U.S.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved on Tuesday the transfer of the license for the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor in Genoa, Wis., from the Dairyland Power Cooperative to EnergySolutions subsidiary LaCrosseSolutions LLC.
The license transfer, which Dairyland requested in October, allows LaCrosseSolutions to expedite decommissioning activities at the site, NRC said in a press release. The La Crosse nuclear plant shut down in 1987, the same year NRC changed the original operating license to a possession-only license, allowing the on-site storage of nuclear material and waste and decommissioning.
The terms of the transfer dictate that Dairyland remain the site owner and retain title to the spent nuclear fuel, which is currently stored in dry casks on the site. EnergySolutions will lease the above-ground structures, minus the spent fuel storage, and carry out decommissioning.
EnergySolutions reached a similar agreement in the decommissioning of Illinois’ Zion Nuclear Power Station in 2010.
Nuclear waste management company Perma-Fix, Atlanta, appointed nuclear cleanup veteran Mark Duff executive vice president, the company announced Friday.
“We are pleased to have an executive of Mark’s caliber join us at this exciting time in our company,” Louis Centofanti, Perma-Fix president and chief executive, said in a press release. “We look forward to his involvement as part of the senior management team as we prepare for a period of rapid growth in both our Service and Treatment Segments.”
Duff has worked as a contractor and civil servant on several Energy Department and Pentagon nuclear projects, Permafix said. He was most recently a project manager with Fluor Paducah Deactivation Project, where he worked for five years on a $458 million remediation contract with DOE’s Environmental Management office at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky.
Prior to that, Duff was senior manager for Babcock and Wilcox, where he oversaw a $245 million budget for new cleanup projects over two years at DOE’s Y-12 nuclear weapon manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., according to the press release.
INTERNATIONAL
The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) awarded Amec Foster Wheeler two R&D contracts for integrated waste management, site remediation, and spent fuel and nuclear materials management, the company announced Monday.
The framework contracts, worth up to £12 million across multiple sites, were issued under NDA’s Direct Research Portfolio to 10 consortia. The 70 organizations involved include U.K. universities, multinational corporations, and about 20 small- to medium-sized businesses. Amec Wheeler Foster leads two of the 10 consortia.
“These awards deal with some of the industry’s biggest technical challenges and position us at the vanguard of innovation,” Amec Foster Wheeler’s Vice President of Decommissioning Clean Energy Europe Andy White said in a statement. “The awards also enhance and further hone our expertise and put it at the service of the NDA.”
NDA Research Manager Yvonne Morris said: “Overall we were delighted with the high quality of the submissions and look forward to working with the organisations on our strategic R&D programme. We now have new multi-supplier contracts aligned with our key strategic themes. With many new organisations involved for the first time we will have broad input into addressing our R&D requirements.”
Decommissioning crews at Scotland’s shuttered Dounreay nuclear facility are using a household putty solution to gather metal samples from the base of the site’s Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR).
In a press release Monday, organizers described how they forewent a new design and build project in favor of attaching Blu-Tack to the end of a long, flexible rod, which is used to take samples from holes drilled in the PFR. The PFR design team claims that the Blu-Tack, a putty-like solution typically used for hanging household items, has resulted in “substantial saving” for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which oversees the site. The rod was driven about 10 meters into the ground, where metal samples clung to the Blu-Tack. It’s common for decommissioning crews to have to find unique ways of reaching remote areas inside former nuclear reactors.
“We are sixty years on from the decision to build the Prototype Fast Reactor and innovation has been the key to its success,” Calder Bain, a member of the PFR design team, said in Monday’s announcement. “There is a continual requirement for inventive methods to dismantle a complex nuclear reactor. The nature of the decommissioning work at Dounreay gives both our young and experienced engineers the opportunity to put their innovative skills and knowledge into practice.”
The PFR ceased operation in 1994, nearly 20 years after the Dounreay Fast Reactor shut down. The defueling program started in 2001, and decommissioning of Dounreay is presently scheduled for 2030.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is offering $100,00 grants for “new, distinctive, and valuable information” in the environmental assessment for the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ (CNL) Nuclear Power Demonstration Closure Project.
The participant funding is available to aboriginal groups and other stakeholders participating in assessment of the decommissioning project. Located in Renfrew County, Ontario, about 225 kilometers northwest of Ottawa, the Nuclear Power Demonstration Waste Facility is a former nuclear generating station that operated until 1987.
CNL is requesting an amendment to the facility’s decommissioning license. Before the regulator can decide, the environmental assessment is required. Funding will be awarded for the review of documentation, including CNL’s environmental impact statement, CNSC staff and CNL Commission member documents, and commission hearing participation, according to an announcement Wednesday. The deadline to submit an application to the regulator is Sept. 2.
