Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

With the holidays approaching, the Department of Energy’s request for information for potential carbon-free power projects at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has been extended until Jan. 2, the agency said Wednesday. Information on the clean energy potential of the 310-square-mile federal complex is now due by 12 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday […]

Two brothers in their twenties, one a former worker at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, were sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for their role in an uncle’s Mexico-based drug trafficking operation. Eduardo Reyes-Santana, 26 of Kennewick, Wash., a commercial driver and union member who worked two years at the […]

Lawmakers who created an independent commission to study U.S. nuclear modernization efforts without estimating the cost, now want to see what replacing all three legs of the triad and rehabbing the National Nuclear Security Administration will cost.  During a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, several representatives — all Democrats — dinged […]

Natalia Saraeva, formerly the team lead for the Department of Energy’s consent based siting program, is now the community and stakeholder engagement lead at DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. Saraeva was the team lead for DOE’s consent based siting program for about one year and took on a new role in October, according to her […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 36 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during October, according to the agency’s public website for the facility. The figure is current as of Wednesday Nov. 15. There is typically about a two-week lag time between a shipment arriving at the Waste Isolation Pilot […]

A Department of Energy contractor has removed cesium from about 698,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a DOE spokesperson said Tuesday. The fourth batch run at the Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) project was completed Oct. 27, the DOE spokesperson said in an email response to an Exchange […]

Six small modular reactors that NuScale, Portland, Ore., planned to use in a canceled generation project in the southwestern U.S. could be diverted to another customer, the company’s CEO said Tuesday.  “I want to be able to take those modules and move them over to our next customer,” John Hopkins, president and CEO of NuScale, […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board wants improvement in emergency response preparation at tank waste pretreatment facility at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions went through a simulated tornado drill last month at the Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s onsite […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration started its oral interviews with four joint ventures vying for a contract to operate the Pantex plant in Texas, a source said Monday. A second source familiar with the ongoing search for a Pantex maintenance and operations contractor for the U.S. nuclear weapons clearing house confirmed to Exchange Monitor that […]

The Department of Energy will not again extend a contract with a joint venture of APTIM and North Wind Group to finish building a mercury treatment facility at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, an agency spokesperson confirmed Monday. The contract, which began in December 2018 and is now valued at $128-million, will not be […]

U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall says he is concerned about Northrop Grumman’s ability to develop the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile on time and that the program to replace the current Minuteman III fleet is “struggling.” Northrop’s B-21 Raider strategic stealth bomber, however, is doing “fine,” he said in a Nov. 13 forum in […]

There is no evidence that classified information was disclosed during an open, unclassified National Nuclear Security Administration at Department of Energy Headquarters’ Forrestal Building in September of last year, an agency watchdog report found. However, the suspected incident was not properly reported, according to a DOE Inspector General (IG) report published Nov. 2.  In September […]

Naval nuclear reactor manufacturer BWX Technologies has appointed Mike Boorstein as the new general manager for its Nuclear Operations Group-Euclid manufacturing facility. In this role, Boorstein will be responsible for BWX’s daily operations at the site, which employs more than 350 workers and manufactures electro-mechanical components for naval nuclear reactors used in submarines and aircraft […]

Nuclear policy reforms that hitched a ride on an annual must-past defense bill are in trouble in the House, the bill’s sponsor said Monday at a meeting of nuclear professionals. “[W]e’ve really hit a stumbling block if not just a whole wall in the House,” Sen. Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.) said in a morning speech to […]

Nuclear-waste disposal is still nuclear energy’s biggest problem, the senior U.S. Senator from West Virginia told a gathering of nuclear professionals Monday in Washington. “The biggest hurdle we have right now? What the hell do we do with the waste?” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said during the opening plenary session of the American Nuclear Society’s […]

The American Nuclear Society’s annual winter meeting began this week in Washington and includes scheduled appearances by U.S. lawmakers, senior federal officials and a NuScale executive who will appear following the cancellation of a small modular reactor project. The American Nuclear Society’s winter meeting was scheduled to run from Monday to Wednesday at the Washington […]

The village of Piketon, Ohio, which borders the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site, last week re-elected longtime Mayor Billy Spencer to a new term. Spencer beat out council member David Isaac Dixon 377-to-244 in the Nov. 7 election, according to results from the Ohio Board of Elections. The victory will provide Spencer, who worked for […]

The Government Accountability Office expects to publish several major reports on Department of Energy nuclear remediation issues over the next several months, according to the congressional watchdog agency. Nathan Anderson, director of the Natural Resources & Environment unit for the Government Accountability Office (GAO), said between now and December a report on H Canyon at […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 12-15: Annual winter conference and expo, American Nuclear Society.  Washington Hilton. Washington. Sessions run from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. Agenda online. 16: Meeting. Los Alamos Study Group. A panel and audience discussion of […]

William (Bill) Badger, director of nuclear and environmental business development at Department of Energy contractor Amentum, drowned in Richland, Wash., after the car he was driving went into a local marina, according to the coroner in Benton County, Wash. The fatal accident was first reported Wednesday by the Tri-City Herald newspaper, which said the accident […]

The Illinois state Senate on Wednesday night approved legislation that would if signed allow for construction of small modular reactors in the state beginning in 2026. Also under the legislation, spent nuclear fuel and waste resulting from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel would no longer be considered high level nuclear waste under Illinois law. […]

While it remains a critic of nuclear energy, the Natural Resources Defense Council confirmed Wednesday it is scaling back its legal work on nuclear issues. “While NRDC is paring back our nuclear litigation work, we will continue to advocate for better, safer, cheaper solutions to climate change,” Mark Drajem, a spokesperson for the Natural Resources […]

Trials on the slate for this winter will follow-up successful tests, announced last week by the Department of Energy, of the first melter at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. Conducted on Oct. 26 and Oct. 30, the tests consisted of melting glass beads together to be poured into a cylindrical canister. The […]

The federal agency that provides outside safety advice to the Department of Energy still struggles with a “sustainable organizational culture and climate,” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of Inspector General said last week. Organizational culture leads the list of the most serious challenges facing the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) in fiscal 2024, the […]

Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. on Tuesday announced it applied with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend the operating license of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. In line with expectations, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) wants to keep the reactors on until 2030, according to a Tuesday press release. The NRC license renewal the utility […]