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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved Sequoyah Fuels' plan to dispose of contaminated materials in an on-site cell, a plan opposed by some residents near the Gore-area plant. John Ellis, Sequoyah Fuels president, said the NRC approved the plant's on-site disposal site Monday, "after 16 years and two months." The plant, which at one time processed uranium to use in fuel rods for nuclear power plants, was closed in 1993 after it was found that portions of the plant and groundwater were contaminated.

"The Tennessee Valley Authority is preparing to make a key component for America's hydrogen bombs at its Sequoyah Nuclear Plant near Soddy-Daisy. In the White House budget released this week, the U.S. Department of Energy said it wants TVA to make bomb-grade tritium at Sequoyah, similar to what TVA has done at its Watts Bar plant near Spring City, Tenn., for the past decade. TVA officials said Tuesday that adding military production to Sequoyah's energy generation will have only a minimal impact on plant operations and fulfills the agency's federal mission. "We've tested and done this type of production at Watts Bar since 1999 with limited impact on our operations," TVA Vice President Jack Bailey said. PDF: DOE tritium facility But critics said such plans could heighten the risk of a terrorist attack near Chattanooga and weaken U.S. efforts to limit nuclear proliferation abroad."

Creating about 25 shelf-feet of environmental documentation soon will result in a $28 million cleanup project at Sequoyah Fuels plant site near Gore. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a plan Monday to eliminate dangerous pollutants there. "We've got a cabinet with documents for the regulators," said John Ellis, Sequoyah Fuels president. "The eight-and-half-by-eleven (inch) ring binders would probably go for about 25 feet. It's everything from feasibility studies, to cell construction plans to site characterization and sampling data with annual groundwater reports - that itself is about 11/2 inches thick." Ellis started work at the facility in 1992, about a year before portions of it were found to be contaminated. After that finding, Sequoyah Fuels completely ceased processing uranium for fuel rods, its central operation there.

The United States maintains a hardline policy opposing countries' use of civilian nuclear reactors to produce material for weapons, including Iran and North Korea. But that is what the U.S. Department of Energy has been doing at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar reactor in East Tennessee since 2003, and now the department has signaled its intention to start additional production of tritium at TVA's Sequoyah plant, near Chattanooga. Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, is needed to boost the explosive power of nuclear warheads. The DOE's 2010 budget proposal includes plans to make tritium at the two Sequoyah reactors, and TVA spokesman Terry Johnson confirmed that the electricity-generating plant is being prepared for the production of the weapons material.

Where others see only radioactive waste, engineers at TVA and the Department of Energy envision another source of needed energy. Most of the potential energy in the nuclear fuel used to generate nearly 30 percent of the electricity in the Tennessee Valley remains untapped in spent fuel pools or dry casks at the Sequoyah, Watts Bar and Browns Ferry nuclear plants, said Sherrell R. Greene, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's nuclear technology programs.

The Tennessee Valley Authority announced today that it will end its contract with a private security firm that has provided guards at TVA nuclear plants since 1997. TVA Nuclear Chief Bill Campbell said the federal utility plans to terminate its contract with Pinkerton Government Services and bring back security positions as TVA employees during the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The change will affect about 500 security workers employed at TVA's Sequoyah, Watts Bar and Browns Ferry nuclear plants, TVA spokesman John Moulton said. Under its current contract, TVA paid Pinkerton $159 million, or $26.5 million a year, for security at the three nuclear plants from October 2002 through October 2008.

Federal regulators recently approved the final environmental impact statement submitted by Sequoyah Fuels Corp., which operated the plant until it shut down in 1993. Located about 75 miles southeast of Tulsa, the facility sits along the Arkansas River.

The labor union for TVA's nuclear security guards sued the federal utility today for refusing to bargain with the union after switching the guards at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant from a contract employer to TVA's payroll. The United Government Security Officers of America and its Local 22 affiliate filed the lawsuit in federal court in Knoxville after TVA hired virtually all of the contract guards at Browns Ferry but initially refused to bargain with the employees' union about the change. Last week, TVA began phasing out its contract with Pinkerton Government Services and bringing nearly all of the contract guards onto TVA's own payroll at Browns Ferry. Similar transitions are planned over the next month at TVA's Sequoyah and Watts Bar nuclear plants. In its lawsuit, the union claims TVA is not negotiating with the Government Security Officers of America as required of successor employers.

The amount of radioactive waste and spent fuel rods will continue to grow and be stored at TVA's three nuclear plants now that plans for a permanent storage site in Nevada have been shelved. TVA already stores almost 3,000 metric tons of nuclear waste at the Sequoyah plant in Soddy-Daisy; Watts Bar near Spring City, Tenn.; and Browns Ferry in Athens, Ala., according to utility officials. TVA spokesman Terry Johnson said on-site storage used at nuclear plants is a "proven, safe and secure solution for the foreseeable future." However, securing a permanent storage solution is "key" for the future.

"With a Yucca Mountain waste storage plan all but dead and President Barack Obama pushing hard on nuclear energy, the question of what to do with nuclear waste is more radioactive than ever. Especially for Tennessee. Waste from TVA's Sequoyah, Watts Bar and Brown's Ferry nuclear plants continues to pile up at the facilities. Like all of the 104 operating nuclear reactors around the country, tons of the plants' highly radioactive waste was supposed to eventually be transported to the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nev., underground resting place to wait out its 50,000-year decay. The Volunteer State has an additional and little-known stake in the demise of Yucca Mountain, the ridge of volcanic rock that until a few months ago was the main focus of a controversial $10.4 billion search for a permanent nuclear waste repository."