Vol. 4, No. 165 Still No Official Word on Status of DOE Nuclear Cleanup Boss
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Cleanup & Remediation
Results of Latest DOE Sampling at Portsmouth-Area School Due Within Weeks
It should take anywhere from two to four weeks to fully analyze the Energy Department’s new sampling for radioactive contaminants at a middle school near the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The results should be publicly provided as soon as they are available, Pike County Health Commissioner Matt Brewster said in a Wednesday email. A team […]
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Decommissioning
Duke Picks Contractor to Speed Decommissioning of Crystal River Plant
Duke Energy on Thursday said it had selected a contractor to expedite decommissioning of its retired Crystal River nuclear power plant in Florida. The power company now anticipates decommissioning will wrap up by 2027, decades earlier than the prior end date of 2074. Pending state and federal regulatory approval, Accelerated Decommissioning Partners, a team of […]
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Plutonium Pit Production
Judge Nixes MOX Services’ Claim for Interest Payment on MFFF Fee
MOX Services will not receive any interest payments on $20 million in clawed-back fees the shrinking company won from the Department of Energy in a lawsuit over the agency’s cancellation of a controversial plutonium disposal plant at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler handed down the […]
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Plutonium Pit Production
South Carolina, Feds Request More Time to Settle High-Stakes Plutonium Lawsuit
South Carolina and the Department of Energy need at least another month to decide whether it is “feasible” to settle the state’s $100-million 2018 lawsuit over several metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium stranded at the Savannah River Site. “The parties continue to engage in discussions to determine whether it is feasible to resolve this matter […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
Politics to Blame for Standstill on Yucca Mountain, Senator Says
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wy.) on Wednesday placed blame squarely on Democrats for the ongoing freeze in licensing and then building a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. “The project boasts support in Nye County, where Yucca Mountain is located. So why hasn’t it moved forward? Politics,” Barrasso wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. […]
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Non-Proliferation
DIA Believes Russia Is ‘Probably’ Not Adhering To Nuclear Test Ban
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assesses Russia “probably is not adhering” fully to a multilateral prohibition on nuclear testing, the agency’s director said Wednesday. Speaking at a Hudson Institute event, Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley Jr. argued Russia’s development of new nuclear warhead designs and overall stockpile management is enhanced by even low-yield nuclear testing. “The […]
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International
Property Remediation Resumes at Canada’s Port Hope Project
The Port Hope Project in April resumed remediation of radioactively contaminated properties in the municipality in Ontario, Canada. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ Port Hope Area Initiative is testing all private properties for low-level radioactive waste, left by uranium and radium refining during the 20th century. To date, roughly 1,000 sites are known to require remediation. The […]