Radwaste Solutions

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has released its program priorities for calendar year 2024, covering key cleanup actions, project construction, acquisition, and other important activities that will further the office’s mission of addressing the environmental legacy of the nation’s nuclear research and weapons development.

To honor the 50th anniversary of Waste Management Symposia (WMS), Longenecker & Associates (L&A) has announced an increase in its financial support for WMS’s scholarship efforts.

Since launching a 10-year commitment in 2019, L&A has contributed $125,000 to the Post Foundation, which provides scholarships for students pursuing careers in the safe management in nuclear materials and supports their participation in the annual WMS conference on the management of radioactive waste and related topics.

Nukem Technologies, a German-based radioactive waste management company, announced last week that it has successfully completed a mock-up for a state-of-the-art waste solidification plant. The plant will use the in-drum cementation process for encapsulating various types of radioactive waste into a solid, secure form suitable for long-term storage.

For the first time in a decade, crews have started mining a new disposal panel at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, the nation’s deep geologic waste repository for defense-related transuranic waste.

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration hopes to dispose of up to 34 metric tons of surplus defense-related plutonium at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico using a “dilute-and-dispose” strategy.

The Roy G. Post Foundation has announced the awarding of more than 50 graduate and undergraduate scholarships for 2024 for outstanding students who have demonstrating excellent academic achievements and leadership qualities and who have made positive impacts in their communities.

The largest group of apprentices have started a journey to become production operators for the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor.

The training team at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) recently added an extra level of realism to employee trainings by upgrading classrooms and adding new props, according to the Department of Energy.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has decided to amend Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ operating license for the Chalk River Laboratories, allowing the construction of a near surface disposal facility (NSDF) for low-level radioactive waste on the nuclear research site in Deep River, Ontario.

The Department of Energy announced that its Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) is moving ahead with a slate of projects this year that will alter the Tennessee site’s skyline, remove inventories of nuclear waste, and complete a major phase of cleanup.

A recent event co-organized by the Nuclear Energy Agency, the Electric Power Research Institute, and Holtec International brought together about 100 international experts for a workshop on spent fuel and radioactive waste.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management issued for public comment the first request for qualifications (RFQ) related to the department’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, which aims to increase energy production by making DOE land available for the potential development of carbon-free energy (CFE) electricity generation through leases.

The Department of Energy, in its 2023 Year in Review released on December 20, noted that its cleanup program in 2023 had successes in treating liquid tank waste, carrying out deactivation and decommissioning, remediating groundwater and soil contamination, and reducing risk at its various sites across the nation.

William “Ike” White, senior advisor in the DOE's Office of Environmental Management, said that the office “realized numerous accomplishments in 2023 that not only reduce risks but help position cleanup sites for the next phase of progress. In addition, our workforce’s efforts over the past year led to a cleaner environment while also boosting DOE’s national security missions, supporting scientific innovation, and enabling a better future.”

A vertical cask transporter at Ukraine’s CSFSF. (Photo: Holtec)

Holtec International announced on December 19 that Energoatom, Ukraine’s national nuclear energy company, has begun transporting spent nuclear fuel from the nation’s operating reactors to its newly built and commissioned Central Spent Fuel Storage Facility (CSFSF). The facility is expected to save Ukraine $200 million annually through avoided payment to the Russian Federation for transport and storage to that country.

According to a December 15 report by Interfax, a total of 13 spent fuel containers have already been placed at the CSFSF, which is currently operating under a three-year trial operation permit.

Background: Located inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the CSFSF is designed for the long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel from the South Ukraine, Khmelnytskyi, and Rivne nuclear power plants.

Holtec, under contract by Energoatom, completed the construction and licensing of the CSFSF in 2021. Transport of spent fuel to the facility was to begin in early 2022 but was delayed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management, which oversees department legacy sites that have been cleaned of radioactive waste and environmental contamination, debuted its first podcast on December 15. Launched in honor of the office’s 20th anniversary, the podcast series includes four episodes, each featuring a different member of the DOE-LM team.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has issued a draft request for proposal for technical support services contract for the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO), which manages the department’s cleanup efforts at the two gaseous diffusion plant sites in Ohio and Kentucky.

A significant percentage of the workforce at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee is eligible to retire in the next decade, according to the agency. In an effort to address the potential for a staffing shortage, UCOR, the DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management contractor for cleanup activities at the site, is building a consortium with colleges and universities in the region. The collaboration aims to guide more students toward nuclear-applicable careers to build the next generation of workers for Oak Ridge and the nuclear industry at large.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said Idaho’s Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) is set to resume radioactive liquid waste treatment operations early next year after crews replaced carbon material from two plant vessels. The IWTU was shut down for an unplanned outage on September 6 to address elevated mercury concentrations in the plant’s granulated activated carbon (GAC) beds, according to Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) reports.

ANO dry storage campaign professionals stand before Holtec’s 2,000th storage cask. (Photo: Holtec)

Holtec International announced that it successfully loaded its 2,000th spent nuclear fuel canister this fall as part of the ongoing dry storage campaign at Entergy’s Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO) power plant in Russellville, Ark.

Spent fuel from ANO’s two pressurized water reactors is stored in Holtec’s MPC-37 multipurpose canister, each containing 37 PWR fuel assemblies in a prismatic basket made of Holtec’s Metamic-HT material in an egg-crate configuration. The company’s HI-STORM dry fuel storage systems have been in use at ANO since 2003.

Quote: Entergy’s chief nuclear officer, Kimberly Cook-Nelson, said, “We appreciate the strong partnership that we at Entergy have with Holtec. Arkansas Nuclear One is an important facility for our company, the industry, the state of Arkansas, and the Russellville community, and having the 2,000th spent fuel dry storage system is a key milestone for our continued safe, secure, and reliable operations.”

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted Holtec Decommissioning International’s request to revise the emergency preparedness plan for the Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert, Mich., to reflect the plant’s decommissioning status.