Photo courtesy SRS Watch The $7.7-billion MIxed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project has experienced a nearly $3-billion increase in construction costs, and is estimated to be three years behind its original schedule. Related Links: DOE Audit Report: Cost and Schedule of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site Senate Appropriators Question Pause in MOX Project Construction, Operational Challenges Endanger $7.7B MOX Project The federal agency overseeing the $7.7-billion Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in Aiken, S.C., violated a "basic principle" when it approved the plutonium disposal facility for construction despite its "immature" design, according to a U.S.
Photo courtesy Duke Energy Image courtesy Duke Energy A diagram of the coal-ash basin at the Dan River powerplant, where the spill occurred. Related Links: With Coal Ash Leak Plugged, Focus Turns to Remediation Subpoenas Issued in Dan River Coal Ash Spill Concrete Firm Exec Tells N.C. Legislature That Industry Wants to Buy Coal Ash Duke Energy's efforts to remove a portion of an estimated 39,000 tons of coal ash spilled in February into the Dan River could signal the start of new responsibilities for North Carolina utilities in managing waste from coal-fired powerplants.Duke signed an "enforceable" agreement with the
Photo by AP Wide World A proposed EPA rule calls for a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030. States would be responsible for implementing plans by June 2016. Related Links: EPA Sets Ambitious Goal to Cut Existing Powerplants' CO2 Emissions Text of EPA Proposal (June 2) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing powerplants, calling for a 30% reduction below 2005 levels by 2030. EPA says the proposed rule, which it released on June 2, could lead to upgrades at fossil-fuel-fired powerplants and has the potential to
Related Links: Report Blames ExxonMobil's Arkansas Oil Spill on Bad Pipe Pipelines Scrutinized After Yellowstone Spill A flash flood shortly after a late May oil spill in a remote section of eastern Utah hampered cleanup and spill assessment. The accident apparently unleashed thousands of gallons of an oil and water mixed-fluid into a wash on land controlled by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.The fluid is a water and oil mixture at a 2-to-1 ratio, according to Beth Ransel, Moab field manager for the BLM.On May 21, the Bureau of Land Management says, its Moab, Utah, field office was notified
Related Links: New Study Says Infrastructure Already Feels Climate Change's Impact Wind Developers Active Across African Continent The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved the creation of a fund to support the continent’s “transition to green growth.” The African Climate Change Fund (ACCF) will scale up to a multi-donor trust fund, which will be hosted and managed by the bank.Speaking to the bank’s directors at a meeting in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, Alex Rugamba, director of the bank’s energy, environment and climate-change department, said the fund “will help facilitate countries’ access to the financing they need to protect their economies
Images Courtesy Of Novarka With the vault's first half completed, the second section is taking shape within the lifting towers. Spanning 257 m, the structure (below) will cover the entire sarcophagus. Related Links: Radiation Threat Still Permeates Chernobyl's Entombment Work on Enclosure for Chernobyl Begins Twenty-eight years after devastating explosions and fire partially destroyed Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant, the first half of a vast safe confinement has been completed. As work continues on the 25,000-tonne steelwork vault—tall enough to cover the Statue of Liberty—the parties to the cleanup are about to agree to a new construction price of around $2
Related Links: EPA Bristol Bay Profile EPA Study Says Pebble Mine Could Destroy Salmon's Habitat The Pebble Partnership is searching for another key investor to help fund its proposed Pebble Mine project in Bristol Bay, Alaska after international mining giant Rio Tinto gifted to two Alaska charities its 19.1% stake in the firm. A project spokesman says development of the mine, valued at $7 billion to $8 billion, will continue.Environmentalists oppose the mine, which would potentially include a large earthen dam and a containment pond to store up "tailings" waste from the gold, copper and molybdenum extracted. The project would
Related Links: Remarks by Deputy Attorney General James Cole at Press Briefing on Settlement Anadarko Statement on Settlement Anadarko Petroleum Group and some of its subsidiaries will pay $4.4 billion for environmental cleanup at several contaminated sites around the U.S. under a settlement reached with the U.S. Dept. of Justice.Announced on April 3, the total $5.15- billion settlement is the largest environmental enforcement recovery in the Justice Dept.'s history, the agency said. It will settle outstanding claims against the company and pay for the cleanup.A bankruptcy court in December found that the Kerr-McGee Corp., a subsidiary of Anadarko, moved its
Photo courtesy of Washington state DOT Slide Zone Slope above the Stillagaumish River had been timbered several times, which weakened soil stability. Related Links: Lidar Mapping Offers Exacting Detail, a Better Landslide Awareness Tool Landslide Mitigation Measures Fail To Save Plan To Build Bypass Bridges in Oregon New unstable-slope rules, updated in 2011 by the Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources, and unheeded warnings about logging as far back as 1988, could not prevent the March 22 landslide near Oso nor keep victims out of its deadly path.The event has killed at least 24, with 22 missing, as of April
Photo Courtesy of Cambrian Innovation Containerized EcoVolt process generates power from methane; clean water is a by-product. Related Links: Craft Brewer Purchases EcoVolt Bioelectric Technology Bio-Energy Box Coverts Beer Waste to Electricity How Cambrian's EcoVolt Bioelectric Wastewater Treatment System Works Craft breweries in drought-stricken Sonoma County, Calif., are testing a novel process that generates power while recycling wastewater.Developed by an MIT spin-off firm, the EcoVolt system "takes the wastewater stream and, through anaerobic technology, turns it into methane gas that we then turn into electricity using a micro- turbine," says Leon Sharyon, CFO of craft brewery Lagunitas. Matthew Silver, a
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