Vol. 6, No. 49 Shutdowns Happen, but Maybe Not This Time
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Budget & Policy
As Congress Regroups to Pass Emergency ‘22 Budget, NRC Puts Contingencies in Place
Although the looming threat of a shutdown appeared to have dissipated at deadline Thursday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it was prepared to keep the lights on for a bit if federal funds dried up because Congress and the White House could not agree on a budget for the 2022 fiscal year that starts after […]
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National Laboratories
Religious Exemption to LANL Vax Mandate Means Leave Without Pay
Workers who secure a religious exemption to the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate will be barred from the lab and allowed only to go on vacation or take leave without pay until they quit their jobs or get vaccinated, according to an all-hands memo from lab Director Thomas Mason. “On October 15, staff […]
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Stockpile Stewardship
Stockpile Stewardship Tools Today ‘Far Outstrip’ What Creators Thought Possible, LLNL Director Says
Todays’ computing, modeling and simulation tools, plus the National Ignition Facility that unlocks physics “not accessible in the laboratory,” have given nuclear-weapon stewards capabilities unimaginable almost 30 years ago, when the U.S. ceased explosive tests, the director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said Tuesday. “On all of those fronts, the capabilities we have in […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Washington AG to Answer Justice on Hanford Worker Comp Before Thanksgiving
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson plans to file legal arguments with the U.S. Supreme Court by Nov. 15 responding to a U.S. Department of Justice petition to overturn a 2018 state law that made it easier for cleanup employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site to qualify for worker compensation. That’s according to Brionna […]
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Transuranic Waste
WIPP Taking Transuranic Waste Once Again
The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. is again receiving transuranic shipments after a combination of underground conditions and temporary staffing problems from COVID-19 halted disposal for a month. “Yes, shipments resumed,” a spokesman for Nuclear Waste Partnership, prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), said by email Wednesday. […]
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Decommissioning
NRC to Sit Down With Holtec About Oyster Creek Safety Violations
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is planning to meet next week with the company in charge of decommissioning a New Jersey nuclear power plant to discuss several security violations at the site earlier this year. NRC was to host a pre-enforcement conference with Holtec International Oct. 6 to discuss an unspecified number of physical security violations […]