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The Department of Energy's decision to shut down its Oak Ridge incinerator doesn't mean that less waste will be coming to Oak Ridge. Just the opposite could be the case. With DOE's incinerator out of business by year's end, private companies are expected to pick up the slack in treating difficult waste streams - such as radioactive materials mixed with polychlorinated biphenyls - and some of those companies are in Oak Ridge. Perma-Fix Environmental in March received approval from the Environmental Protection Agency to burn PCB wastes, and Larry McNamara, the company's chief operating officer, said two facilities owned by Perma-Fix will be involved in the broadening waste-treatment program.

The U.S. Enrichment Corp. and Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services today announced plans to form a joint venture known as American Centrifuge Manufacturing LLC, which will become the lead organization in production of machines for the new uranium-enrichment plant at Piketon, Ohio. According to Elizabeth Stuckle, the USEC spokeswoman at headquarters in Maryland, the partnership will be a 55/45 pecentage arrangement with USEC holding 55 percent of the newly formed company that will manage the manufacturing program that ultimately will produce 11,500 machines -- and perhaps more if there's an expanded enrichment facility. "This means all manufacturing suppliers who are manufacturing parts for the American Centrifiuge plant will report up through this joint venture," Stuckle said. B&W Technnical Services Clinch River has been a manufacturer of components for the centrifuges under a contract with USEC since 2007. Now the partnership will be managing that work as well as other manufacturing activities for the AC100 machines in West Virginia, etc..

According to the latest info from the National Nuclear Security Administration's office in Oak Ridge, the initial loading of highly enriched uranium into Y-12's new high-security storage facility is planned for March 2010. Federal spokesman Steven Wyatt said that work would begin "following authorization to startup." But there's a lot of work that remains to be done before the new Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility is ready -- even though construction of the $549 million fortress was essentially completed in September 2008.

The government on Tuesday ordered 12 tons of bomb-grade uranium converted into commercial reactor fuel as backup in case another source of fuel from weapon ingredients is delayed. The highly enriched uranium, already declared surplus for the nation's nuclear arsenal, will come from the vast storage vaults at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge. The material will be converted or "down-blended" at the Nuclear Fuel Services plant in Erwin, Tenn., into about 220 tons of low-enriched uranium suitable for commercial reactors. The work will begin this year and be completed in 2012. The uranium will be shipped to Westinghouse Electric Co.'s Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina and held in reserve for utilities contracting for reactor fuel from a plutonium mixed-oxide processing plant being built at the Savannah River Site. The $4.8 billion mixed-oxide facility at Savannah River is scheduled to open in 2016. The program is on time to this point, officials said.

Unlike most fish stories, this isn't about the one that got away. No fish were getting away Thursday. Department of Energy contractors began a project that will eliminate the entire fish population - tens of thousands of fish - in three ponds near the former K-25 uranium-enrichment plant. It's part of an overall plan to restore and "ecologically enhance" the ponds that were historically contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls and other pollutants.

And that doesn't include the weapons work, according to the overall numbers released today by the Dept. of Energy. The Oak Ridge budget numbers released this afternoon show Science going up (from $635 million in 08 and $797 million this year to $836 million in 2010. That doesn't include the stimulus money for Science in Oak Ridge, which is an additional $141 million. The big drop occurred in Environmental Management, which showed a decline from $525 million this year to a proposed $431 in 2010. But, of course, the ARRA money for EM Oak Ridge is set at $825 million. Nuclear nonproliferation funding is scheduled to go to $204 million, compared to current spending at $184 million.

Perma-Fix Environmental last month got approval to burn PCB-contaminated rad waste at its Oak Ridge-area facility, and this month received its first shipments. Larry McNamara, the chief operating officer, confirmed that the company's DSSI (Diversified Scientific Services Inc.) facility near Kingston had received shipments from Paducah, Ky., and Richland, Wash., to be treated at the thermal-boiler system. He also said another shipment had arrived, although he didn't have details, and more are in the works. McNamara said the company is ready to accept waste loads that might otherwise be treated at the Dept. of Energy's TSCA Incinerator in Oak Ridge, which is scheduled to close later this year. Some of the waste streams coming to Oak Ridge may need to be segregated at the company's M&EC facility, with the PCB-tainted liquids sent to DSSI for treatment in the thermal boiler, McNamara said. However, he said there are few limits on the types and amounts of wastes that can be treated.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- The Department of Energy is pulling the plug on Oak Ridge's controversial toxic waste incinerator. The DOE says it'll stop receiving waste by the end of April. Crews are scheduled to begin demolishing the facility in five years. The incinerator has burned concerns about emissions for years. "It's basically done its job," said Walter Perry, a DOE spokesman. That job's been burning more than 33 million pounds of waste since 1991. The one-of-a-kind, $26 million dollar incinerator at the former K-25 uranium enrichment plant treats what the DOE calls "mixed wastes." "You have polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs as they're commonly called, as well as hazardous types of waste....and radioactive elements," Perry said. The DOE plans to burn through the remaining 1.7 million pounds of remaining mostly liquid waste by September 30th. "At that time, we'll begin closure activities, which basically taking the incinerator, rinsing all the piping and the tanks, and leading up to the facility demolition," Perry said. The DOE says that's set to happen in 2014.

The failure of TVA's fly ash retention pond late last year made Kingston a household word in places far from Tennessee and made everybody a little more aware of the potential hazards of earthen dams. It prompted me to ask a few more questions about White Oak Dam on the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge reservation. The dam was constructed during World War II to help contain the radioactive discharges associated with the early nuclear operations upstream at what became known as Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Remaining waste to be burned at unique OR facility before closure OAK RIDGE - At the end of April, the Department of Energy will stop receiving waste at its Oak Ridge incinerator and proceed with plans to shut down the one-of-a-kind facility. The incinerator has burned more than 33 million pounds of waste over the past two decades, specializing in the treatment of so-called mixed wastes that contain radioactive elements, polychlorinated biphenyls and other hazardous chemicals.

The U.S. Department of Energy's uranium enrichment plant in Paducah will get money from the federal economic stimulus plan for environmental cleanup. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $6 billion in funding Tuesday to clean up DOE sites in 12 states. Kentucky's share is about $79 million. The estimated cost to clean up Paducah's gaseous diffusion plant has been increasing. The Department of Energy revised the cost last year from $7.27 billion to $13.8 billion. It's expected to take until 2040 to complete.

Oak Ridge will receive $755 million in stimulus money to jump-start environmental cleanup projects and create about 1,500 new jobs, the Department of Energy announced today. Gerald Boyd, the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge manager, said the money will be spent over the next two and a half years for dozens of projects at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Y-12 National Security Complex, and the East Tennessee Technology Park.

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.

My Wednesday column is about the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 and its place in the growing debate about what to do with the nuclear weapons complex of the future. UPF's actual price tag is still a bit of a mystery, with varying estimates in the range of $2 billion or thereabouts, and there are real questions about how the major project will fare as the Obama administration proceeds and develops its nuclear defense posture. The proposed UPF would replace Y-12's main production center, an antique known as 9212, and would become the biggest cog yet in the Oak Ridge plant's modernization campaign. The project is currently in a preliminary design phase known as Critical Decision-1. The spending level on UPF this year is $85 million, according to Steven Wyatt of the NNSA's Oak Ridge office.

Y-12 may become a key battleground as the future of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex is debated in coming months and beyond. In particular, the government's decision on whether to proceed with the Uranium Processing Facility - a new production center at Oak Ridge - is likely to be a negotiable item as the Obama administration's view of the world and strategy for nuclear defense begin to play out. There doesn't seem to be any question that the nation's weapons stockpile will continue to be drawn down. How quickly and to what extent are still up for grabs.

DOE was supposed to submit a detailed plan for removal and diposition of the transuranic waste remaining in notorious Trench 13 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The plan was due by March 31. Instead, DOE has asked the Tennessee Dept. of Environment and Conservation for an extension. John Owsley of TDEC said the state is preparing a response. Trench 13 is located in the north part of Solid Waste Storage Area No. 5. For those who don't remember, the trench contains some transuranic waste -- including about 12 grams of plutonium -- in 50 to 70 Mason jars. Workers were attempting to excavate the site a few years back when flames shot up out of the ground, bringing a halt to work. The site was later stabilzed, but it's been on hold ever since.

"Such a hefty fine certainly seems doubtful, but that figure is contained in a Jan. 26 letter to DOE from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. The letter notifies DOE of failure to meet multiple milestones for "excess material removal" at the K-27 Building in Oak Ridge. DOE's Oak Ridge manager, Gerald Boyd, said today there may have been a misunderstanding or miscommunciation and that his staff is researching it. "There's a difference of opinion about whether or not the milestone was missed, and that's what we're trying to sort out.""

"The Environmental Protection Agency is setting the stage for upcoming negotiations with a strong message to the Department of Energy: Don't let the focus on demolition of old buildings in Oak Ridge stall or deter efforts to reduce pollution in the environment. "EPA is concerned that DOE . . . is placing too much emphasis on building demolition activities in lieu of contaminated environmental media cleanup," EPA's Franklin E. Hill wrote in a Feb. 9 letter to DOE's Oak Ridge office. "Significant levels of contamination in environmental media continue to migrate uncontrolled in groundwater and surface water, and in some cases beyond the boundaries of the ORR (Oak Ridge Reservation). This is viewed as a significant risk and should be addressed earlier than what DOE . . has recently indicated.""

"The Department of Energy's Inspector General this week released an audit report critical of the agency's management of the uranium-233 down-blending and disposition project in Oak Ridge. The report cited the project's growing cost and continuing uncertainties. The project, which is still in the design phase, is supposed to process about 1.4 metric tons of uranium stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The uranium stockpile contains significant quantities of fissionable U-233 - a strategic nuclear material - with highly radioactive decay products that make the project complex and potentially dangerous. The current cost estimate is about $477 million."

"An employee at the EnergySolutions' Bear Creek Facility in Oak Ridge was airlifted to a Knoxville hospital today after he was injured in an accident. Operations at the radioactive-waste processing plant were shut down immediately afterwards, and the accident is under investigation, the company said. According to information released by EnergySolutions, the worker was injured when a crane moving a 10-ton metal block failed, with the block falling and hitting the worker's leg. The worker's name was not immediately released, but EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker said the worker -- a 20-year employee at the site -- was in stable condition at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Walker said the injuries were not life-threatening."