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EPA Issues Final Yucca Mountain Radiation Standards (9/30/08) EPA has established radiation standards for the proposed spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. EPA is required to set standards consistent with the findings and recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and satisfy a July 2004 court decision to extend the standards' duration. The Yucca Mountain standards are in line with approaches used in the international radioactive waste management community. The final standards will: * Retain the dose limit of 15 millirem per year for the first 10,000 years after disposal; * Establish a dose limit of 100 millirem annual exposure per year between 10,000 years and 1 million years; * Require the Department of Energy (DOE) to consider the effects of climate change, earthquakes, volcanoes, and corrosion of the waste packages to safely contain the waste during the 1 million-year period; and * Be consistent with the recommendations of the NAS by establishing a radiological protection standard for this facility at the time of peak dose up to 1 million years after disposal.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) have published a meeting report on the first gathering of the Nuclear Energy Standards Coordination Collaborative (NESCC). NESCC is a joint initiative to identify and respond to the current needs of the nuclear industry. The activity provides a cross-stakeholder forum to facilitate and coordinate the timely identification, development, and revision of standards for the design, operation, development, licensing, and deployment of nuclear power plants. Standards for other nuclear technologies, including advanced reactor concepts, will also be addressed. On June 1, 2009, more than thirty individuals gathered at the NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md., for the inaugural NESCC meeting. Attendees first discussed the intent of the activity, which is focused on collaboration and coordination rather than standards development. Ambler Thompson, Ph.D., of NIST and Fran Schrotter of ANSI then led participants in a thorough review of the group's charter, and the group agreed on very minor revisions to the document. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Nuclear Society (ANS) indicated that they would need to seek their respective Board approvals at upcoming meetings. The charter will be finalized based upon any comments from ASME, ANS, or any other interested stakeholder, provided such comments are received by ANSI by close of business on Wednesday, July 15.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a final rule incorporating the Environmental Protection Agency's radiation protection standards for the proposed high-level waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., for the period beyond 10,000 years and up to 1 million years. The rule, to be published soon in the Federal Register, makes NRC's regulations for the repository in 10 CFR Part 63 consistent with the EPA's revised standards, as required by law. The EPA's final standard was issued Sept. 30, 2008. The EPA's revised standards and the NRC's rulemaking were required by the July 9, 2004, ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which overturned EPA's earlier standard that limited the compliance period to 10,000 years. EPA published its proposed revisions Aug. 22, 2005, and NRC published a proposed rule adopting EPA's revisions and requesting public comment on Sept. 8, 2005. The Federal Register notice with NRC's final rule includes the NRC staff's responses to public comments on the proposed rule, as well as a regulatory analysis of the final rule. The final rule retains EPA's standard dose limit for individuals of 15 millirem for the first 10,000 years after disposal and adopts EPA's 100 millirem dose limit for the period after 10,000 years and up to 1 million years. It will be posted on the NRC Web site here: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fedreg/notices/. The rule will become effective 30 days following publication.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced its radiation health standard for the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. The standard itself sounds innocuous, setting the radiation level at 15 millirems - about equivalent to an X-ray - a year for the first 10,000 years of the project. But Americans should have no confidence in that standard or in the Energy Department's plan to build a dump that can meet the standard. The Yucca Mountain project, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been a failure, and this standard shows how politics - not science - have prevailed.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it has established final radiation standards for the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The standards are intended to protect human health and the environment for 1 million years. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the "lowered" radiation standard will instead put people at risk.

Beryllium is a remarkable metal. It is stiffer than steel, lighter than aluminum, and causes chronic beryllium disease at very low levels of exposure. It is also causes cancer in humans. There is no evidence of a safe exposure level. Beryllium has long been employed in nuclear and defense operations, and is now being used in bicycle frames and other consumer products. The current OSHA workplace exposure standard was developed in a 1948 discussion held in the back seat of a taxi by two Atomic Energy Commission scientists - for this reason it is known as the "taxicab standard". This standard is widely acknowledged to be insufficiently protective, and workers exposed to levels below the standard have developed beryllium-related disease.

Jan. 21 -- On Jan. 15, in his second to last full day in office, outgoing EPA Acting Administrator Marcus Peacock signed off on new Protective Action Guides (PAGs) for radioactive releases. They would permit radioactive concentrations in drinking water hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and even millions of times higher than EPA's longstanding standards. Because it takes a few days after approval for such matters to be published in the Federal Register and be official, publication wasn't achieved before the Inauguration. Unless the Obama acts quickly, however, they will be published in the next few days. The Committee to Bridge the Gap (CBG) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) today called on the new Obama Administration to pull back the PAGs before they are published in the Federal Register. Read the CBG-PEER news release. A detailed report by Committee to Bridge the Gap reveals, radionuclide by radionuclide, the astronomical concentrations of radioactive contamination in drinking water proposed, which are orders of magnitude higher than EPA's longstanding drinking water limits. Scores of organizations and individuals in October sent a letter to then-EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson strenuously objecting to plans to greatly increase permissible public exposures from a wide range of events resulting in release of radioactivity. The last-minute Bush Administration action would publish for public review and comment only about a third of the actual PAG text (see pre-publication draft here). The full, unexpurgated internal confidential EPA draft can be read here. Both were initially obtained by the trade publication Inside EPA. Previous correspondence criticizing the related Dept. of Homeland Security's "Dirty Bomb" Protective Action Guides - Relaxed Cleanup Standards can be viewed here and here. For more information, contact Dan Hirsch at 831-336-8003 or email: contact.cbg@gmail.com

Federal agencies in charge of radiation protection are struggling to revise their standards to take into account the differences in susceptibility to radiation-induced cancer among men, women and children, and, according to a report released Wednesday, are lagging in that task. The report, from the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, said the rules were still too heavily based on "Reference Man," a standard created by the International Commission on Radiological Protection in 1975. That standard is a 5-foot-7, 154-pound man who is "Western European or North American in habitat and custom."

The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that the Department is prepared to execute the Standard Contract for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or High-Level Radioactive Waste (Standard Contract) set forth in 10 C.F.R. 961, together with a new reactor amendment, with those companies desiring to construct new nuclear power reactors. The Department is making the Standard Contract and the new reactor amendment (collectively "disposal contract") available to those companies that have notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of their intent to build new nuclear power reactors.

Three structural components were procured and installed by the prime contractor at the MOX Facility that did not meet the technical specifications for items relied on for safety. * In six instances, items used in the construction of TEF failed to satisfy quality standards. In one instance, operating procedures had to be modified to ensure that the problem item did not compromise safety; and, * At ISP, one component that did not meet quality standards was procured. The failure of the item could have resulted in a spill of up to 15,000 gallons of high-level radioactive waste. We concluded that these failures were attributable to inadequate attention to quality assurance at Savannah River. Departmental controls were not adequate to prevent and/or detect quality problems. Additionally, management did not effectively communicate quality assurance concerns between the several Departmental program elements operating at Savannah River. The procurement and installation of these nonconforming components resulted in cost increases. The internal control weaknesses we discovered could have permitted, without detection, the procurement and installation of safety critical components that did not meet quality assurance standards. In a worst case scenario, undetected, nonconforming components could fail and injure workers or the public. In certain instances, the Department took steps to ensure that the prime contractors at Savannah River began action to remediate nonconforming components and to strengthen policies and procedures. Accordingly, we made several recommendations designed to strengthen quality assurance at Savannah River. Finally, the matters discussed in this report provide valuable lessons learned as the Department implements the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Department will use Recovery Act stimulus funds to initiate new and to accelerate ongoing projects throughout its complex. The Department must maintain a focus on quality assurance issues to ensur

The Tennessee Valley Authority's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in north Alabama has a fire response problem that could lead to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission civil penalty. In a letter to TVA, the NRC said inspectors this year found that the plant near Athens, Ala., potentially violated four safety standards, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported Thursday. TVA spokesman Craig Beasley said the plant is working with regulators to address their concerns. He said TVA will "do the work necessary to implement the National Fire Protection Association standards at Browns Ferry."

The Tennessee Valley Authority's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in north Alabama has a fire response problem that could lead to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission civil penalty. In a letter to TVA, the NRC said inspectors this year found that the plant near Athens, Ala., potentially violated four safety standards, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported Thursday. TVA spokesman Craig Beasley said the plant is working with regulators to address their concerns. He said TVA will "do the work necessary to implement the National Fire Protection Association standards at Browns Ferry."

The head of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso began a European Union-wide push on Monday to enforce European nuclear safety standards on the building of atomic energy plants to become the binding worldwide standard, while French president Nicolas Sarkozy chastised international banks' reluctance to invest in nuclear power. Charles Digges, 08/03-2010 The development is seen by analysts as something that could clear the path for France to sell its expensive technology and expertise to other countries. But French environmental groups are warning that the wares its country have on sale are catastrophes waiting to happen.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi today said that the Palestinians should be allowed to have nuclear weapons if the world does not act to disarm Israel of its arsenal. Colonel Gaddafi accused the international community of "double standards" because Israel is allowed to maintain a barely-hidden nuclear capability while Iran comes under massive pressure not to develop its own.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi today said that the Palestinians should be allowed to have nuclear weapons if the world does not act to disarm Israel of its arsenal. Colonel Gaddafi accused the international community of "double standards" because Israel is allowed to maintain a barely-hidden nuclear capability while Iran comes under massive pressure not to develop its own.

"Riverkeeper has petitioned the state Department of Environmental Conservation urging the agency to uphold its decision not to grant certification to Entergy on the grounds that its Indian Point nuclear power plant does not meet state water quality standards. Entergy needs that certification as part of its application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew the plant's licenses for another 20 years. Riverkeeper's petition supports DEC's decision that continued operation of the power plant would violate state clean water standards and continued use of the once-through cooling system would lead to ongoing harmful impacts to the Hudson River's ecology and aquatic species, said staff attorney Deborah Brancato."

Box Elder residents should receive notices within the next week alerting them to the presence of radium, a naturally occurring type of radioactive metal, in one of the city's two water wells, Mayor Al Dial said. Box Elder's notice stems from a violation that occurred this summer, when high levels of radium 226 and radium 228 were detected during a routine test of a new well. The well has since passed another quarterly test, Dial said. After a water system fails a water test, the system is considered in violation of the standards. To bring a water system into compliance takes four quarterly tests with an annual average that is below the standard.

Florida's energy future should be "clean" - not just "renewable" - and include nuclear power as a source of green energy, according to recommendations from the staff of utility regulators released Wednesday. The 111-page report is the latest step in the debate over whether power companies can count new nuclear power toward their obligation to generate renewable energy. The report follows months of lobbying by Florida Power & Light - the state's largest utility and producer of nuclear power - to persuade regulators to create a "Clean Energy Portfolio Standard" rather than a "Renewable Portfolio Standard." Florida statues do not include nuclear power in the definition of "renewable" energy. FPL generates no renewable energy in Florida.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice as required by 42 CFR 83.12(e) of a decision to evaluate a petition to designate a class of employees for the Standard Oil Development Company, Linden, New Jersey, to be included in the Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. The initial proposed definition for the class being evaluated, subject to revision as warranted by the evaluation, is as follows: Facility: Standard Oil Development Company. Location: Linden, New Jersey. Job Titles and/or Job Duties: All employees. Period of Employment: August 1, 1942 through December 31, 1963.

The safety and health community shouldn't hold out hope for the long-sought beryllium exposure standard to be issued by OSHA in the final days of the Bush administration. The latest Department of Labor semiannual regulatory agenda, which was published this week, lists one more step in its evolution - a March 2009 completion of a peer review of health effects and risk assessment - but nothing further, such as an NPRM. The agency says it has been working on this rule for more than six years. In 1999 and 2001, the Paper Allied-Industrial, Chemical, and Energy Workers Union, Public Citizen Health Research Group, and others petitioned OSHA to regulate worker exposures to beryllium via an emergency temporary standard.

Even though the state toxicologist has told school officials in Madison that the uranium found last week in the water at the town's elementary and middle schools is "a non-problem," the water fountains at both schools have been shut off. That's a good precaution, but if the uranium found is a non-problem, why is there a need to turn off the drinking water? Recent news stories have reported reported that 110 micrograms of uranium per liter (roughly parts per billion) were found to be present in the water at the schools. The EPA's standard for water systems that serve homes is about 30 parts per billion. Does that mean there is 80 parts per billion more uranium in the schools' water than the acceptable standard for a home?

It was back to court for Nevada Friday when Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto filed a federal lawsuit asking judges to throw out new radiation limits for the Yucca Mountain project. The radiation exposure standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency will fail to protect Nevadans "from cancer-causing radioactive contamination" if nuclear waste is buried at the site, Masto said. Nevada's official position has been to fight the politically unpopular Yucca project at every turn. It was widely expected that state officials would return to court to challenge the latest EPA regulation that was issued Sept. 30.