Energy Department Takes First Step to Spur U.S. Manufacturing of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors
New Funding Opportunity Announcement Will Support SMR Design and Licensing for Widespread Commercial Use

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Department of Energy today announced the first step toward manufacturing small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) in the United States, demonstrating the Administration's commitment to advancing U.S. manufacturing leadership in low-carbon, next generation energy technologies and restarting the nation's nuclear industry. Through the draft Funding Opportunity Announcement announced today, the Department will establish cost-shared agreements with private industry to support the design and licensing of SMRs.

"America's choice is clear - we can either develop the next generation of clean energy technologies, which will help create thousands of new jobs and export opportunities here in America, or we can wait for other countries to take the lead," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "The funding opportunity announced today is a significant step forward in designing, manufacturing, and exporting U.S. small modular reactors, advancing our competitive edge in the global clean energy race."

Small modular reactors, approximately one-third the size of current nuclear plants, have compact designs that are expected to offer a host of safety, siting, construction and economic benefits. Specifically, they could be made in factories and transported to sites where they would be ready to "plug and play" upon arrival, reducing both capital costs and construction times. The small size also makes SMRs ideal for small electric grids and for locations that cannot support large reactors, providing utilities with the flexibility to scale production as demand changes.

The draft Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) announced today solicits input from industry in advance of a full FOA, which will support first-of-a-kind engineering, design certification and licensing through a cost-shared partnership. The full FOA will fund up to two SMR designs with the goal of deploying these reactors by 2022.

Today's announcement comes on the heels of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's certification of Westinghouse Electric's AP1000 nuclear reactor design, which was supported through a cost-shared agreement with the Energy Department. The Department's efforts, in coordination with the NRC and private industry, have helped American companies lead the way in obtaining certification and licensing approvals for new reactor designs, which will further streamline these processes for future investments in the U.S. nuclear industry.

For more information on SMRs, please visit the Office of Nuclear Energy website.

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Editorial Date January 20, 2012
By Brad Bugger

DOE Idaho site reaches 20-year cleanup milestone

IDAHO FALLS, ID- In two decades of Superfund cleanup work, the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho site has removed hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of radioactive and hazardously contaminated soils, excavated radioactive waste buried since the 1950s, removed three nuclear reactors and hundreds of buildings, completely closed three major nuclear facilities and removed thousands of unexploded ordnance shells and fragments.

Last month marked the 20-year anniversary of the signing and implementation of a cleanup agreement between DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Idaho. In two decades, the cleanup agreement known as the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order has never been revised and DOE's cleanup contractors have met all but four of the literally hundreds of milestones outlined in the document. The missed milestones were subsequently renegotiated.

"We've made great progress in cleaning up the Idaho site, further protecting the Snake River Plain Aquifer," said James Cooper, deputy manager for DOE Idaho's Cleanup Project. "The visible progress in just the last five years is staggering."

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, appropriated in 2009, helped the Idaho Cleanup Project accelerate many legacy projects by several years. At the beginning of the Site's cleanup mission, it was believed that cleanup of hundreds of radioactive, hazardous and debris sites would take until 2035 or later to complete. DOE accelerated the cleanup mission of the Site, with the bulk of work predicted for completion within the next several years, saving taxpayers billions of dollars.

The Idaho National Laboratory was added to the EPA's Superfund National Priorities List in 1989 due to the 890-square-mile Site's potential impact on the underlying Snake River Plain Aquifer, a Lake Erie-sized body of water that runs underground from Ashton to Thousand Springs, Idaho. Prior to becoming a Superfund site, INL discharged contamination into unlined ponds, had leaks from its facilities and underground storage tank piping and injected water directly into the aquifer. Although INL implemented common industrial disposal techniques at the time, those activities threatened the aquifer.

Of most concern was the potential impact to the aquifer beneath the Radioactive Waste Management Complex, where barrels and boxes of radioactive and hazardous waste were buried from 1952 until 1970 within a 97-acre area known as the Subsurface Disposal Area. Since 1996, solvent vapors that were released from the barrels and boxes as they degraded over time have been removed by a series of vacuum extraction units that suck the vapors from the ground and destroy the solvents by heating up the material in the same manner as an automobile catalytic converter. Crews have been digging up the waste since January 2005.

Cleanup at the Subsurface Disposal Area also continues. The project is anticipated to be completed ahead of schedule, with a soil cap placed over the entire landfill. The cap will prevent any remaining pollutants from migrating deeper in to the subsurface or the aquifer.

"We've continually picked up the pace of waste exhumation since we were awarded the cleanup contract in 2005," said CH2M-WG Idaho, LLC., president and CEO Tom Dieter. "Being able to begin cap construction several years ahead of schedule will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars."

A cap will also be installed over the Tank Farm located at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, formerly known as the Chem Plant. About 900,000 gallons of radioactive and hazardous liquid waste remains in three 300,000-gallon tanks within the Tank Farm. The tanks will be emptied by December 2012, and filled with a cement grout.

"Many of these cleanup projects are undertaken with protection of the aquifer being the top priority," said Cooper. "All contaminated sites that have impacted the aquifer have either been addressed or are currently being addressed. That's encouraging news."

CH2M-WG Idaho, LLC, (CWI) is a partnership comprised of CH2MHill and the URS Corporation that directs the Idaho Cleanup Project at the Department of Energy's Idaho Site located 45 miles west of Idaho Falls. The 7-year, $2.9 billion project, funded through the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management, focuses on early risk reduction and protection of the Snake River Plain Aquifer.

For more information visit the Idaho Cleanup Project on the Web at https://idahocleanupproject.com

ID -12-01

Editorial Date January 19, 2012
By Brad Bugger