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Updates from The SRSCRO
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January 2015
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| Follow us on Twitter! | Rick McLeod @atomicasset  | Mindy Mets @nuclearstem |
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Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) removed the last four nuclear fuel assemblies that remained in the No. 4 reactor building of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant from its storage pool last month, on Dec. 22, 2014. The removal operation began in November. Tepco put a high priority on removing the No. 4 unit's some 1,500 fuel rods because they sat in a largely unprotected storage pool on an upper floor of the building. The No. 4 reactor was offline at the time of the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. However, an explosion occurred in the building four days later, seriously damaging it. After the accident, experts pointed to the risk of nuclear fuel in the pool melting from insufficient cooling and releasing a large amount of radioactive materials. However, this threat has been mitigated with the removal of the last assemblies putting the rods inside a large white container for transportation to another; undamaged storage pool elsewhere on the plant's grounds.
No need to freak out but radioactivity from Fukushima's nuclear reactors has turned up off the British Columbia coast and the level will likely peak in waters off North America in the next year or two, according to a Canadian-led team that's intercepted the nuclear plume. According to a study published on December 29, 2014 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a radiation plume from the March 2011 accident in Fukushima, Japan took about 2.1 years to cross the waters of the Pacific Ocean and reach the shores of North America. But the scientists say it poses no harm. The level of Cesium-137 in the water is far below levels seen in the 1960s and 1970s from nuclear weapons testing and "well below Canadian guidelines for drinking water quality," the study states. In more positive news, it was reported on January 4, 2015, that Fukushima rice passed Japan's radiation checks for the first time since the 2011 nuclear disaster that prompted international alarm over the region's produce, a prefectural official said. A prefectural is any one of the areas into which some countries (such as Japan) are divided for local government. Fukushima officials said about 360,000 tonnes of rice, nearly all of last year's harvest, had been checked and none had tested above the 100 becquerels per kilogram limit set by the government.
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Nuclear Workforce News
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Plant Vogtle Unit 3 Cooling Tower
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More than 5,000 workers are currently onsite building two of the country's first new nuclear units in three decades at Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro, GA. In addition to its status as the largest job-producing project in the state of Georgia during construction, Vogtle units 3 and 4 are expected to create 800 new jobs when the facility enters service. In South Carolina, construction of two new nuclear units is also progressing at V. C. Summer Nuclear Station with a similar construction workforce in place and the expectation of 800 new full-time employees once construction is completed. The economic impact of this nuclear construction is broad - for example, the Port of Charleston is expected to receive approximately 24,000 tons of equipment throughout construction of V. C. Summer's units 2 and 3. Southern Company (Plant Vogtle) and SCE&G (V. C. Summer) have worked with colleges and universities, including those in the SRSCRO region, to satisfy the new nuclear workforce demands. As a result, recent graduates from local nuclear education and training programs are finding jobs associated with Plant Vogtle and SCE&G. The wide range of nuclear degree programs offered by local colleges and universities also support workforce needs of the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site. Regional two and four-year nuclear education and training programs include: Radiation Protection Technology, Nuclear Engineering Technology, Chemical Technology, Nuclear Quality Systems, Welding, Environmental Remediation and Restoration and Nuclear Science Tracks for Chemistry and Physics. Information about these programs is available here.
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Yucca Safety Reports - 3 Down 2 to Go
 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff published Volume 4 of its safety evaluation report on the proposed underground geologic nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The 181-page report found that the DOE has complied with its rules for personnel training, records, emergency planning and quality assurance for the the proposed Yucca Mountain waste site. The report released on December 18, 2014 is one of five that NRC is preparing to determine whether the DOE has fulfilled the sundry legal obligations to build the long-awaited Yucca site. The land is controlled by manifold federal agencies, and Congress has not yet passed the proper legislation to bring it under the DOE's control, the report concluded. "Therefore, the NRC staff concludes that DOE neither has acquired lands to be under its jurisdiction and control for the [facility], nor have the lands for the [facility] been permanently withdrawn and reserved for DOE's use," the report said. DOE submitted its Yucca Mountain application in June 2008. The NRC staff published Volume 1 (General Information) of the safety evaluation report in August 2010. After DOE moved to withdraw the application and Congress stopped appropriating funds for the NRC's review, the agency closed out its application review and published three technical evaluation reports containing the staff's technical analyses to that point but no regulatory conclusions. The adjudication of nearly 300 contentions filed by various parties contesting the application was also suspended in September 2011. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the NRC in August 2013 to resume the licensing process using currently available funding appropriated from the Nuclear Waste Fund. The NRC subsequently published Volume 3 (Repository Safety After Permanent Closure) on Oct. 16, 2014. The staff expects to publish volumes 2 (Repository Safety Before Permanent Closure) and 5 (License Specifications) by the end of January. Publication of the various volumes does not signal whether the NRC might authorize construction of the repository. A final licensing decision, should funds beyond those currently available be appropriated, could come only after completion of the safety evaluation report, a supplement to the Department of Energy's environmental impact statement, hearings on contentions in the adjudication, and Commission review.
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2015 SRS Public Tours
 Registration for the Savannah River Site's 2015 public tour
program began on Dec. 29, 2014. More than 1,000 seats will be available during 22 tours to
be held throughout the upcoming year at the Department of Energy site near Aiken, S.C.
Driving tours are offered each year at SRS to provide members of the public an opportunity to
see many of the site's facilities and learn more about the site's history, current activities and
future missions.
The first of the 2015 tours will be held in January. Each tour starts at the Aiken County Applied
Research Center located off Highway 278, near New Ellenton, and begins with an overview presentation
about SRS and a safety briefing. SRS tours are free of charge.
online, call (803) 952-9472.
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SRS Information Pods
The SRSCRO will have an exhibit at the upcoming SRS Information Pods event. The SRSCRO Nuclear Workforce Initiative will provide information about local nuclear workforce needs and related education and training programs available regionally.
The SRS-sponsored public event focuses on four SRS mission areas: Nuclear Materials Management, Waste Management, Environmental Monitoring and Restoration, and the Savannah River National Laboratory.
The event is Wednesday evening, January 28, at the Georgia Regents University Summerville Campus, Jaguar Student Activities Center.
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Facts & Truths
DOE Fun Facts
On August 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed into law The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977, which created the Department of Energy (DOE).
DOE is under the control and supervision of a United States Secretary of Energy, a political appointee of the President of the United States.
DOE and its predecessor agencies have supported more than 65 Nobel laureates.
In 2011, DOE won an Emmy for the first chapter of "The Hanford Overview."
DOE operates the largest, most intense laser in the world.
DOE has 10 different Program Offices.
DOE operates 21 different Laboratories and Technology centers.
The NNSA was established by Congress in 2000 as a separately organized agency within the DOE, more on NNSA in next issue.
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Closing Thoughts
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"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties." - Sir Francis Bacon
"If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much." - Donald H. Rumsfeld
"An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger." - Dan Rather
"I suppose that I shall have to die beyond my means." - Oscar Wilde
"Against logic there is no armor like ignorance." - Laurence J. Peter
"I've been on a diet for two weeks and all I've lost is two weeks." - Totie Fields
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| Contact Information |
SRSCRO, PO Box 696, Aiken, SC 20802 
Staff:
Kim Saxon - Assistant Coordinator - 803-508-7656
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