Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

A former radiation technician fired after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine told a federal appeals court last week the Department of Energy’s environmental prime at Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is not entitled to sovereign immunity. In a legal brief filed March 19, lawyers for Yolonda Riggs, told the Sixth U.S. Court of Appeals […]

Settlement talks collapsed weeks ago between the Department of Energy and environmental groups who sued the agency over its plan to produce nuclear-weapons cores in South Carolina, a Tuesday court filing shows. “Both parties were hopeful that the nearly two-month mediation process would bear fruit and focused their attention on those settlement efforts,” Todd Kim, […]

New Mexico wants assurance transuranic waste, held 10 years at a commercial storage facility in Texas, won’t pose an ignition threat before signing off on shipment to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. As a result, DOE is now facing pressure from both Texas and New Mexico. The Texas attorney […]

Holtec will receive a $1.52 billion loan from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office to restart the shuttered Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan, the agency announced Wednesday. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced the conditional commitment ahead of a planned tour of the Holtec Palisades Training Center in Covert, Mich. Granholm is visiting […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff need a little less than a year to review a request for a license amendment Holtec needs to restart Michigan’s Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, according to a letter published Tuesday. “With respect to your requested completion schedule of March 15, 2025, the NRC staff believes that it will complete the safety […]

The Department of Energy and contractor Bechtel National at the Hanford Site in Washington state have heated up the second melter at the vitrification plant to its operating temperature of 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. The agency announced the heat up of the second melter in a Tuesday press release, calling it a big step toward operation […]

The acting head of the Department of Energy’s cleanup branch, William (Ike) White, as well as an Xcel Energy New Mexico manager, will speak Wednesday at the clean power information day at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. White, who heads the $8-billion-plus DOE Office of Environmental Management, will be one of the headliners, according to […]

The Amentum-led environmental prime at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee has until April 2 to respond to a lawsuit by a former employee who claims he was fired in 2019 because of disability and whistleblower retaliation. Lawyers for plaintiff Christopher Hicks and defendant United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) agreed to the […]

The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors planned to consider a resolution supporting a life extension for nearby Diablo Canyon during a meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning. The board was to consider “a resolution that supports operation of Diablo Canyon Power Plant for 20 years,” according to an item on the agenda for the […]

The Leidos-led landlord at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site asked a federal court in Washington state Monday to throw out litigation by the Department of Justice and a whistleblower alleging the contractor padded its fire safety bills to the government by millions of dollars. The contractor, which has a 10-year contract now worth $4 […]

The Department of Energy prime for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Monday stood by its handling of a January incident where two workers were temporarily stuck in a hoist 1,500-feet below the surface of the facility in Eddy County, N.M. “The safety of our workforce is always our top priority,” a Waste Isolation Pilot Plant […]

The White House last week nominated incumbent chairman Christopher Hansen to serve another term as a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If confirmed by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which had not scheduled a hearing on the renomination at deadline, Hanson would remain at the NRC through June 29, 2029. Hanson’s current […]

President Joe Biden requested $47.2 million for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board for the 2025 fiscal year starting Oct, 1, or $5.2 million than the $42 million recently appropriated by congress for the small watchdog agency in fiscal 2024. The White House requested the $47.2 million and the equivalent of 128 full-time staff positions, […]

There are about three-dozen small businesses on the “interested vendors list” published by the Department of Energy earlier this month for a potential Technical, Management, and Administrative Services contract at the Oak Ridge Site’s Environmental Management field office in Tennessee. The list was published earlier this month by DOE’s procurement office as a means to […]

The Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is drafting its formal response to public comments filed on the Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration field office said last week. The environmental assessment public comment period ended Feb. 20 on the upgrade project for the […]

Here is an event related to defense nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week 26: The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico holds a by-invitation celebration of the 25th anniversary of its first shipment of transuranic waste starting at 10 a.m.

Speed cameras will soon be installed to help curb speeding and aggressive driving along the truck route at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s top local fed told county officials last week. The laboratory is “finding ways to try and better manage traffic flow,” National Nuclear Security Administration […]

Although congress passed and President Joe Biden signed a major fiscal 2024 appropriations bill over the weekend, it did not include an extension of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), said via social media. “Total failure,” Hawley said Thursday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, after learning the radiation compensation […]

The Tri-City Development Council thinks the best way to spur carbon-free power at the Hanford Site in Washington state is for the Department of Energy to transfer a chunk of buffer land there to local control, a vice president with the organization, David Reeploeg, told Exchange Monitor by phone Friday. Reeploeg responded to the publication’s […]

President Joe Biden (D) on Saturday signed a package of appropriations bills that fund the Department of Defense and other agencies through Sept. 30 and extended a key federal nuclear indemnity program. The bill extended Price-Anderson protections for Department of Energy contractors and commercial nuclear companies to Dec. 31, 2065 from Dec. 31, 2025 and […]

A 21-year-old who starts working at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state this year could have a 50-plus-year career and still retire before the former plutonium production facility is officially cleaned up. DOE currently projects, with between 50% and 80% confidence, the Hanford Site will be deemed clean sometime between 2078 and […]

The Department of Energy’s Amentum-led environmental prime at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee on Wednesday signed a new contract affecting 550 members of North America’s Building Trades Unions at the nuclear property. United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) said in a press release the project labor agreement, which covers a quarter of its 2,200-person workforce, […]

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday he’s “optimistic” Congress will take action on the pending supplemental with further aid for Ukraine, while adding that Kyiv’s “survival is in danger” in its fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion. “I am optimistic that we will see some action [on the supplemental] moving forward. But, again, this is a […]

The Department of Energy will “move with alacrity” to jumpstart a new civilian uranium refining industry once Congress bans imports of Russian uranium to unlock billions in funding, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told lawmakers today. “[H]opefully we can get that ban in place,” Granholm said during the first DOE budget hearing of the year […]

Merging the Hanford Site’s two field offices in Washington state will not deprioritize cleanup of millions of gallons of radioactive tank waste, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told House appropriators Wednesday. DOE has for years planned to combine Hanford’s Office of River Protection with the Richland Operations Office in 2025, the same year the site […]