Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

An Australian government agency signed a deal this month to store nuclear waste from AUKUS submarines on a naval base in the country, despite community concerns. The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) issued a license to the Australian Submarine Agency to prepare what the agency calls a “Controlled Industrial Facility” on naval […]

Bids on the Department of Energy cleanup office’s Consolidated Technical Support Services contract, originally due this Thursday, Aug. 1, is being pushed back until Monday, Aug. 5, DOE said Monday. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management announced the extra deadline time for the potential 5-year, $90-million small business contract in a Monday notice in the online […]

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) last week signed a bill that includes $150 million more in state funding to help restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant.  The new tranche of funding, passed as part of a supplement to the state’s 2024 budget, brings Michigan’s total aid package for the plant to $300 million. Lansing approved another […]

Here are some events related to civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. July 29: Hybrid meeting:  The Citizens Advisory Board for the Savannah River Site kicks off a two-day hybrid meeting starting at 1 p.m. Eastern Time from the North Augusta Municipal Building, 100 Georgia Avenue, North Augusta, South Carolina […]

A State Department spokesperson said in a press briefing last week that Iran must comply with International Atomic Energy Agency rules again to re-enter nuclear talks with the U.S. The spokesperson was responding to a reporter’s question July 23 about comments on entering nuclear talks with Iran’s newly elected president Masoud Pezeshkian, a self-identified “reformist” […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration released a report last week that said the U.S. nuclear stockpile had 3,748 warheads as of September 2023. Information on the nuclear weapons stockpile was last released and updated in October 2021, when the stockpile had 3,713 warheads. The number of nuclear warheads is down 88% from its peak in […]

Two vice presidents at a Leidos-led joint venture in charge of overseeing workaday operations at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site are retiring. In a post last week on LinkedIn, Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) said two executives, each with more than 35 years of experience at the former plutonium production site, are retiring.  Darci […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology plans to start taking public comment later this summer on a research and development permit application for a technology to reduce hazardous tank waste vapors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. On Friday the state agency emailed out a 30-day notice of public comment on a Phase 3 […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday planned to vote on its version of the Department of Energy’s fiscal year 2025 appropriations bill, the committee announced. The bill, which funds other agencies, is one of five pieces of legislation scheduled for debate and a vote in a marathon session that was to begin at 9:30 a.m. […]

After hours of debate on more than 60 amendments this week, the House of Representatives canceled a planned vote on several 2025 appropriations bills, including the one that funds the Department of Energy. Media reported Wednesday that a fractious, razor-thin Republican majority could not wrangle enough votes in their own party to pass the bills […]

Workers at the Savannah River Site in June removed the last pieces of plutonium recycling equipment from a building that will house the site’s pit plant, the site’s management contract said Wednesday. Over 18 months, workers removed over 2,500 gross tons of material from the area, according to the press release from Savannah River Nuclear […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accepting comments between now and Sept. 16 on the Department of Energy’s plans for two new disposal panels at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The new panels will help the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) replace disposal capacity lost due to the February 2014 underground radiological […]

A federal safety watchdog will hear testimony from government agencies next month on best practices for taking care of aging nuclear infrastructure, some of which is a half-century old. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has set a public hearing Aug.14 at its Washington, headquarters to hear testimony from representatives of the Government Accountability […]

President Joe Biden (D) on Tuesday announced his intent to nominate Senate staffer Matthew Marzano to be a Member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and fill the agency’s last vacancy.  Marzano is an Idaho National Laboratory detailee on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee where he advises lawmakers about clean air, climate and energy, […]

Two amendments dealing with the National Nuclear Security Administration were agreed to and two anti-nuclear amendments failed during a 2025 appropriations debate Tuesday on the House floor. The 2025 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, H.R. 8997, reached the House floor Tuesday, but lawmakers ended their day without a vote on the […]

PanTeXas Deterrence announced four key personnel who will lead management of the Pantex Plant alongside Kelly Beierschmitt, president of the BWX Technologies-led venture, the parent announced Tuesday. The four other senior managers leading PanTeXas Deterrence are: Carl Beard, production operations director. Beard has five years of experience at the Pantex Plant and experience in pit […]

An Amentum-led Department of Energy contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state is starting to remove radioactive waste from single-shell Tank A-101 and transfer it to a newer double-shell tank, DOE said in a Tuesday press release. Removal began of the 325,000 gallons of radioactive and chemical waste in Hanford’s A Tank Farm a […]

The federal government should create a new strategy for disposing of spent nuclear fuel from power plants or recycling it, a Democratic congresswoman said in a hearing Tuesday. “We have to find a storage solution for nuclear waste that does not abandon the communities that host nuclear reactors, whether that way is through reprocessing, permanent […]

A plaintiff who claims false statements by the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico led to the breakup of his marriage served legal papers on the government defendant, he told a federal court last week. After being warned by U.S. District Court Judge Steven Yarbrough that the case would be dismissed unless […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission needs less than a year to finish regulatory approvals for restarting Michigan’s Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, the head of the agency said Tuesday. Plant owner Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., “has submitted all of the regulatory filings that we need to do [and] we expect to reach a decision on those filings […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory is slowing its hiring and growth with aims to alleviate overcrowding in the community, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration said in answer to a local’s question at a large and vocal town hall Monday. “We’re not going to continue to grow the lab,” Jill Hruby, head of the […]

Top Department of Energy executives for the weapons complex Monday evening got an earful from a large and vocal crowd of New Mexico residents on everything from plutonium pit production to proposed new electric power lines near the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Also at one point during the 90-minute meeting, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

The Joe Biden (D) administration said Monday it would veto the House’s version of the Department of Energy’s 2025 budget, even though the President supports the bill’s added funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration. “The bill provides critical resources reaffirming congressional commitment to a strong national defense and NNSA’s enduring missions,” the statement by […]

The Sentinel modernization program is not only “absolutely necessary” but “might not be sufficient” for Europe’s defense, a Department of Defense official said last week at a virtual discussion after the NATO summit in Washington. “We cannot afford not to proceed with Sentinel,” Vipin Narang, Department of Defense acting assistant secretary of defense for space […]

A joint venture that lost twice in a $45B Department of Energy competition at the Hanford Site in Washington state has presented a federal court with a legal ruling it hopes will disqualify the winner. AtkinsRéalis-led Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance (HTDA) on July 18 told Judge Marian Blank Horn a decision in a similar case […]

Holtec International may not dump wastewater from the decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant into Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts said last week.  The final decision to deny Holtec a state permit modification for the wastewater discharges had been simmering for about a year. In July 2023, Massachusetts made a tentative determination that Holtec’s permit […]