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Construction of a breeder reactor on the Clinch River in Tennessee was stopped in 1983.A reactor using similar technology above the San Fernando Valley experienced fuel core damage in 1959 that is believed to have released radioactive iodine into the air.Ultimately, the nation never faced a shortage of uranium fuel, and now the Energy Department is spending billions of dollars to manage its surplus plutonium. Unlike uranium, the “wonder fuel,” as the lab called it, was bonded to sodium to improve heat transfer inside the reactor.The sodium has presented an unusual waste problem.Sodium is a highly reactive element that can become explosive when it comes in contact with water and is potentially too unstable to put in any future underground dump — such as the one proposed at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.To remove the bonded sodium, the government used a complex process, known as pyroprocessing, which was developed to also separate plutonium from the spent fuel. The spent fuel parts from the reactor are placed in a chemical bath and subjected to an electrical current, which draws off the sodium onto another material. The process is similar to electroplating a kitchen faucet.Back in 2000, the project managers estimated in an environmental report that they could treat 5 metric tons annually and complete the job in six years.But privately, the department estimated that it would take more than twice that long, according to internal documents that Lyman obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.Even that was unrealistic, because it assumed that the treatment plant could work around the clock every day of the year, without down time for maintenance or allowance for breakdowns. Lyman found that during one year — 2012 — no waste at all was processed.Since the project began 17 years ago, 15% of the waste has been processed, an average of one-fourth of a metric ton per year. That’s 20 times slower than originally expected, a pace that would stretch the work into the next century — long past the 2035 deadline.The problem with the breeder reactor waste is just one of many environmental issues at the lab, located on a high desert plateau near Idaho Falls. The federal government gifted the Idaho lab with additional radioactive waste for decades.After the highly contaminated Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver was shut down in 1993, the waste was shipped to Idaho. The Navy has been sending in its spent fuel from nuclear-powered ships.The lab is dealing with tons of waste containing artificial elements, so-called transuranic waste. The Energy Department promised to move an average of 2,000 cubic meters to a special dump in New Mexico, but it has missed that goal for several years, because of an underground explosion at the dump.The Energy Department declined to answer specific questions about the breeder waste cleanup, citing the sensitivity of nuclear technology. It blamed the slow pace of cleanup on inadequate funding but said it was still trying to meet the deadline.“When the implementation plan for the treatment of the [spent fuel] was developed in 2000, there was very limited nuclear energy research and development being performed in the United States,” a department spokesperson said in a statement.“The funding for this program has been limited in favor of other research and development activities. The Department remains strongly committed to the treatment of this fuel in time to meet its commitments to the State of Idaho.”Susan Burke, who monitors the cleanup at the laboratory for the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, said the statewill continue to demand that the waste be ready for shipment out of Idaho by 2035.“The Energy Department is doing the best it can, but our expectation is that they will have to meet the settlement agreement,” she said.Idaho watchdogs are sk... (Los Angeles Times)
Construction of a breeder reactor on the Clinch River in Tennessee was stopped in 1983.A reactor using similar technology above the San Fernando Valley experienced fuel core damage in 1959 that is believed to have released radioactive iodine into the air.Ultimately, the nation never faced a shortage of uranium fuel, and now the Energy Department is spending billions of dollars to manage its surplus plutonium.Unlike uranium, the “wonder fuel,” as the lab called it, was bonded to sodium to improve heat transfer inside the reactor.The sodium has presented an unusual waste problem.Sodium is a highly reactive element that can become explosive when it comes in contact with water and is potentially too unstable to put in any future underground dump — such as the one proposed at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.To remove the bonded sodium, the government used a complex process, known as pyroprocessing, which was developed to also separate plutonium from the spent fuel. The spent fuel parts from the reactor are placed in a chemical bath and subjected to an electrical current, which draws off the sodium onto another material. The process is similar to electroplating a kitchen faucet.Back in 2000, the project managers estimated in an environmental report that they could treat 5 metric tons annually and complete the job in six years.But privately, the department estimated that it would take more than twice that long, according to internal documents that Lyman obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.Even that was unrealistic, because it assumed that the treatment plant could work around the clock every day of the year, without down time for maintenance or allowance for breakdowns. Lyman found that during one year — 2012 — no waste at all was processed.Since the project began 17 years ago, 15% of the waste has been processed, an average of one-fourth of a metric ton per year. That’s 20 times slower than originally expected, a pace that would stretch the work into the next century — long past the 2035 deadline.The problem with the breeder reactor waste is just one of many environmental issues at the lab, located on a high desert plateau near Idaho Falls. The federal government gifted the Idaho lab with additional radioactive waste for decades.After the highly contaminated Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver was shut down in 1993, the waste was shipped to Idaho. The Navy has been sending in its spent fuel from nuclear-powered ships.The lab is dealing with tons of waste containing artificial elements, so-called transuranic waste. The Energy Department promised to move an average of 2,000 cubic meters to a special dump in New Mexico, but it has missed that goal for several years, because of an underground explosion at the dump.The Energy Department declined to answer specific questions about the breeder waste cleanup, citing the sensitivity of nuclear technology. It blamed the slow pace of cleanup on inadequate funding but said it was still trying to meet the deadline.“When the implementation plan for the treatment of the [spent fuel] was developed in 2000, there was very limited nuclear energy research and development being performed in the United States,” a department spokesperson said in a statement.“The funding for this program has been limited in favor of other research and development activities. The Department remains strongly committed to the treatment of this fuel in time to meet its commitments to the State of Idaho.”Susan Burke, who monitors the cleanup at the laboratory for the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, said the state will continue to demand that the waste be ready for shipment out of Idaho by 2035.“The Energy Department is doing the best it can, but our expectation is that they will have to... (Los Angeles Times)
Mitchell said the architecture workshop — which has partnered with the homeless services provider Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission, based in the San Fernando Valley — is raising funds for the project with the support of city officials. Each small house will cost about $25,000, and the first community will contain 30 units. Mitchell anticipates they will build the community in Sylmar.The house built by the USC students was raffled off to a conference attendee to support the Homes for Hope project.Although the 30-unit community is still a distant reality, students on Friday focused on building one last portable house. Sparks flew as they drilled, and the loud pounding of hammers drew curious conference passersby to their exhibition space.“It’s up. We’ve got some walls,” said artist Greg Kloehn as he watched students drill slabs of wood into place. Kloehn, who oversaw construction of the students’ houses in the fall, has built 60 or 70 small homes made of scrap material in Oakland, where he donates them to homeless people.The student architects said they enjoyed creating the portable houses because they rarely work with their hands in school. Jayson Champlain, 25, said many of his classes have been theoretical — he typically draws designs or constructs models at most. Never before had he built something this large.The students also said they think more about the utility of everyday objects that, at first glance, appear to be junk.Now, Pak considers all the ways discarded materials could fit into the framework of a house. A white board might become a wall; a fridge shelf could make for a good window.“You look at trash differently,” Pak said, noting that a trip through one neighborhood in Los Angeles could provide enough material to build several miniature houses. “We are so wasteful.”To read the article in Spanish, click heremegan.bernhard@latimes.com@meg_bernhard... (Los Angeles Times)
But the transition is not going smoothly for everyone. In a few cases, trash from businesses, apartments and condos in the San Fernando Valley went uncollected for days or weeks when one of the city's biggest haulers – one that did not win a lucrative city franchise – saw its drivers hired away by a competitor that did win a franchise.It wasn't clear exactly how many trash customers have been stranded in the transition from open market to a franchise system, but L.A. Sanitation's Citywide Recycling Division Manager Karen Coka said the 3-1-1 telephone helpline received 128 complaint calls in the past two weeks.She said businesses whose pickups are delayed or ignored can call 3-1-1 for help. If a private hauler cannot be contracted quickly to remove the garbage, the city will pick it up, Coca said.Councilman Mitchell Englander cautioned that the number was likely to rise the closer the city gets to the big switchover from a patchwork of hauling companies to the franchise system."A lot of these small haulers are just closing their doors, without any notice and leaving their accounts abandoned, nobody to pick up their trash," Englander said.Last year, the City Council divided Los Angeles into 11 zones and awarded seven companies exclusive franchises for commercial trash pickup in those areas. The seven companies take over trash service citywide on July 1, transitioning customers onto t... (89.3 KPCC)
