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| | | published Monday, April 22, 2013 | 556 Views :: 0 Comments |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 19, 2013
CONTACT: Snake River Alliance Liz Woodruff, Executive Director 208-344-9161 (w); 208-871-4597 (c)
BOISE – If Thursday’s complaint by two Idaho National Laboratory workers exposed to plutonium shows anything, it is that the Department of Energy and its INL contractor must be more vigilant about the hazards of the materials handled at the Idaho site but also more transparent when dangerous accidents occur and more responsible in helping injured workers, the Snake River Alliance said Friday.
INL workers Ralph Stanton and Brian Simmons say INL contractor Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) not only created a dangerous work environment but also retaliated against the two when they raised concerns about their exposure to plutonium in a November 2011 accident that affected more than a dozen workers.
On Thursday, Seattle attorney Jack Sheridan filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor alleging the retaliation but also that BEA downplayed the significance of the workers’ plutonium exposure, transferred them to lower level jobs and took various forms of disciplinary actions against them.
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| | | published Monday, April 23, 2012 | 568 Views :: 0 Comments |
April 22nd, 2012
By Clark Corbin From the Idaho Falls Post Register
All 800 Idaho National Laboratory workers at the Materials and Fuels Complex west of Idaho Falls will spend the next two weeks evaluating mistakes made during two accidents at the complex Monday.
Phil Breidenbach, director of nuclear operations at the complex, said workers will not resume research and development activities or work with radioactive materials until the safety and training exercises are completed
"We're trying to further analyze the events with employees to make sure they understand where we fell down and didn't meet expectations and standards, and how that applies to their jobs," Breidenbach said.
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| | | published Wednesday, April 18, 2012 | 2448 Views :: 3 Comments |
For Immediate release: April 18, 2012 Contact: Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch NM, 505.989.7342, c. 505.920.7118, jay@nukewatch.org Santa Fe, NM – Our colleagues and friends at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) have released an explosive report based on a leaked Department of Defense memo concluding that “The Department of Energy’s network of privately-operated nuclear weapons laboratories are riddled with waste, redundancies and lackluster scientific standards.” POGO also found that “that seven of the top 15 officials at the three DOE nuclear labs make more than $700,000 per year, with one earning $1.7 million—more than the president of the United States and many government executives.” Coincidentally, Nuclear Watch New Mexico had been independently compiling data on the salaries of the three laboratory directors, as presented in the table below. It shows that the salary of the Los Alamos Director has nearly tripled since for-profit management began in June 2006, even as the Lab is cutting some 600 jobs. As seen below, privatization of the nuclear weapons labs’ management contracts has resulted in directors’ salaries far above average in both the federal government and the private sector.
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| | | published Thursday, April 12, 2012 | 1719 Views :: 0 Comments |
April 12, 2012
In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by ANA member group Nuclear Watch New Mexico on March 28, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has released the Performance Evaluation Reports for its eight nuclear weapons sites. These reports are the government's scorecard for awarding tens of millions of dollars to nuclear weapons contractors, and were available to the public until 2009. But since that time NNSA has withheld them in a general move toward less contractor accountability.
Click the links below to download the Performance Evaluation Reports for each nuclear weapons site (PDFs) Note: the Sandia National Laboratory report is still undergoing review by the NNSA before it is released.
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| | | published Monday, January 23, 2012 | 991 Views :: 0 Comments |
January 19, 2012
By The Associated Press
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — An accident at the Idaho National Laboratory that exposed 16 employees to plutonium radiation could have been prevented, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Inadequate safety measures and ineffective training contributed to the November contamination and lab officials missed several opportunities to make changes, states a report released Wednesday by the Energy Department’s Office of Health, Safety and Security.
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| | | published Friday, August 26, 2011 | 864 Views :: 0 Comments |
Aug 26, 2011
By Laura Zuckerman
From Reuters
SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Firefighters struggled on Thursday to control a fast-growing 28,000-acre wildfire raging within several miles of spent nuclear fuel stored at a U.S. Energy Department lab in the high desert of eastern Idaho.
The growth and intensity of the blaze, the nation's largest active wildfire, prompted the Idaho National Laboratory to order a key facility on the 890-square-mile site evacuated of all nonessential personnel, lab officials said.
The Materials and Fuels Complex, about 38 miles from Idaho Falls, consists of facilities for handling, processing and examining spent nuclear fuel, irradiated materials and radioactive wastes, according to the lab's website.
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| | | published Monday, January 10, 2011 | 2353 Views :: 1 Comments |
For Immediate release: January 7, 2011 Contact: Snake River Alliance Liz Woodruff, Executive Director 208-344-9161 (w) Boise, ID: After a robust national
search and rigorous interview process, the Snake River Alliance Board of
Directors has hired a new Executive Director. Liz Woodruff, who currently
serves as the organization’s Energy Policy Analyst, will begin in her new
capacity on Monday, Jan. 10.
“Our search for a new executive
director ultimately brought us right back to the talent we already have at the Alliance,” said Lou Landry, president of
the Snake River Alliance Board. “In her nearly three years working for
the organization, Liz has shown exceptional leadership abilities,
administrative strengths, a deep understanding of the issues, and a passion and
commitment to the mission of the organization and Idaho’s environment and energy future.” As one of the letters of recommendation
associated with Liz’s application explained, “At a personal level, she connects
with people on both ends of the political spectrum, making her a very effective
communicator. Her history with the SRA and her knowledge of the subject
matter, combined with all her talents, makes her the logical choice.
There really cannot be a better person suited for this position.”
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| | | published Tuesday, October 13, 2009 | 2339 Views :: 1 Comments |
October 09, 2009
The Snake River Alliance, Idaho's anti-nuclear watchdog, turns 30
BY ROCKY BARKER - rbarker@idahostatesman.com
Copyright: © 2009 Idaho Statesman
The anti-nuclear Snake River Alliance got its start on a bench at Boise's Julia Davis Park
None of its founders can remember the actual date of the Snake River Alliance's first meeting in 1979.
It was in the spring, soon after the Three Mile Island Reactor in Pennsylvania partially melted down, raising fears nationwide about nuclear power. A report by U.S. Geological Survey scientist Jack Barraclough had just been made public showing iodine 129 in concentrations more than 25 times the allowable standards for drinking water near a well at the Idaho National Laboratory in eastern Idaho. Dorian Duffin, a Rupert farm boy and a student at Boise State University, was meeting on campus with other students to form a group to do something about the waste. Across the Boise River, other people, including pregnant mother Diane Jones, were meeting at the same time on a Julia Davis Park bench after answering a classified ad about forming an anti-nuclear group.
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| | | published Tuesday, August 11, 2009 | 8449 Views :: 26 Comments |
August 11, 2009
By ROGER SNODGRASS, Monitor Editor
There are currently several nails in the coffin of a nuclear policy that has
strongly favored commercial reprocessing and recycling of plutonium. Ivan
Oelrich wants to make sure it doesn’t pop open again.
A recurring idea in the political tug-of-war between proponents and
opponents of nuclear energy, nuclear reprocessing is intended to achieving a
plutonium fuel cycle, and thereby provide a plentiful supply of nuclear fuel
and a more easily-stored waste product.
Originally published in the Los Alamos Monitor: http://www.lcni5.com/cgi-bin/c2.cgi?075+article+News+20090808213804075075001
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| | | published Thursday, June 25, 2009 | 3265 Views :: 1 Comments |
Oppose Additional F-22s Paid for with Environmental Cleanup Funds
June 23, 2009
Dear Representative:
Please support any amendment to the FY10 defense authorization bill, H.R. 2647, to eliminate funds for advance procurement of 12 F-22 Raptor fighter jets and restore the money for environmental cleanup.
Defense Secretary Gates requested four additional F-22 fighters in the FY09 Supplemental Appropriations Act, completing the fleet at 187 planes and ending production. Money to purchase those final four aircraft has already been appropriated. We oppose the additional twelve aircraft sought by the Committee in the FY10 defense authorization at a cost of $369 million for FY10.
The funds for F-22s were taken from money intended for cleanup of nuclear weapons sites, and we believe this is unwise. More than six decades of U.S. nuclear weapons research, testing, and production activities have left dozens of Department of Energy sites contaminated by radioactive and hazardous waste. The contamination threatens workers, communities, and the environment,
including major water supplies. Cleaning up that contamination should remain a priority for Congress and the administration. Inadequate funding in 2010 can lead to missing legally obligated cleanup milestones, allows contamination to spread, and can result in additional spending to pay fines and penalties. Funding shortfalls in one year also require additional spending in future years.
If you would like your organization to sign onto the letter, email nroth@ananuclear.org with your name, title, organization's name, and state.
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