Defense Low-Level Waste

A mixture of state and local emergency responders plus “commercial inspectors” and “other authorities” on Monday evening cleared a truck fire involving radioactive waste off of a highway in Tennessee, the Nashville Fire Department said. A vehicle the fire department identified as a “semi-truck” caught fire in the westbound lanes of Interstate 40, about 10 […]

Industry will wait at least until May before seeing the rationale Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff used to justify parts of a coming rule to expand disposal options for Greater-Than-Class-C radioactive waste, officials said Tuesday in an online public meeting. The two-hour, online-only meeting was the latest in a long string of opportunities for the public […]

In coming weeks, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will review hundreds more documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act request about a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, according to a Jan. 5 court filing. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the […]

The Air Force’s mishandling and possibly inadequate monitoring of radioactive material over several years at the Kirtland Air Force Base is still on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s radar, a Christmas-week regulatory filing shows. Though the Air Force has dealt with half the 14 apparent violations identified in 2022 by NRC at the base near Albuquerque, […]

The Air Force’s mishandling and possibly inadequate monitoring of radioactive material over several years at the Kirtland Air Force Base is still on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s radar, a Christmas-week regulatory filing shows. Though the Air Force has dealt with half the 14 apparent violations identified in 2022 by NRC at the base near Albuquerque, […]

The Department of Energy is taking public comment until Dec. 12 on its draft finding that certain radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory can be disposed of there as low- rather than high-level waste. The draft document “demonstrates that the Calcined Solids Storage Facility (CSSF) at closure after waste retrieval is not high-level radioactive […]

The Department of Energy is taking public comment until Dec. 12 on its draft finding that certain radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory can be disposed of there as low- rather than high-level waste. The draft document “demonstrates that the Calcined Solids Storage Facility (CSSF) at closure after waste retrieval is not high-level radioactive […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District held a public meeting Tuesday in New York state about planned cleanup of the Niagara Falls Storage Site. The site, to be cleaned up under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), includes a 10-acre Interim Waste Containment Structure, which holds radiologically contaminated debris, the Corps […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has launched its market research for up to $40 million worth of environmental restoration work around the Superfund site in Maywood, N.J., according to a procurement notice published online Friday. A sources sought notice was issued online Friday in the Systemwide Awards Management website (SAM.gov) for small businesses to […]

The Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio last week made its first rail shipment of depleted uranium oxide containers to the Waste Control Specialists disposal site in West Texas, DOE announced Tuesday. The shipment of 120 storage cylinders from the Mid-America Conversion Services depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plant at the former gaseous diffusion […]

The Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio last week made its first rail shipment of depleted uranium oxide containers to the Waste Control Specialists disposal site in West Texas, DOE announced Tuesday. The shipment of 120 storage cylinders from the Mid-America Conversion Services depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plant at the former gaseous diffusion […]

The Department of Energy, contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge and various state and local officials broke ground Wednesday on a new $550-million low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, DOE said in a press release. The new Environmental Management Disposal Facility will provide onsite disposal of debris generated as DOE continues […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge will break ground this summer on a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit here Tuesday. “I’m proud to announce that on Aug. 2 in Oak Ridge we are going to […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge will break ground this summer on a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit here Tuesday. “I’m proud to announce that on Aug. 2 in Oak Ridge we are going to […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff plan to submit a proposed rulemaking about near-surface disposal of Greater Than Class C waste to the commission in November, officials told the public Wednesday. The proposed rule, years in the making, combines a 2015 inquiry into a rules change for Greater-Than-Class-C (GTCC) waste with changes to low-level waste disposal governed […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff plan to submit a proposed rulemaking about near-surface disposal of Greater Than Class C waste to the commission in November, officials told the public Wednesday. The proposed rule, years in the making, combines a 2015 inquiry into a rules change for Greater-Than-Class-C (GTCC) waste with changes to low-level waste disposal governed […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission planned to hold a meeting Wednesday about a long-awaited proposed rulemaking that will cover both low-level waste and Greater Than Class C waste. The NRC last week published a few of the slides it planned to brief at Wednesday’s scheduled meeting, on the slate for 1:00 p.m. Eastern time and officially […]

The Department of Energy considers 2,000 gallons of tank waste earmarked for the test-bed initiative at the Hanford Site in Washington state to be low-level radioactive waste and not high-level waste, the agency wrote in a Federal Register notice published this week. The notice, officially the final Waste Incidental to Reprocessing Determination, which is now […]

The Department of Energy considers 2,000 gallons of tank waste earmarked for the test-bed initiative at the Hanford Site in Washington state to be low-level radioactive waste and not high-level waste, the agency wrote in a Federal Register notice published Monday morning. The notice, officially the final Waste Incidental to Reprocessing Determination, which is now […]

Two federal agencies and the state of Idaho signed off on expansion of a low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), DOE and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality have agreed to expand the existing on-site Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act waste […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The existing low-level hazardous waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is likely to hit capacity before its replacement is ready in 2029, a manager with prime contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge said here Thursday. There are probably about five more years left on the existing Environmental […]

The state of Tennessee kicked off a comment period this week about a long-debated low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Oak Ridge Site, which would replace one expected to reach capacity this decade, a citizens’ advisory board heard Wednesday. The comment period on the planned Environmental Management Disposal Facility (EMDF) began Monday and runs through […]

The state of Tennessee kicked off a comment period this week about a long-debated low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Oak Ridge Site, which would replace one expected to reach capacity this decade, a citizens’ advisory board heard Wednesday. The comment period on the planned Environmental Management Disposal Facility (EMDF) began Monday and runs through […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved an agency staff suggestion to combine two ongoing radioactive-waste rulemakings into one in an effort to streamline the process, according to a memo this week. The commissioners’ unanimous approval, announced in a Wednesday memo, means that NRC staff will now re-issue a new proposed rulemaking combining an existing inquiry […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved an agency staff suggestion to combine two ongoing radioactive-waste rulemakings into one in an effort to streamline the process, according to a Wednesday memo. The commissioners’ unanimous approval means that NRC staff will now re-issue a new proposed rulemaking combining an existing inquiry into a rules change for Greater-Than-Class-C […]

In a development that could open the door for moving more federal radioactive waste to commercial disposal sites, the Department of Energy this week affirmed it would continue a 2019 that found certain less-risky high-level radioactive waste can be treated and disposed of as low-level waste. To that end, DOE on Wednesday issued a Federal […]

A Department of Energy policy from 2019 that found certain less-risky high-level radioactive waste can be treated and disposed of as low-level waste was, on further review, upheld by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, the agency said Thursday. To that end, DOE on Wednesday issued a Federal Register notice affirming that this altered interpretation of […]

The volume of low-level radioactive waste shipped to the Nevada National Security Site from Department of Energy cleanup sites is picking up again after dipping to half of its normal level of more than 1 million cubic feet per year during the pandemic, an agency official at the site told the Nevada Site Specific Advisory […]

The ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and a June legal settlement between the state and the Department of Energy to prevent mislabeled radioactive waste shipments from again ending up at the Nevada National Security Site dominate the site’s just released 2020 environmental report. The settlement reached this summer calls upon DOE to increase the vetting and […]

The ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and a June legal settlement between the state and the Department of Energy to prevent mislabeled radioactive waste shipments from again ending up at the Nevada National Security Site dominate the site’s just released 2020 environmental report. The report also notes that the wildland fires burned 3,150 acres […]