Defense Low-Level Waste

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday it has scheduled a meeting on apparent violations of federal low-level radioactive waste transport regulations by uranium producer Cameco Resources. The regulator said in an April 3 letter to Cameco that it is considering “escalated enforcement action” after identifying nine seeming breaches of NRC and U.S. Transportation Department rules […]

Police in Bridgeton, Mo., on Friday arrested 12 people who were preventing vehicle access to the West Lake and Bridgeton landfills, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Protesters said they were concerned about the proximity of radioactive waste at the West Lake Landfill, material from a former uranium production facility at Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in St. Louis, […]

The Department of Energy hopes this year to issue a report to Congress on disposal of Greater Than Class C waste and receive clarity on what action from Capitol Hill is needed to advance the long-brewing effort to permanently deal with the radioactive material, a DOE official said last week. The federal government is legally responsible […]

The mayor of the village of Piketon wants the Energy Department to fund an independent assessment of the nuclear landfill the agency wants to build at the former uranium enrichment site near the small town in southeast Ohio. DOE formally decided to build the proposed 100-acre on-site disposal cell in 2015, saying it was the least […]

The mayor of the village of Piketon wants the Energy Department to fund an independent assessment of the nuclear landfill the agency wants to build at the former uranium enrichment site near the small town in southeast Ohio. DOE formally decided to build the proposed 100-acre on-site disposal cell in 2015, saying it was the least […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has determined it has jurisdiction over the Mixed Waste Landfill at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, but will forgo oversight of the facility, DNFSB Chairman Joyce Connery said in an Oct. 27 letter to a nongovernmental watchdog organization. The closed landfill covers 2.6 acres at the Department of […]

A new heat extraction system is now operable in the neck area of the Bridgeton Landfill, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday as it works with landfill owner Republic Services to install an isolation barrier intended to prevent an underground fire from coming into contact with nuclear waste material. The underground fire has been burning […]

Amid other defense waste developments at the sprawling Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a recent report from lab prime contractor Los Alamos National Security (LANS) continued what has become an annual drumbeat for moving newly generated low-level waste off-site. In its Los Alamos National Laboratory 2015 Annual Site Environmental Report, published last week, LANS […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory prime contractor Los Alamos National Security has prohibited access to potentially explosive containers of tritium waste at the Area G waste management area, according to a recently published report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Reached by email Wednesday, lab spokesman Peter Hyde said he could not reply to questions about the status of […]

Washington Closure Hanford isolated a barrel of waste that began smoking last week at the 618-10 Burial Ground of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., and said no one was injured in the incident. Washington Closure Hanford (WCH), which is in the final month of an 11-year, $3 billion cleanup contract for much of […]

Two decades after the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF) opened at the Hanford Site, it has racked up impressive numbers, said Scott Sax, president of Washington Closure Hanford, on Wednesday as officials and workers gathered to mark the anniversary. Almost 18 million tons of waste material have been disposed of at the landfill for mixed […]

Environmental regulators, the city of Oak Ridge, Tenn., and community activists have pushed the Department of Energy to explore more alternatives before choosing a definitive site for a new CERCLA landfill for disposal of hazardous and radioactive wastes generated during cleanup projects at the Oak Ridge Reservation. The department had previously put its eggs in […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will not consider legislation that would transfer cleanup authority at the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Missouri from the Environmental Protection Agency to the U.S. Army Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), a committee aide told RadWaste Monitor on Monday. Residents near the Bridgeton, Mo., landfill have […]

The Energy Department said Friday it has finished upgrading a facility that cleans up off-site contaminated groundwater at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Paducah, Ky. “Equipment at the C-612 Northwest Pump-and-Treat Facility that had reached the end of its service life or no longer had available replacement parts was replaced with newer equipment […]

The Energy Department said Friday it has finished upgrading a facility that cleans up off-site contaminated groundwater at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Paducah, Ky. “Equipment at the C-612 Northwest Pump-and-Treat Facility that had reached the end of its service life or no longer had available replacement parts was replaced with newer equipment […]

While concerns have been raised about the proposed location of the Department of Energy’s new CERCLA landfill in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a DOE contractor is continuing to work on design of the waste-disposal facility. The department is evaluating a number of sites on the government’s Oak Ridge Reservation because of concerns raised by environmental regulators […]

Hanford Site officials plan to pile waste above grade at the massive central Hanford landfill to expand its capacity rather than digging a new waste cell immediately. Plans call for adding another 20 feet of layered waste and soil to the top of the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. Initially, ERDF was planned to stand about […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 12/4/2015 The Department of Energy is preparing a fourth draft of the remedial investigation/feasibility study (RI/FS) for a new CERCLA landfill in Oak Ridge, which underscores the number of issues raised by environmental regulators and the continuing differences about the project, which DOE deems critical to finishing the environmental cleanup campaign […]

Chris Schneidmiller RW Monitor 11/13/2015 Removal of low-level radiological waste began last month from the STURGIS barge, the world’s first floating atomic energy facility, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Friday. The one-time World War II Liberty Ship earlier this year was towed 1,750 miles from the James River Reserve Fleet in Virginia […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/30/2015 The Department of Energy anticipates publication of the final environmental impact statement for its not-yet-known preferred alternative for the disposal of Greater Than Class C waste and GTCC-like waste by the end of next quarter, a senior DOE official said this week during a hearing of the House Energy […]

The Department of Energy anticipates publication of its final environmental impact statement for its not-yet-known preferred alternative for the disposal of Greater Than Class C waste and GTCC-like waste by the end of next quarter, a senior DOE official said yesterday during a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Environment and the Economy Subcommittee. […]

Chris Schneidmiller WC Monitor 8/28/2015 The Department of Energy is pressing a contractor to address the recent spread of strontium particles from a burial site for highly radioactive waste at the Hanford Site. A Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site report released this month said the DOE Richland Operations Office “issued a letter to the […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 07/31/2015 The Department of Energy and state of Washington have reached agreement on proposed new Tri-Party Agreement milestones for solid waste stored at the Hanford Site. The Tri-Party Agreement agencies will consider adopting the changes after a public meeting and public comment period. Following revisions five years ago, DOE has asked […]

The Department of Energy and state of Washington have reached agreement on proposed new Tri-Party Agreement milestones for solid waste at the Hanford Site. The Tri-Party Agencies will consider adopting the changes after a public meeting and public comment period. Following revisions five years ago, DOE has asked the state to again revisit the M-091 series of […]

The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection put out a request for public comment last week on the draft permit for the Department of Energy’s waste disposal facilities at the Nevada National Security Site  (NNSS). The permit would cover four hazardous waste management units owned by the Department of Energy. Each unit had been permitted on […]

Jeremy L. Dillon WC Monitor 6/26/2015 The Department of Energy plans to complete by the end of this year the Environmental Impact Statement on the preferred alternative for the disposal of Greater Than Class C waste and GTTC-like waste, DOE-EM’s Director of the Office of Disposal Operations Doug Tonkay said last week at the EPRI […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/15/2015 A new round of sampling at the West Lake Landfill began this week as the Environmental Protection Agency Region Seven attempts to understand exactly where all the radiologically-impacted material at the site is located. According to the EPA, this effort is a continuation of the investigation performed in late […]

A new round of sampling at the West Lake Landfill is set to begin this morning as the Environmental Protection Agency Region Seven attempts to understand exactly where all the radiologically-impacted material at the site is located. According to the EPA, this effort is a continuation of the investigation performed in late 2013 and early […]

ERDF Reaches New Waste Disposal Milestone WC Monitor 3/20/2015 The Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility has reached a new milestone of 17 tons of hazardous chemical and low level radioactive waste from across Hanford disposed since it opened in 1996. “Reaching 17 million tons of material disposed at ERDF shows the excellent cleanup work being done […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/20/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment on its proposed draft list of prioritized low-level radioactive waste (LLW) tasks based upon updates to its 2007 strategic assessment, according to a posting in the Federal Register late last week. The NRC released a strategic assessment list for high-priority LLW […]