutions

Employees at the H Canyon Chemical Separations Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina recently began the dissolution of nuclear material from a Japanese research reactor, leading to its safe disposal.

The D&D of SM-1A

October 11, 2024, 3:00PMRadwaste SolutionsThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District
A team member wearing a powered air-purifying respirator prepares to enter the SM-1A vapor containment structure. (Photo: USACE/David Gray)

With the recent mobilization at the site of the former SM-1A nuclear power plant at Fort Greely, Alaska, the Radiological Health Physics Regional Center of Expertise, located at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Baltimore District, began its work toward the decommissioning and dismantlement of its third nuclear power plant, this time located just 175 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

Wild Summer: Nature returns to DOE Legacy Management sites

October 10, 2024, 1:26PMRadwaste SolutionsDOE Office of Legacy Management
A whitetail buck stops at the Fernald Preserve. (Photo: Jeff Sluder/LM)

Focused on the post-cleanup management of closed Department of Energy sites, the DOE Office of Legacy Management (LM) is responsible for the long-term surveillance and maintenance of more than 100 sites across the United States and Puerto Rico associated with past radiological and nuclear material production and testing, and energy research—some dating from as early as the Manhattan Project. With cleanup completed, many of these sites have been put to beneficial reuse and repurposed as parks and nature preserves, where visitors can witness the return of thriving ecosystems.

The Cumbria Robotics Cluster: Bolstering innovation and collaboration in the U.K.

October 10, 2024, 1:25PMRadwaste Solutions
The JCB excavator robot developed by Forth Engineering for the Sellafield nuclear site.

Robotics is fast becoming a go-to for nuclear decommissioning advances, and several organizations working in West Cumbria, England, the hub of the United Kingdom’s energy sector, have formed a partnership to share insight and work together to address common challenges and opportunities. Cumbria Robotics Cluster is an ambitious initiative powered by the Industrial Solutions Hub (iSH) to harness and expand the region’s renowned capabilities in cutting-edge engineering and problem solving.

Orano completes transport & disposal of Crystal River-3 RPV

October 9, 2024, 9:29AMRadwaste Solutions

Orano USA announced that it has recently completed the transportation and disposal of the dismantled Crystal River Unit 3 reactor using only four large packages, which were shipped more than 1,800 miles each by barge and multi-axle trailer from the nuclear power reactor’s site on Florida’s west coast to Waste Control Specialists’ disposal facility in Andrews County, Texas.

DOE consolidates Hanford’s management offices

October 7, 2024, 7:00AMRadwaste Solutions
The Hanford Field Office leadership team gathers around a new sign at the Stevens Center Complex in Richland, Wash., on October 1. (Photo: DOE)

Beginning last week, the two Department of Energy offices responsible for the environmental cleanup of the department’s Hanford Site have been combined under a new name: the Hanford Field Office. Previously, management of the 586-square-mile site near Richland, Wash., was split between the Richland Operations Office and the DOE Office of River Protection (ORP).

Keeping up with Kewaunee

October 4, 2024, 3:14PMRadwaste Solutions
Wisconsin’s Kewaunee nuclear power plant as it appeared in May of this year. A number of ancillary buildings have already been demolished and their waste removed. The intermodal waste transportation staging areas can be seen to the left. The site ISFSI is out of view to the right. (Photo: EnergySolutions)

In October 2012, Dominion Energy announced it was closing the Kewaunee nuclear power plant, a two-loop 574-MWe pressurized water reactor located about 27 miles southeast of Green Bay, Wis., on the western shore of Lake Michigan. At the time, Dominion said the plant was running well, but that low wholesale electricity prices in the region made it uneconomical to continue operation of the single-unit merchant power plant.

GAO: DOE should pause work on Hanford’s HLW Facility

October 3, 2024, 9:30AMRadwaste Solutions
Hanford’s HLW Facility under construction in early 2024. (Photo: Bechtel National)

The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the Department of Energy put a hold on construction of its High-Level Waste Facility at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash. The GAO said design and construction of the facility, part of Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, also known as the Vit Plant, should be paused until several actions are taken, including considering other alternatives for managing the site’s high-level radioactive liquid waste.