Vol. 5, No. 46

Transuranic Waste

Stranded Los Alamos Waste Won’t Leave WCS This Year, DOE Acknowledges

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management acknowledged late Friday afternoon it will not remove remaining stranded drums of potentially-combustible transuranic waste from temporary storage in Andrews County, Texas this year. “Due to the unique technical considerations” of removing the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) TRU from Waste Control Specialists, “as well as still-to-be-determined impacts […]
  • Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

    Baranwal Hints at Procurement Notice for Interim Storage

    The Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy should soon formally kick off market research for a consolidation interim storage facility for spent fuel, the head of that program, said Friday at RadWaste Summit. “We have been working on an RFI -slash-RFP,” DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal said, referring to a request for […]

  • Life Extension Programs

    NNSA Finishes Non-Nuclear B61-12 Prototype

    The National Nuclear Security Administration finished building a non-nuclear prototype of the B61-12, a refurbished version of the oldest deployed U.S. nuclear weapon that will homogenize four existing versions of the nuclear gravity bomb. The semiautonomous DOE nuclear weapons agency announced the milestone late last week in a press release. Personnel assembled the B61-12 first […]

  • Non-Proliferation

    Markey Calls on NDAA Conferees to Keep Yield-Testing Prohibition in Final Bill

    Fresh from his primary victory over Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.), Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) led a big chunk of the Senate’s Democratic caucus, including the minority leader, in calling on conferees to maintain a prohibition against nuclear-explosive testing in the final version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. “A U.S. nuclear weapons testing restart […]

  • Reactor Licensing & Regulation

    NAC International Considering Options in Regulatory Breach Case

    NAC International is considering its options for responding to a recent finding from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it had seemingly breached federal regulations in a design update for a used-nuclear fuel storage cask, an executive said Friday. “NAC does not at this point, having just received the details set forth in the inspection report, […]

  • Cleanup & Remediation

    Hanford Tells Some Workers to Stay Home Due to Smoke-filled Air

    Smoke from regional fires prompted management at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state to tell some workers to stay home. In an overnight notice published on the Hanford DOE website, management said swing and graveyard shifts for Sunday, along with the daytime for Monday morning, were cancelled for nonessential workers north and south […]

  • Cleanup & Remediation

    Oregon DOE Names New Top Nuclear Safety Chief

    The Oregon Department of Energy has promoted Maxwell Woods to the post of administrator for nuclear safety and emergency preparedness division, succeeding Ken Niles who recently retired. Woods has been with the Oregon DOE for six years, most recently serving as the senior policy advisor and team leader in the Energy Facility Siting Division. He […]

  • Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

    Clarification

    The story “Post-WIPP Disposal ‘Far and Away’ Biggest TRU Waste Challenge for NNSA Pit Mission, Official Says,” [Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, Sept. 10, 2020] should have said that James McConnell, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) associate administrator for safety, infrastructure, and operations, said disposal of transuranic waste will be the NNSA’s biggest waste-management challenge, […]

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