Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The fiscal-year 2025 budget season is heating up and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm was set to appear Wednesday before appropriators on Capitol Hill. Granholm was scheduled to testify about the Department of Energy’s $51-billion budget request at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time before the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee, which is chaired by […]

The Department of Energy and its prime contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant are conferring with stakeholders and generators to better define legacy transuranic waste, managers said during a public meeting Tuesday in Roswell, N.M. In addition, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should bring online two major infrastructure projects, the ventilation system and […]

PHOENIX — Hanford Site managers in Washington state intend to have their transuranic waste program certified by the Department of Energy in fiscal 2026 and start shipping to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico in 2028, a contractor official said at a conference last week. Mike Douglas, waste projects manager for Amentum-led Central […]

The second phase of construction for a new onsite landfill is underway at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, the agency said last week. This phase involves taking down trees, groundwater monitoring and other chores. A minority-owned small business, CTI and Associates, was hired to do a groundwater demonstration study, the site […]

The Department of Energy’s final budget for fiscal year 2024 does not contain a federal ban on commercial interim storage sites to which states have not consented. A version of DOE’s 2024 budget bill that passed the House last year specified that none of the agency’s appropriations for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 could […]

A federal district court judge in Tennessee has again refused to allow a group of more than 20 people to join a COVID-19 lawsuit filed by fired contractors at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site. U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough rejected a motion for reconsideration filed last month by prospective plaintiffs who say they […]

Kasgro Rail, New Castle, Pa., started building part of a prototype heavy-duty rail car to transport spent nuclear fuel, the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced Monday. Fabrication of deck components for the prototype, eight-axle Fortis railcar began “recently,” according to the office’s press release. Fortis is one of two rail cars DOE […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Friday solicited bids for a one-year study about a pilot plant to test defense uranium-enrichment technology developed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Bids are due April 15, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) wrote in a procurement notice posted online for the firm-fixed-price NNSA Domestic Uranium Enrichment Pilot […]

A plaintiff who grew up within two miles of the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, filed an amended federal court complaint last week against contractors he claims violated the Price Anderson Act and caused his acute myeloid leukemia. Joshua Shaw, now in his early 50s, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2008 and even […]

At least for now, the Department of Energy will not extend the April 9 proposal deadline for a solicitation for a new five-year Technical Support Services contract at the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. In a set of questions and answers posted last week, DOE turned down a questioner who asked the final request for proposals (RFP) […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: March  18: Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Holtec International. Hybrid meeting. “Palisades Pre-submittal Meeting with Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC on Emergency Plan for Resumption of Power Operations.” 9:30 a.m. Eastern time to to 11:20 a.m. Eastern time. Join the Microsoft Teams […]

Michael Moulin-Ramsden, a former Veolia Nuclear Solutions manager, joined Alpha Safety last month as its director of business development for the United Kingdom and Continental Europe, according to a LinkedIn post. Moulin-Ramsden, who spent about eight years with Veolia in business development roles, is also a founding director of a consulting firm, Haslam Advisory Ltd.

PHOENIX —A trio of managers from branches of the Department of Energy at the Idaho National Laboratory planned to travel to Washington, D.C., later this month to brief congressional staffers on sitewide spent nuclear fuel management at the lab. Connie Flohr, who is retiring from DOE next month, said at the Waste Management Symposia conference […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant should have reported a Jan. 23 incident, where two miners were stuck up to 30 minutes in a waste hoist lowering them underground, to the Department of Energy’s accident reporting system, a federal safety watchdog says. “Site personnel determined that an erroneous digital signal caused a breaker to trip, resulting […]

Under a settlement with the state, the Department of Energy will install portable showers at the Integrated Disposal Facility once it starts receiving canisters of glass made from radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The agreement, dated March 4 and signed by attorneys for DOE and the Washington Department of Ecology, was […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will have to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if it wants another chance to prove that it can legally license commercial interim storage of spent nuclear fuel. According to an order dated Thursday, judges of the Fifth Circuit voted 9-7, with one recused, not to rehear the NRC’s argument that […]

Crews have started heating up the second melter for the Department of Energy’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the agency said Wednesday. “Last year, the Hanford team successfully completed heat up of the first melter and poured the first non-radioactive test glass,” at the Waste Treatment Plant built […]

PHOENIX —With the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio making headway in nuclear remediation, feds and locals around the Piketon, Ohio complex are working to attract new industry, including nuclear power. That was the takeaway from a Wednesday panel discussion on the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site during the Waste Management Symposium conference. […]

Now in his second year as second-in-charge at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, Jeff Avery wants a laser focus on nuclear cleanup balanced with an eye toward doing “public good” where practical. During a 20-minute interview with Exchange Monitor on the sidelines of the Waste Management Symposia, Avery touched upon the evolving […]

PHOENIX — The Savannah River Site could send as many as 40 shipments of diluted surplus plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in 2024, a manager at the Savannah River Site said here. Or maybe half that many, Lee Sims, K Area Facility Manager at Savannah River for the site’s Fluor-led prime contractor, Savannah […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday requested about $2.5 million in fiscal year 2025 to review Holtec International’s requests to restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan. In its latest budget request, NRC also said it needs the equivalent of more than nine full-time staffers to review Holtec’s requests, which consist of multiple filings for […]

PHOENIX — Jeff Avery, No. 2 boss at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, said Tuesday he understands industry frustration over the slow pace of big industry procurements. “Here’s what I can tell you about some of the extended procurement experiences,” Avery told Exchange Monitor during an interview on the sidelines of the […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is about 20% to its goal of adding 600 electric vehicles over the next few years, an executive with the site’s prime contractor said here Tuesday. The site currently has 116 electric vehicles and will add another 44 this year, Mike Swain, executive […]

PHOENIX — Paul Murray, deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition, was scheduled to speak to the congressional spent fuel caucus in Washington on March 20, the Department of Energy official said here Tuesday. “Please call your local representatives and ask them to ask me the nastiest questions,” Murray said during a panel […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy could be about a month away from beginning conceptual work on a federally owned interim storage facility, the head of the office said here. The federal interim storage facility could hit the project management milestone known as Critical Decision 0, or CD-0, in the next […]