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Telluride environmental group sues Montrose County over uranium mill « Colorado Independent
Montrose County commissioners met in secret and had already made up their minds before approving a special use permit for a uranium mill in the Paradox Valley, a lawsuit filed in Montrose County District Court alleges.
The suit, filed by the Telluride-based environment organization Sheep Mountain Alliance, also accuses the commissioners of inadequately weighing the air and water quality impacts of an industrial milling operation in a valley zoned for agriculture.
Paradox Valley
Paradox Valley
The county attorney had not yet seen the suit and therefore couldn’t comment on its merits, according to the Telluride Daily Planet, but a representative of the company proposing the Piñon Ridge Mill, Energy Fuels of Ontario, Canada, said he expected such a delaying tactic.
The Associated Press: Planned uranium mill near Naturita gets local OK
A company that wants to build one of the first new U.S. uranium mills since the Cold War has won local approval and now needs state approval.
The Montrose County commissioners last month issued a permit to Toronto-based Energy Fuels Inc. for its proposed Pinon Ridge mill 12 miles west of Naturita (nat-yur'-EE'-tah) and about 340 miles southwest of Denver.
The company is preparing to submit a 12-volume application to state health regulators, triggering a technical review.
Many area residents welcome the possible return of high-paying mining jobs. Several uranium mills operated in western Colorado until the uranium market crashed in 1981 after the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island.
Portsmouth Daily Times - 45M Loan To USEC In Question
Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt (R-2nd District) released a statement Thursday condemning the U.S. Department of Energy, claiming the DOE told her office it would not supply $45 million it promised in August to the American Centrifuge Project at the USEC plant in Piketon. A spokesperson for USEC, however, said the company will continue to work with the DOE to move the project forward.
During his 2008 presidential campaign through Ohio, then-Sen. Barack Obama, wrote a letter to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland pledging his support for the centrifuge project in Piketon. Despite his pledge, the loan guarantee was denied on July 20. A spokesperson from the Obama White House told the Portsmouth Daily Times in July that the project did not appear ready for commercialization. Several weeks later, the DOE agreed to reconsider USEC’s application in six months and offered $45 million to help bring it up to DOE standards.
Thursday, Schmidt said the DOE was no longer committed to making those funds available to USEC.
Areva closing Lynchburg plant -- dailypress.com
The company building a new facility in Newport News to build components for nuclear reactors has decided to end its fuel-assembly production in Lynchburg and expand its operations in Richland, Wash.
Areva said this week it will consolidate the two operations, resulting in a job loss of about 150 in Lynchburg. Areva has operated the Washington facility for 40 years. Areva spokeswoman Judy Thomas told the Tri-City Herald, a newspaper based in Kennewick, Wash., that the 150 employees in Lynchburg will be given first choice for 50 new jobs in Richland, where Areva has 700 employees.
The French-owned energy service company announced last year it will build a $2 billion uranium enrichment plant at Idaho Falls, Idaho. It will produce a raw material for the Richland plant to turn into fuel assemblies for nuclear reactors.
Areva plans to open its Newport News manufacturing plant, a joint venture with Northrop Grumman, by 2011 on the James River waterfront near the shipyard.
Shutdown of Oak Ridge incinerator delayed | Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground | knoxnews.com
The Department of Energy's long-stated plan to shut down its Oak Ridge incinerator at the end of September has been put on hold -- at least for another month and a half.
According to Dennis Hill, a spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs Co., efforts to burn the remaining inventory of hazardous waste got delayed, in part, because some of the last liquid-waste shipments contained higher-than-expected quantities of mercury. That meant the waste had to be burned at a slower rate to meet the incinerator's emissions requirements, Hill said.
"The higher concentration waste is incinerated at lower rates to meet emission limits and, therefore, requires additional time to incinerate," Hill said. "We also are conducting tank rinse and closure activities at the same time.''
Loan guarantee expected by USEC in August | chillicothegazette.com | Chillicothe Gazette
A decision by the U.S. Department of Energy on whether the United States Enrichment Corp. (USEC) should receive a federal loan guarantee for the American Centrifuge plant in Piketon should come next month, the company says.\nAdvertisement\n\n"Based on ongoing discussions with DOE, we expect a decision on a conditional commitment by early August," said Philip G. Sewell, senior vice president of American Centrifuge and Russian HEU.\n\nThe company has repeatedly said the loan guarantee is essential to keeping the project - which is expected to keep and create thousands of jobs in an area with double-digit unemployment - alive.\n\nSewell said the company is working on a Plan B strategy in case the guarantee is not secured.
NRC - NRC Accepts GE-Hitachi Application for Uranium Enrichment Facility in North Carolina
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for formal review an application by General Electric-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment for a license to construct and operate a uranium enrichment plant using laser technology in Wilmington, N.C.
GE-Hitachi submitted the application in two stages: an environmental report, submitted on Jan. 30, and a safety report, tendered on June 26. The NRC staff has completed an initial acceptance review and determined that the application is sufficiently complete for the agency to begin its formal licensing reviews. The agency has already requested additional information from the applicant, and additional requests are possible throughout the licensing review. Acceptance of the application for review does not indicate whether the Commission will issue a license.
The Associated Press: Idaho's Risch backs deal to help enrichment plant
U.S. Sen. Jim Risch would back doubling federal loan guarantees for U.S. uranium enrichment projects to $4 billion and awarding half to a proposed new Ohio plant, if that's what it takes to help a competing proposal in Idaho that the first-term Republican fears could fall victim to politics.
Risch told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday the political clout of lawmakers in Ohio, an important battleground state in presidential politics, could wind up hurting efforts by French-owned Areva Inc. to secure the $2 billion the Department of Energy currently has set aside for loan guarantees to uranium enrichment projects.
USEC Inc. was told by the DOE in late July it wouldn't get the guarantees because its partially built plant near Cincinnati wasn't ready to go forward. Just a week later, however, the agency offered the Bethesda, Md.-based-company another six months before doing a final review of the loan application.
USEC's hope for loan guarantee gets new life | chillicothegazette.com | Chillicothe Gazette
USEC Inc.'s hope for a loan guarantee to complete work on the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon was given new life Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced late Tuesday afternoon that it plans to delay a review of USEC's application until several specific technical and financial issues have been addressed. Those issues had been cited in late July as reasons for DOE to request USEC withdraw its application for $2 billion in loan guarantees seen as critical to completion of the American Centrifuge Plant.
The unspecified amount of additional time is intended to allow USEC to fully address issues identified by DOE relating to the readiness of the company's uranium enrichment technology. DOE indicated it sees promise in the centrifuge process, but that USEC's application for the loan guarantee does not meet all statutory and regulatory standards that would allow it to be accepted.
DOE denies USEC's loan guarantee; layoffs coming | Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground | knoxnews.com
The Department of Energy has denied USEC Inc.'s application for a $2 billion loan guarantee, and the company has started "demobilizing" the American Centrifuge Project, which currently employs about 450 at its Oak Ridge manufacturing site.
"There will be layoffs," USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said this morning. However, the number and the timing of those layoffs has not been determined, she said..
Areva, Northrop Grumman break ground on Virginia nuclear facility
Areva and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding broke ground Wednesday on the first manufacturing facility for heavy commercial nuclear reactor components to be built in the US in 35 years. Michael Rencheck, CEO of Areva NP, said in an interview that once operational in mid-2012, the plant will turn out all of the heavy components needed for one Evolutionary Power Reactor a year. That involves a reactor vessel, four steam generators, and four reactor coolant pumps, he said. The plant will be built on Northrop Grumman property in Newport News, Virginia. The joint venture represents a $360 million investment and will have a global market, supplying heavy components for future EPR reactors in the US and other EPR projects, according to Rencheck. UniStar Nuclear Energy, a joint venture of Constellation Energy and France's EDF Group, is seeking a license from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate an EPR at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland.
Tenn-Ohio delegation prods Chu on USEC loan guarantee | Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground | knoxnews.com
USEC is threatening to begin demobilizing its American Centrifuge Project in August if the Dept. of Energy doesn't move forward with a commtiment on a loan guarantee, and elected officials from Tennessee and Ohio are asking Energy Secretary Steven Chu to intervene directly in the matter.
A letter signed by Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, and U.S. Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, was sent to Chu this week.
The officials said the American Centrifuge project would solidify American's leadership in uranium-enrichment technology and create about 8,000 jobs across the country. All that is being threatened because of delays on the loan guarantees, they wrote.
USEC Anticipates Loan Guarantee Decision by Early August
USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU) today announced that it expects the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to make a decision on a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee by early August. A loan guarantee conditional commitment would allow USEC to continue deployment of its American Centrifuge Plant, currently being built in Piketon, Ohio, and would ensure the security of thousands of jobs created across the country by the plant’s construction and manufacturing activities.
The Company also said that at the direction of its board of directors it is preparing demobilization plans for the American Centrifuge Plant if it does not receive a conditional commitment by early August. USEC announced in February a slowdown in the planned escalation of spending on the project and has stated that a further delay in obtaining a DOE loan guarantee would require the Company to implement further project spending reductions.
Construction Resumes on Waste Treatment Facility - KIFI - Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Jackson WY - Weather News Sports-
CH2M-WG Idaho (CWI), contractor for the Idaho Cleanup Project, resumed work Wednesday morning on construction of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) facility after suspending work on Tuesday, June 30, as a result of recent minor injuries to workers on the project.
"We met with the IWTU construction workforce this morning to review the safety issues we've experienced and to get them involved in improving safety on the project," said Brent Rankin, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for CWI. "We know from experience that the workers on the front line can help identify issues or opportunities for improvement."
The IWTU is being constructed to treat 900,000 gallons of liquid, sodium-bearing waste currently stored in three underground storage tanks at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center. Steam-reforming technology will be used to convert the liquid waste into a more stable granular solid for eventual disposal at a national geologic repository.
GE’s uranium enrichment venture still on track | StarNewsOnline.com | Star News | Wilmington, NC
GE’s uranium enrichment venture has completed its license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, staying on schedule with its efforts which are expected to bring more than 500 construction jobs to Castle Hayne as early as 2012.
Global Laser Enrichment – a business venture of nuclear power plant builders GE and Hitachi, and uranium miner Cameco – announced Tuesday completion of the venture’s license application seeking the NRC’s approval to build the world’s first commercial uranium enrichment facility to use laser technology.
Deal to build nuclear facility is dead - Augusta Chronicle
The U.S. Energy Department made official Monday its plan to scrap a Bush administration initiative that could have brought a major nuclear fuel reprocessing facility to South Carolina.
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Economic developers, however, say the cancellation of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership - published in Monday's Federal Register - doesn't mean Barnwell County and Savannah River Site won't win a similar venture in the future.
"At this point, GNEP, as a concept, is dead, but the issue of what to do with this material isn't," said Danny Black, the president of Southern Carolina Alliance, a regional economic development consortium based in Barnwell.
News Watchman - Waverly, OH > DOE seeks contractor for DUF6
The Department of Energy (DOE) last week released a request for proposals (RFP) for a contractor to perform Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) Operations at the two DUF6 conversion facilities at Piketon and Paducah, Kentucky.
The procurement will be for a single contractor to be awarded two cost-plus-award-fee contracts. The contract period will be for five years with a total estimated cost for the two contracts of $350-450 million.
These facilities will convert DOE’s inventory of DUF6, located at the Portsmouth and Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plants, into a stable chemical form that will be acceptable for transportation, reuse or disposal.
The contractor will also provide cylinder surveillance and maintenance of the DUF6, low-enrichment uranium hexafluoride (UF6) and natural assay UF6 as well as empty the cylinders that store the DUF6 in a safe and environmentally acceptable manner.
The contracts are expected to be awarded in 2010
Uranium loading at Y-12 facility predicted for March 2010 | Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground | knoxnews.com
According to the latest info from the National Nuclear Security Administration's office in Oak Ridge, the initial loading of highly enriched uranium into Y-12's new high-security storage facility is planned for March 2010.
Federal spokesman Steven Wyatt said that work would begin "following authorization to startup." But there's a lot of work that remains to be done before the new Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility is ready -- even though construction of the $549 million fortress was essentially completed in September 2008.
Columbus Dispatch : Older nuke project at risk
Even as an announcement of a plan for a nuclear-power plant was celebrated last week in Piketon, Ohio, a uranium-enrichment plant project on the same site that is to begin operating by 2011 teetered on financial collapse.
Announced 5 1/2 years ago with almost as much hoopla as the proposed nuclear project got last week, plans for the $3.5 billion enrichment plant could be dashed unless the Obama administration soon approves a $2 billion federal loan guarantee, says USEC, the suburban-Washington company slated to build the facility.
USEC applied for the loan guarantee 10 months ago under a $38.5 billion Department of Energy program launched by the Bush administration to encourage various renewable-energy and nuclear-power ventures. An enrichment plant makes material that fuels nuclear-power plants.
Kansas City advances new $673M nuclear parts plant - Kansas City Business Journal:
The Planned Industrial Expansion Authority on Friday adopted four resolutions advancing a proposed new 1.5 million-square-foot plant for the National Nuclear Security Administration at Missouri Highway 150 and Botts Road.
The motion to adopt the resolutions cut short public comments, which nuclear-disarmament advocates had dominated. The motion was made after security was asked to remove Maurice Copeland, a retiree who worked at the NNSA’s aging plant in the Bannister Federal Complex, which the new plant is designed to replace.
“People are sick and dying” from exposure to beryllium and other substances at the plant, Copeland said. Copeland, who thinks his wife developed cancer as a result of contaminants he brought home on his clothing, also charged that polluted pools were paved over with parking lots at the current plant and that employees received the equivalent of hazardous-duty pay for working in certain parts of the building.
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