Vol. 6, No. 19 New START Extension Official, Secretary of State Says
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Delivery Systems & Nuclear Triad
Pentagon Won’t Rubberstamp Nuke Modernization Plans, DepSecDef Nominee Tells Senators
A review of nuclear modernization is among the top items for Kathleen Hicks, if the Senate confirms her as Deputy Secretary of Defense. Hicks, 50, has been involved on the inside and outside of the Pentagon since 1993, most recently as a senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She […]
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Transuranic Waste
COVID-19 Cases Add Up at WIPP, Hanford
The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has now confirmed a total of 243 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began in the United States a little more than a year ago while the Hanford Site in Washington state is up to about 645 cases during the same period. That is […]
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Transuranic Waste
1 Shipment of Stranded Los Alamos Waste in Texas Approved for WIPP
A standard box of transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, stuck at a commercial site in Texas since 2014, has been approved for shipment to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. When that waste box is shipped there will be 74 remaining at Waste Control Specialists, Brian McGovern, […]
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Budget & Policy
Nuke Site Ally Heinrich Joins Senate Appropriations Committee, Leave Armed Services Committee
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) will leave the Senate Armed Services Committee and join the chamber’s Appropriations Committee, keeping intact an important legislative shield for nuclear sites in the Land of Enchantment. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) the majority leader, announced the committee assignments for the Democratic-controlled 117th Congress Tuesday on a call with the Senate’s Democratic […]
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Budget & Policy
Ohio Public Utilities Commission Agrees to Block FirstEnergy Profit Grab
The. Public Utilities Commission of Ohio on Tuesday unanimously agreed to block FirstEnergy Corp. from collecting a virtually guaranteed profit of at least $102 million each year, to which the corporation was entitled under a controversial nuclear power bailout law passed in 2019. Approval came swiftly after the Ohio Attorney General’s office and FirstEnergy on […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
NM Legislature Will Debate Bill About State Rad Waste Task Force Thursday
New Mexico’s state Senate Conservation Committee adjourned Tuesday without debating proposed legislation that would create a “radioactive waste consultation task force,” but the body is set to reconvene Thursday to tackle the issue. The bill is one of 14 on the committee’s schedule this week. The body voted on only two of those 14 measures […]
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Warhead & Weapons Development
Environmental Groups Planning to Drop Lawsuit That Sought to End UPF Construction
A group of environmentalists stopped trying to convince a federal judge to stop construction of the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., according to a recent court filing in a three year-old lawsuit. The plaintiffs — the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, and the […]
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Transuranic Waste
DOE Studies Results of WIPP Fan Ventilation Test
The Department of Energy and the prime contractor for the Waste isolation Pilot Plant on Sunday completed an early test of the long-idle 700-C fan, expected to augment underground airflow pending completion of a major new ventilation system. Construction of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System, meant to increase airflow to 540,000 cubic feet per […]