Uranium Enrichment & Fuel Cycle

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 6/5/2015 Former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman’s appointment to lead Centrus Energy should not impact funding support from Congress for the American Centrifuge technology, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) said late this week.  Poneman, who left DOE last fall, was appointed as CEO of Centrus Energy in March in a move that […]

Uranium conversion services company ConverDyn is still pushing a court to restrict the Department of Energy’s uranium transfers after DOE recently cut the level of those transfers, according to a court filing this week. ConverDyn sued DOE last year alleging that the Department’s plans to increase its excess uranium transfers would have an adverse material […]

The Department of Energy yesterday issued a set of updated sections for the draft Request for Proposals for the new contract to manage DOE’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plants. Among the changes made in the new sections (B, H, L and M) is DOE making the contract run for a full five years, […]

FBP Undergoes Safety ‘Stand-Down’ After String of Incidents WC Monitor 5/29/2015 After a series of minor recordable safety incidents this month at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the site undertook a “safety stand-down” this week to review and focus on safety tenets. The May 28 stand down came when, after two months without a recordable […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/29/2015 Members of Ohio’s Congressional delegation are asking the Department of Energy how it plans to avoid layoffs at the Portsmouth site in 2016 given planned funding levels and cuts in the uranium transfers used to help pay for cleanup at the site. DOE recently announced plans to reduce the uranium […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/29/2015 The Department of Energy has taken steps to improve controls and accountability of nuclear materials at the Portsmouth site after a DOE Office of Inspector General inspection found weaknesses there, according to an IG report released this week. The site uses the Portsmouth Materials Accountability System to track the location […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 5/29/2015 In a capstone to the successful ‘Megatons to Megawatts’ program, President Barack Obama this week terminated an executive order that had been intended to ensure payments to Russia under the program would not be impacted by lawsuits. Under the “Megatons to Megawatts” program, 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium […]

President Barack Obama on Tuesday terminated a state of emergency geared toward curbing any potential risks posed by an accumulation of weapons-usable fissile material in Russia. Determining that it was no longer needed, Obama revoked a 2012 executive order that was issued to help protect highly enriched uranium from creditors, and to ensure that Russia […]

The Department of Energy has taken steps to improve controls and accountability of nuclear materials at the Portsmouth site after a DOE Office of Inspector General report found weaknesses there, according to an IG report released yesterday. The site uses the Portsmouth Materials Accountability System to track to location and makeup of nuclear material, but […]

Members of Ohio’s Congressional delegation asked the Department of Energy how it plans to avoid layoffs at the Portsmouth site in 2016 given planned funding levels and cuts in the uranium transfers used to help pay for cleanup at the site. The Department recently released a new Secretarial Determination governing those transfers, cutting them from […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/22/2015 Senate appropriators this week matched the Department of Energy’s proposed funding cut for D&D activities at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant next year, raising concerns of major layoffs at the site. The Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, reported out of committee, would provide […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/22/2015 Following ongoing controversy about the Department of Energy’s excess uranium transfers, lawmakers in both the Senate and the House this week introduced legislation that would put a firm cap on the transfers and require them to go through the full rulemaking and public comment process. The bills would cap the […]

Reductions Could Have $65 Million Impact in FY’16 Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/15/2015 Members of Ohio’s Congressional delegation expressed concern this week over the impact on Portsmouth cleanup of the Department of Energy’s recent decision to reduce its uranium transfers. D&D funding at Portsmouth comes in a large part from the sale of DOE-owned uranium […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/15/2015 A federal court is asking the uranium conversion services company ConverDyn to show cause as to why its lawsuit against the Department of Energy should continue given DOE’s recent announcement that it plans to reduce the amount of excess uranium it uses to pay for various projects. ConverDyn sued DOE […]

Given the Department of Energy’s new determination cutting its uranium transfers, a court is asking ConverDyn to show cause for the uranium conversion company’s ongoing lawsuit challenging the Department’s uranium transfer policy. ConverDyn filed the suit in June 2014, soon after DOE’s decision to boost its uranium transfers to up to 15 percent of the […]

Contractor Still Conducting Analysis of Chemical Spill Accident Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/8/2015 B&W Conversion Services, LLC, is so far holding off on setting a schedule for the resumption of full operations at the Portsmouth depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF) conversion plant in the wake of a chemical spill accident, saying late this week that the […]

Uranium Mining Industry Gives Move ‘Mixed Reviews’  Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/8/2015 In a move that is expected to impact funding for cleanup work at the Portsmouth site, the Department of Energy is reducing the amount of excess uranium it will transfer to contractors to help pay for cleanup activities and downblending programs. Under the […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/8/2015 There is no evidence that former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman broke any ethics rules while at the Department of Energy regarding his future post as CEO of uranium enrichment firm Centrus Energy Corp., DOE Deputy General Counsel Eric Fygi said in an April 30 letter to Sen. John Barrasso […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 5/8/2015 Centrus Energy Corp. President and CEO Dan Poneman laid out a vision this week for the comeback of the uranium enrichment firm, emphasizing the need to be commercially successful in addition to fulfilling national security needs. Centrus, formerly known as USEC, has struggled to turn a profit in recent years. […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 5/8/2015 There is no evidence that former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman broke any ethics rules while at the Department of Energy regarding his future post as CEO of uranium enrichment firm Centrus Energy Corp., DOE Deputy General Counsel Eric Fygi said in an April 30 letter to Sen. John Barrasso […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 5/8/2015 Centrus Energy Corp. President and CEO Dan Poneman laid out a vision this week for the comeback of the uranium enrichment firm, emphasizing the need to be commercially successful in addition to fulfilling national security needs. Centrus, formerly known as USEC, has struggled to turn a profit in recent years. […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/8/2015 The United States will place $13.2 million into an environmental response trust that will pay for evaluations of 16 priority abandoned uranium mines located across Navajo lands, the Department of Justice announced late last week. Because the U.S. government could not identify responsible parties for these 16 sites, the […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 5/8/2015 There is no evidence that former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman broke any ethics rules while at the Department of Energy regarding his future post as CEO of uranium enrichment firm Centrus Energy Corp., DOE Deputy General Counsel Eric Fygi said in an April 30 letter to Sen. John Barrasso […]

Centrus Energy Corp. reported a net loss of $15.4 million in the first quarter of 2015, an improvement over the $50.8 million net loss it experienced in the first quarter last year, according to earnings results released yesterday. The company reported gross profits of $6.9 million in the period, a $27.8 million increase when compared […]

There is no evidence that Former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman broke ethics rules while at the Department of Energy regarding his future post as CEO of uranium enrichment firm Centrus Energy Corp., DOE Deputy General Counsel Eric Fygi said in an April 30 letter to Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). Poneman, who left DOE last […]

The Department of Energy is reducing its uranium transfers used to pay for DOE cleanup and downblending programs under the latest Secretarial determination for the transfers, released late last week. DOE will transfer up to 2,100 metric tons of natural uranium in 2016, compared to the  2,705 metric tons allowed under the Secretarial determination completed […]

Centrus Energy Corp. will hold its annual shareholder meeting this Thursday, May 7, and expects to release its first quarter 2015 results the day before. Notably, this will be the first shareholder meeting for the uranium enrichment firm since it completed Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring last fall, changed its name from USEC to Centrus and […]

The Department of Energy is so far staying quiet on whether or not a formal enforcement investigation will be launched into an accident that occurred at the Portsmouth depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plant in late March that exposed two workers to dangerous chemicals. DOE has not answered multiple questions submitted over the past two […]

Industry Takes Issue With DOE Revisions to Market Report Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 5/1/2015 Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) is calling for more transparency and oversight by the Department of Energy on uranium transfers to the metal commodities firm Traxys that are used to fund cleanup work at the Portsmouth site after the recent appointment of […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/1/2015 Navajo Nation President Ben Shell called on the prompt completion of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission license amendment that would enable the cleanup of the Church Rock uranium mine site near Gallup, N.M. to begin, according to a statement released late last week. The NRC staff issued last week in […]