Tennessee environmentalists and anti-nukers literally prayed for NRC to prevent a planned license amendment that would let BWX Technologies subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services purify uranium for the National Nuclear Security Administration.
“Dear Chairman Hanson,” reads a postcard sent by multiple activists to NRC Chair Christopher Hanson. “As a fellow person of faith, I believe in the power of prayer. I implore our Creator to move you to act on the moral. & ethical perils of purifying U-235 for even more nuclear weapons.”
The NRC, in a form letter posted online this week, wrote back that “it would be inappropriate for the Chair or Commission to discuss or comment on these matters at this time,” because the requested license amendment is being actively contested before the commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board by the Erwin Citizens Awareness Network antinuclear group.
Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations met in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, forever synonymous with nuclear weapons since the U.S. dropped “Little Boy” on the city in 1945, killing more than 100,000 people in a flash of light and fire.
President Joe Biden is in Japan to meet with his counterparts from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the U.K. and the host country. Much of the discussion was focused on Ukraine, over which Russia has been rattling its nuclear saber.
Right out of the gate, the G7 leaders issued a six-page declaration of support for Ukraine. It decries Russia’s “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric,” President Valdimir Putin’s intent to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus and threats to deploy lower-yield nukes in combat, given the lackluster conduct of the Russian military since the all-out invasion began in February 2022.
Before cars roar around Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 28, National Nuclear Security Administration helicopters will be flying low, slow grid patterns over the city, sipping the air for any unnatural radiation.
Indianapolis residents should not fear the silver-and-blue Bell 412 helicopters flying back and forth over the city from May 23-27. They belong to NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team, or NEST, and routinely overfly cities hosting major events to monitor the air for potential nuclear threats. NEST aircraft will measure expected background radiation as part of standard preparations to protect public health and safety on the day of an event like the Indianapolis 500, the Super Bowl and presidential inaugurations in Washington, D.C.
The helicopter will fly in a grid pattern over the areas at 150 feet (or higher) above the ground at a speed of approximately 80 miles per hour through April 17. Flyovers will occur only during daylight hours and are estimated to take approximately two hours to complete per area.
Savannah River National Laboratory and the University of Florida jointly appointed Kyle Hartig to advance the lab’s capabilities in sensing, characterizing, assessing and deterring nuclear proliferation.
Hartig is an assistant professor of nuclear engineering in the University of Florida Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and is a member of the Florida Institute for National Security at the University of Florida. He is also the associate director of the University of Florida-led Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nuclear Forensics Consortium, where he is responsible for coordinating involvement with DOE national laboratories, including student internships, post graduate career opportunities and collaboration on consortium research projects.
Shannon Parsons-Depry, project manager for the National Nuclear Association’s U1a Complex Enhancements Project (UCEP) 010, received a Department of Energy project management achievement award this month.
“The project team overcame many obstacles executing this $50.1 million project, including its remote location. The project’s remote location impacted the ability to obtain a workforce, as every workday includes three hours of commuting with the commensurate transportation cost. The distance and remote location also affected the project team’s ability to get materials and equipment delivered in a timely manner. The project team delivered the project $3.4 million under budget and 14 months ahead of schedule.”
At Nevada, NNSA is conducting a nearly round-the-clock mining project to expand one of the NNSA’s zero-yield, nuclear-weapon test sites. Known as UCEP 20, the construction subproject is clearing space for an underground laboratory for sub-critical detonations and other experiments. NNSA believes the UCEP 20 subproject will be complete in late 2027. The larger modernization effort, of which UCEP is a part, is now scheduled for completion around 2030.
The National Nuclear Security Administration in April removed two radioactive sources of U.S. origin from retired cancer therapy machines at Liga Nacional Contra el Cáncer/Instituto de Cancerología (LIGA/INCAN) in Guatemala City, Guatemala. NNSA conducted this removal in partnership with the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and Guatemala’s Ministry of Energy and Mines, the U.S. agency said.
In 2019, INCAN received a Halcyon linear accelerator from a joint USAID/Washington University in St. Louis project to replace its aging Cobalt-based cancer treatment equipment. NNSA removed the units at no cost to the hospital or the government of Guatemala. The sources departed Guatemala via military aircraft operated by DTRA for disposal in the United States.
Radioisotopes such as the Cobalt-60 in these machines can cause serious harm to people and the environment if weaponized or improperly handled, according to an NNSA statement. They also require significant and costly security arrangements in public facilities.
Los Alamos National Laboratory will implement a Plutonium Premium Pay (PPP) Retention Pilot Program for plutonium mission workers beginning June 15, according to the Los Alamos Reporter.
Additional compensation will be given as a retention incentive in support of national security programs that occur within LANL plutonium facilities that are part of what is known as the Plutonium Center of Excellence.
LANL says there are currently approximately 880 employees eligible for the PPP who work in in weapons, STE and Operations in several facilities and work areas including PF-4, PF-400, TA-55, the Transuranic Waste Facility (TWF), Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR), Radioassay and Nondestructive Testing (RANT) and Radioactive Liquid Waste (RLW) who meet certain criteria.
