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For members: CNS violated nuclear safety requirements at Y-12, NNSA says

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Y-12 Building 9212

A low-level aerial shot of Building 9212 at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

 

A federal contractor violated nuclear safety requirements at the Y-12 National Security Complex, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The violations are associated with the accumulations of uranium-235 in a glovebox, furnace, and casting line in Building 9212 at Y-12. The equipment is used to recover and process uranium-235, a fissile material that can be used in nuclear weapons and reactors.

The buildup of enriched uranium, discovered after hydraulic lines leaked in a glovebox, exceeded limits established by a safety program meant to help prevent a nuclear chain reaction.

An investigation of the uranium accumulations found weaknesses in five areas, according to the NNSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy and overseas nuclear weapons work at sites like Y-12. Among the deficiencies were procedural compliances, evaluations of process changes, the analyses of causes, the establishment of roles and responsibilities, and the implementation of a program meant to prevent inadvertent accumulations.

“The National Nuclear Security Administration considers these deficiencies to be of high safety significance,” Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty wrote in an April 6 letter. “Although there were no actual consequences to the public, workers, or the environment, these deficiencies eroded the barriers preventing a nuclear criticality and could, if left uncorrected, adversely impact nuclear and worker safety at the Y-12 National Security Complex.”

The letter was sent to Morgan Smith, president and chief executive officer of Consolidated Nuclear Security. CNS manages and operates Y-12, as well as the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, for the NNSA.

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No damage reported on Oak Ridge Reservation after earthquake

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The Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above. (Photo courtesy CNS Y-12)

No damage was reported on the Oak Ridge Reservation after a 3.8 magnitude earthquake was reported about 30 miles northeast of Oak Ridge on Monday, January 20.

The earthquake was felt in Oak Ridge and other communities, and it vibrated homes and windows here. The earthquake was reported by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Two lower magnitude 2.4 and 2.8 earthquakes were also reported on Sunday, January 19, and Tuesday, January 21, respectively, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in its most recent report.

[Read more…]

No injuries reported when furnace door blows open in lab reaction at Y-12

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No injuries were reported when a furnace door blew open during an “unexpected violent reaction” in a chemistry laboratory at the Y-12 National Security Complex in May.

The door of the muffle furnace blew open while it was heating samples in an analytical chemistry laboratory in Building 9995 on Thursday, May 30, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said.

The muffle furnace was damaged, the DNFSB said. It is used to heat samples to high temperatures. The glass vials containing the samples shattered, and some were expelled from the muffle furnace into the work area, the safety board said in a June 7 report.

[Read more…]

No injuries reported in transformer fire at salt bath for depleted uranium

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No injuries were reported during a fire at a transformer for a salt bath used to heat depleted uranium at the Y-12 National Security Complex in May.

The transformer fire was reported Monday, May 20, in Building 9215 at Y-12. It burned no more than about 25 minutes, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. No depleted uranium was being processed at the time of the fire, the board said.

The salt bath heats depleted uranium before metalworking operations.

The DNFSB said the system engineer had stepped away from the salt bath while it was slowly heating to a new temperature, and he noticed the fire after re-entering the area after a supervisor told him about an unusual odor, the DNFSB said. The engineer called 911, and all personnel evacuated the immediate area.

[Read more…]

For members: After leak, hydrogen fluoride operations resume at Y-12

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Y-12 Building 9212

A low-level aerial shot of Building 9212 at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

 

After a leak in April, hydrogen fluoride operations have resumed at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

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For members: Likely cause of Y-12 gas leak has been identified

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Y-12 Building 9212

An inspection has determined the likely cause of the hydrogen fluoride gas leak in the main processing building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in April.

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DNFSB: Moving fissile materials, operations from Y-12 building improves nuclear safety, reduces risk

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Building 9204-2 (Beta 2) is pictured above at center at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Part of Building 9204-2E (Beta 2E) is pictured in the top left. (Photo courtesy Consolidated Nuclear Security)

Building 9204-2 (Beta 2) is pictured above at center at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Part of Building 9204-2E (Beta 2E) is pictured in the top left. (Photo courtesy Consolidated Nuclear Security)

 

Nuclear materials and operations have been removed from an old building at the Y-12 National Security Complex, and that improves safety and reduces the risk to workers and the public, a federal safety board said.

The building, 9204-2, or Beta 2, is on the west side of Y-12. It’s one of nine buildings at the 811-acre site that once used machines known as calutrons to enrich uranium for atomic bombs as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. It’s now used to produce lithium for nuclear weapons.

In an early September report, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said Consolidated Nuclear Security and the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office had officially downgraded Building 9204-2. It had been a category two hazard, but it is now less than category three. It’s considered non-nuclear.

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Nuclear safety board announces appointment of two inspectors, mostly at Y-12

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Aerial: While the skyline is continuing to change, Y-12’s focus remains the same—securing America’s future.

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is pictured above in this submitted photo.

 

A federal safety board has announced the appointment of two Oak Ridge resident inspectors, primarily at the Y-12 National Security Complex, and a major board reform has been announced.

The appointment of the first inspector, Matthew Duncan, was effective August 20. The appointment of the second, Brandon Weathers, is effective in December.

The two will serve as Oak Ridge resident inspectors for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, an independent federal agency responsible for safety oversight at U.S. Department of Energy defense nuclear facilities.

In Oak Ridge, the DNFSB reports often focus on activities at Y-12, but they can also include work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. ORNL is a DOE Office of Science lab, and Y-12 is a National Nuclear Security Administration site. The NNSA is a DOE agency. [Read more…]

Lithium Production Facility could be built in area of Biology Complex at Y-12

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Federal officials have already approved the need for a new Lithium Production Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex, and in May 2018, they said it could be built on the east side of the 811-acre plant, possibly where the Biology Complex, the brick building at center, is now. The east side of Y-12 is pictured above from Scarboro Road on Sunday, May 20, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Federal officials have already approved the need for a new Lithium Production Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex, and in May 2018, they said it could be built on the east side of the 811-acre plant, possibly where the Biology Complex, the brick building at center, is now. The east side of Y-12 is pictured above from Scarboro Road on Sunday, May 20, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Federal officials have already approved the need for a new Lithium Production Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex, and this month, they said it could be built on the east side of the 811-acre plant, possibly where the Biology Complex is now.

Current plans call for demolishing the Biology Complex. Officials had recently been saying that removing buildings from that complex would allow the area to be used for “modern national defense missions.” But it hadn’t been clear what those missions might be.

On May 12, Steven Wyatt, public affairs manager for the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office, confirmed that the Lithium Production Facility could be built there. Y-12 is a NNSA site.

“We are in the early stages of planning for the Lithium Production Capability that is needed to replace the aging and obsolete 9204-2 building,” Wyatt said. “We are reviewing options for constructing a facility in the eastern portion of the Y-12 site, including the area of the Biology Complex.” [Read more…]

UPF lawsuit: NNSA considering new, supplemental environmental impact statement for Y-12

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The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

With a lawsuit pending, federal officials are considering whether a new or supplemental environmental impact statement is needed for the Y-12 National Security Complex after design plans changed for the Uranium Processing Facility, the largest federal construction project in Tennessee since World War II.

As part of the process, the National Nuclear Security Administration is preparing what is known as a supplement analysis, or SA. A draft of the new SA has been issued, and you can read it on the Y-12 website.

Comments on the draft supplement analysis can be submitted through June 20.

The final new supplement analysis and a record of decision could be issued by July 27, although the schedule is subject to change, according to a joint status report filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville on May 11. The record of decision is expected to say whether a new or supplemental environmental impact statement is required for Y-12.

There was a site-wide environmental impact statement, or EIS, prepared for Y-12 in 2011. About five years later, in 2016, there was a supplement analysis prepared under the National Environmental Policy Act. It was connected to the decision by the NNSA and U.S. Department of Energy to not prepare a new or supplemental environmental impact statement after the NNSA decided on a new multi-building design for the UPF, rather than a single-building design, as part of an effort to keep project costs down, among other considerations. [Read more…]

About half of uranium-233 waste shipped from Building 3019 at ORNL

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CEUSP Canister

At left is a picture of an actual 24-inch steel canister of waste from the Consolidated Edison Uranium Solidification Program. At right is a representation of the canister interior. (File photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy/Office of Environmental Management)

About half of the uranium-233 waste stored in Building 3019 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been shipped to a disposal facility in Nevada.

The shipments were completed in August, said Jay Mullis, manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

But federal officials were only recently able to announce the end of the shipments of the waste from the Consolidated Edison Uranium Solidification Program, or CEUSP. The waste contained radioisotopes of uranium from a 1960s research and development test of thorium and uranium reactor fuel at the Consolidated Edison Indian Point-1 reactor in New York. The test was sponsored by the Atomic Energy Commission, a predecessor to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The shipments were completed 10 months ahead of schedule, Mullis told the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board on Wednesday, November 8. The CEUSP waste had been treated and turned into a ceramic matrix. It was shipped from Building 3019 at ORNL, where it had been stored, to the Nevada National Security Site, a former nuclear weapons proving ground about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. DOE started shipping the waste materials to the Nevada National Security Site in May 2015. [Read more…]

Report: Chair of nuclear safety board proposes eliminating it

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Sean Sullivan (Photo credit: DNFSB.gov)

Sean Sullivan (Photo credit: DNFSB.gov)

The chairman of a nuclear safety board that provides recommendations and advice on public health and safety issues at certain federal facilities, including two in Oak Ridge, has proposed eliminating the board, according to an investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.

In its October 19 report, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity said it had obtained a June 29 letter from Sean Sullivan, the Republican chair of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, to Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.

The center has posted the five-page letter online along with an attached one-page historical summary of the five-member board, which issues weekly reports for U.S. Department of Energy sites that include Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex, among other activities. In his letter, Sullivan said the board is a “relic of the Cold War-era defense establishment.”

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is an independent oversight organization within the executive branch. It was created by Congress in 1988 to provide advice and recommendations to the secretary of energy on public health and safety at the defense nuclear facilities managed by DOE. Those reports are publicly available and posted online, and they have been used by reporters and public interest organizations, among others. The Center for Public Integrity said the DNFSB has helped persuade the federal government to impose tighter safety rules and regulations at most of the eight nuclear weapons sites. [Read more…]

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