Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The California legislature last week passed a bill that would give Pacific Gas & Electric $400 million more to keep the Diablo Canyon Power Plant open for the rest of the decade. The funding, which Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) proposed, is part of the state’s annual budget bill. The legislature initially rejected Newsom’s proposal to […]

Owen Barwell will take over as chief financial officer of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on July 14, the agency announced last week. NRC’s chief financial officer (CFO) is responsible for the management and auditing of the agency’s finances and is the five-member commission’s top financial policy adviser. Barwell was most recently CFO of Independence Hydrogen, […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico and the prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will hold the next town-hall-style public meeting at the end of July. The hybrid meeting will provide an update on disposal of defense-related transuranic waste and related issues at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), […]

In June, the Washington state Department of Ecology published its 85-page response to public comments about the Department of Energy’s plans to solidify 2,000 gallons of low-level radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in a concrete-like grout. The state’s public response to the comments checks one of the last boxes prior to issuance of the […]

The construction subcontractor could formally transfer possession of the new underground ventilation system at the Department of Energy’s transuranic waste disposal site in New Mexico to the Bechtel-led prime contractor by the end of August, according to a government safety board. The tentative date for turnover from the construction subcontractor to Waste Isolation Pilot Plant […]

Editor’s note: the story first appeared in Weapons Complex Monitor affiliate publication Defense Daily. On June 24, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. John Newberry, the head of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB, N.M., dismissed Air Force Col. Charles Clegg, the head of the Sentinel Systems Directorate at Hill AFB, Utah since […]

WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could approve changes to rules governing disposal of Greater-Than-Class-C waste by the end of the year, the head of the agency said here Wednesday. As for exactly when the commission will act, “I’m not sure,” Christopher Hanson, the newly reconfirmed chair of the civilian nuclear regulator told the Exchange […]

At a time of much Department of Energy turnover at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a government safety watchdog says DOE relies too heavily on staff expertise. As a result, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chair Joyce Connery wants a report and briefing before Christmas on DOE steps to upgrade its facility […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Trade and Development Agency planned to host a technical workshop with delegations from “Europe and Eurasia” at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the second week of October, an official said here Wednesday. At the workshop, the delegations would meet with U.S. companies, Carl Kress, a regional director from the U.S. Trade […]

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s $800-million request for the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is “a darn good start,” a congressional appropriator said here Wednesday at an industry conference. “Now, you’ll see my mark tomorrow,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), chair of the House Appropriations energy and water […]

The lame duck cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the provider of depleted uranium hexafluoride services there and at the Paducah Site in Kentucky each collected most of the available fee for the opening four months of fiscal 2024, DOE said Tuesday. In a press release, DOE’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project […]

Keeping close to, but not crossing, the threshold of building nuclear weapons gives Iran another way of threatening adversaries, including Israel, a Middle East scholar said Monday at an anti-nuclear event. Iran “is getting advantages from having this program that everyone is very afraid of,” Barbara Slavin, distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center think tank […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group last week elected Honeywell International vice president David (DJ) Johnson chair of the group’s board of directors, according to a press release. Johnson will succeed Michael Lempke of Huntington Ingalls. The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) also elected Mark Whitney, the president of Amentum’s national security group, its vice chair […]

A BWX Technologies-led joint venture that twice won a $45-billion liquid waste contract at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, Friday withdrew its 2023 case with a federal appeals court, seemingly clearing the way for a U.S. Federal Claims Court to again rule on a contract challenge by the losing bidder. According to online court […]

Pacific Gas & Electric would get $400 million more to help keep California’s last nuclear power plant open for another five years, if a state budget bill unveiled over the weekend becomes law. In a reversal for legislative leaders who opposed the funding as recently as June, the compromise spending bill would allow California to […]

Congressional check-writers should direct the Environmental Protection Agency to use its 2025 budget to update its generic standards for a nuclear waste repository, interest groups said recently. The ask came in the form of a letter signed by twelve organizations and sent to the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations interior and environment subcommittees […]

The head of an Amentum-led cleanup prime at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site is leaving and will be replaced by the top executive of the Leidos-led landlord contractor at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state. In a Monday press release, Central Plateau Cleanup President John Eschenberg said he was leaving the remediation […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on July 17 will hold a virtual public meeting about a California-based environmental group’s request to shut down the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, the commission said Friday. The comment-gathering meeting was scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. The public may join via Microsoft Teams to observe interactions between […]

The Exchange Monitor planned to hold its second annual Nuclear Energy Security Summit this week in Washington on June 26-27. The event focuses on domestic and international deployment of U.S. nuclear technology, including power plants and fuel. There is no virtual attendance. Among the scheduled speakers were Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), chair of the House Appropriations […]

Here are some events related to civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. June 26-27: Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Energy Security Summit, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C. 28: Subcommittee Markup, Fiscal Year 2025 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Act, Rayburn 2358-C, 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.  

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration should update its racial diversity guides for prime contractors to ensure leading practices are being used, the Government Accountability Office said in a report out Friday. Also, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) May 2023 diversity report for management contractors generally […]

Immigration reform is needed to expand the defense and shipbuilding industrial bases and workforces build submarines faster, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services seapower committee said Friday. “The U.S. birth rate is not growing, and even if it started growing tomorrow, we wouldn’t see it for 20 years,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said during […]

The Department of Energy Knolls Laboratory Site will take part in a project to remove and replace several underground utility sections, some of which are over 70 years old, to include construction of a monument to the Navy and the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, according to a summary from the Office of NEPA Policy and […]

After nearly a year of bicameral debate and dealing, the Senate on Tuesday passed a bill designed to ease exports of U.S. nuclear technology and reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It was an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, opposed only by two of the voting senators. The heavily amended Fire Grants and Safety Act of 2023, which […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 51 shipments of transuranic waste during May, according to the facility’s public website. The majority, 36, of the May shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) came from the Idaho National Laboratory.  Eight originated from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, […]