Morning Briefing - October 06, 2022
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October 05, 2022

State, Feds formalize authorization of long-sought new landfill at Oak Ridge

By ExchangeMonitor

KNOXVILLE, TENN. – The Department of Energy’s acting manager for nuclear cleanup at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee said here Wednesday that final state and federal authorization are in hand for design and construction of a long-sought onsite low-level hazardous waste landfill.

“We had a major milestone on Friday,” when the state of Tennessee and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed the record of decision for the new Environmental Management Disposal Facility, said DOE’s Laura Wilkerson.

Wilkerson, acting chief of the DOE Office of Environmental Management field office for Oak Ridge, made the remark while speaking at the annual Business Opportunities and Technical Conference, sponsored by the Tennessee-based Energy, Technology and Environmental Business Association (ETEBA).

With the state and EPA blessing in hand, design and construction of the facility can move ahead, Wilkerson said. Construction of the first phase should start in 2028 with operation starting in 2029.

The current 2.2 million-cubic-yard landfill, the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility, which is now about 85% full, will reach its capacity by the end of the decade, DOE has said. The old one is filled mostly from construction debris from the former K-25 gaseous diffusion plant complex and the new one is needed to accommodate future material disposal from tearing down buildings at the Y-12 Nuclear Security complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Wilkerson reiterated that only low-risk Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) construction waste will go into the new facility, and other waste will be trucked out-of-state.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) and DOE have been pushing approval of the new landfill for years, calling it vital to future national defense and cleanup work at Oak Ridge.

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NEW: Via public records request, I’ve been able to confirm reporting today that a warrant has been issued for DOE deputy asst. secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition Sam Brinton for another luggage theft, this time at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid airport. (cc: @EMPublications)

DOE spent fuel lead Brinton accused of second luggage theft.



by @BenjaminSWeiss, confirming today's reports with warrant from Las Vegas Metro PD.

Waste has been Emplaced! 🚮

We have finally begun emplacing defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in Panel 8 of #WIPP.

Read more about the waste emplacement here: https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20221123-2.asp

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