|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Updates from the SRSCRO
|
August 2015
|
| Follow us on Twitter! |
Rick McLeod @atomicasset  |
Mindy Mets @nuclearstem |
|
|
|
|
|
|
SRSCRO Annual Congressional Staff Workshop
 The SRSCRO hosted its fifth annual workshop for Congressional staff representing Georgia and South Carolina, from both Washington, DC and local offices, on August 19-21. The workshop consisted of one half-day meeting where the staffers heard about SRSCRO initiatives including the Nuclear Workforce Initiative, and community concerns about SRS issues.
The group also got a SRS site tour of the Savannah River National Laboratory
 (SR
NL)
and fa
cilities associated with the Liquid
Waste mission.
In addition, they had the o
pportunity to hear from Department of Energy (DOE-EM
) and National Nuclear Securit
y Association (NNSA) site managers, along
w
ith representatives from Savannah River Remediation (SRR), Salt Waste P
roc
essing, and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS). The workshop objective of having the delegations from both sides of the river better informed about our local initiatives can only make the communities strong
er politically, and the staffers better informed.
|
GRU Students at SRNL
The success of regional programs developed through a partnership called Advancing Nuclear Skills Regionally (ANSR) is evident throughout the SRSCRO region. Most recently, student interns from the Nuclear Science Track Program in the Physics and Chemistry Department at Georgia Regents University (an ANSR program) assisted at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). Their work became part of a manuscript published in the August 2015 edition (Vol. 109, NO. 2) of the Health Physics Society's Operational Radiation Safety Journal.
SRNL, with the assistance of GRU student interns, completed a thorough comparison of EPA's newly updated CAP88 PC V4.0 environmental dosimetry code.
Participants in the project include: Kelsey Moore (GRU), Tim Jannik (SRNL), Chris Sailors (GRU), Rick Stahman (GRU), Joseph Newton (GRU Professor), Ken Dixon (SRNL) and Levi Johnson (GRU). |
MOX's "Red Team" Report
As reported last month, DOE had ordered a high-level review of the MOX facility, called a "Red Team". The red team members were tasked with evaluating whether the MOX disposition pathway, which requires construction of the new facility and other things, is the optimal way to meet U.S. obligations and commitments. The report was due on the Secretary of Energy's desk this past Monday, August 17, but it was not expected to be officially released to the public for another week or two.
However, the
report and the results were obtained and leaked by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) who has made them public. The report was produced by a team of experts from U.S. nuclear laboratories, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and the commercial nuclear power industry.
The Red Team concluded that building and operating the plant over the life of the program would cost between $700 and $800 million per year, while diluting the plutonium and sending it to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) would cost about $400 million per year.
While the Red Team favored diluting the plutonium and storing it at WIPP, this solution faces serious problems of its own, as the report points out. WIPP has been closed for a year and a half following a series of accidents, and no official date for reopening has been set.
The report still leaves the following questions unanswered:
1. What are the impacts to the Russian agreement if the
down-blend option is chosen?
2. How long will Pu reside in SC and what does DOE plan
to do about the statutory removal date?
3. What plans does DOE have for the MOX facility if the
down-blend alternative is chosen?
4. What plans does DOE have for the MOX workforce?
Last month we also reported on the Aerospace Corporation - a California nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center - congressionally-mandated study that prices the MOX lifecycle cost at $51 billion and the down-blending method at $17 billion. Just this week, this Study has come under increased scrutiny for potentially being biased. Some members of the South Carolina delegation, led by Congressman Joe Wilson, sent a letter to Secretary Moniz noting the study was not independent but was conducted with considerable influence and direction from DOE. The
letter asks for all correspondence and information between DOE and the Aerospace Corporation related to the study. There will certainly be more news on the MOX front in the coming months.
|
Nuclear Science Week Website
Nuclear Science Week (NSW) is a national, broadly observed week-long celebration that focuses on all aspects of nuclear science. The SRS Community Reuse Organization and its affiliated Nuclear Workforce Initiative are collaborating with local organizations to conduct activities designed to encourage and bring awareness of nuclear technology and the many careers available within nuclear technology and other high-tech industries.
Local events during this week of October 19-23, 2015 will provide many learning opportunities about contributions, innovation and careers that can be found by exploring nuclear science.
Now is the time to make plans for the week! Regional activities are highlighted on the new 2015 Nuclear Science Week
website.
|
SRSCRO - STEM Award Finalist
The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and the TAG Education Collaborative (TAG-Ed) announced that the Savannah River Site Community Reuse Organization (SRSCRO) has been named as a finalist in the Post-Secondary Outreach category for the 2015 Georgia STEM Education Awards.
Winners will be announced during a special awards gala August 28th at the Carlos Community Center in Atlanta. The event is sponsored in part by Georgia Tech Research Institute, Promethean and Cisco. The Georgia STEM Education Awards recognize schools, programs, and companies for outstanding efforts and achievements in supporting and promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Education in Georgia.
The SRSCRO was recognized for identifying STEM workforce skills needed to support existing and emerging technologies in its region that includes Augusta, Georgia. To align education programs with high technology job needs, an SRSCRO-led partnership with five colleges and universities was established.
The partnership is called Advancing Nuclear Skills Regionally and includes Augusta Technical College, Georgia Regents University Augusta, Aiken Technical College, University of South Carolina Aiken and University of South Carolina Salkehatchie.
The Department of Energy - Environmental Management has provided funding used by the partners to strategically develop seven new post-secondary programs that support local technical workforce demands. College graduates are successfully entering technology careers because of the STEM-based degree programs made possible through this regional collaboration.
|
|
|
|
Spotlight
Regalbuto Named DOE's Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management
Dr. Monica Regalbuto was confirmed by the Senate on August 5, 2015 as the Department of Energy's Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management. As Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management, Dr. Regalbuto will provide the leadership necessary to continue the safe cleanup of the environmental legacy brought about from five decades of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. She will work closely with communities that have partnered with DOE and its predecessor agencies for many decades. The position has been vacant since Ines Triay resigned four years ago. This is the second time Regalbuto has been nominated for the position after Congress adjourned without taking action last year. Regalbuto grew up in Mexico, later becoming a U.S. citizen and earning a doctorate in chemical engineering at the University of Notre Dame.
|
|
Football Fun Facts
It takes about 600 cows to make one full season's worth of NFL footballs.
Just two years after finishing their careers, approximately 78% of NFL players go bankrupt.
Though football games usually last around 3 hours, the ball is typically in play for only 11 minutes. Around 56% of the game on TV is devoted to replays.
In an NFL game, as many as 75 minutes, or about 60% of total TV air time (excluding commercials), is spent on shots of players standing on the line of scrimmage, huddling, or just walking around between snaps.
Injured football players in televised NFL games get six more seconds of camera time than celebrating players.
Deion Sanders is the only person in history to both hit an MLB home run and score an NFL touchdown in the same week. He's also the only person to play in the World Series and the Super Bowl.
The average game attendance for an NFL game is 66,957 spectators. For MLB, it's 30,135 spectators.
Contrary to common opinion, the "G" on the Green Bay Packers helmet doesn't stand for Green Bay. Rather, it stands for "Greatness."
The huddle was invented by Paul Hubbard. A legally deaf quarterback from Gallaudet University, he "huddled" other players together so he could hear them better and to protect them from the other teams' prying eyes.
The last scoreless NFL game was in 1943 when the Detroit Lions and New York Giants battled it out for a 0-0 tie.
The Miami Dolphins are the only NFL team in history to complete an undefeated playing season, in 1972.
NBA players earn a bit over $4 million. MLB players earn a little under $3 million. NFL players are the lowest-paid players, with salaries that average less than $1.5 million.
The field's yellow line first-down marker costs $20,000 per football TV broadcast, or $5,120,000 during a regular season
On Super Bowl Sunday, pizza delivery drivers get into more accidents than any other day of the year.
Antacid sales increase by 20% the day after the Super Bowl, and 6% of American workers call in sick.
Americans drink 50 million cases of beer on Super Bowl weekend, which is a tab of more than $10.8 billion.
During Super Bowl halftime, there are an estimated 90 million toilet flushes. That's equivalent to 180 million gallons of water flowing at once, or 3.5 minutes of flowing water on the Niagara Falls.
|
|
|
Closing Thoughts
|
|
"Americans detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies."
-- Edgar Watson Howe
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you."
-- Don Marquis
"I believe that every human has a finite number of heart-beats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises."
-- Buzz Aldrin
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."
-- Rick Cook
"Think of what would happen to us in America if there were no humorists; life would be one long Congressional Record."
-- Tom Masson
"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."
-- Samuel Johnson
'Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.' --
Groucho Marx
|
| Contact Information |
SRSCRO, PO Box 696, Aiken, SC 20802
Staff:
Mindy Mets - NWI Program Manager - 803-508-7403
Amy Merry - Administrative & Business Manager - 803-508-7401
Kim Saxon - Assistant Coordinator -
803-508-7656
|
|
| |
|
