Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Earnings were up year-over-year for Centrus Energy in the third quarter of 2023, when the uranium broker and enrichment technology developer was working on its first batch of high-assay low-enriched uranium for the U.S. government.  The Bethesda, Md., company reported total revenue of $51.3 million and $33.2 million for the three months ended September 30, […]

A new team of International Atomic Energy Agency personnel crossed the frontlines in Ukraine this week to perform nuclear safety and security missions at the besieged Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. It is the thirteenth such mission since the IAEA last year established a permanent presence at the site to help prevent a nuclear accident during […]

The Department of Energy’s $8-billion-plus nuclear cleanup branch is getting positive results from its early forays into artificial intelligence and machine learning, Jeff Avery told a National Academies panel Tuesday. New technology is playing a growing role at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, Jeff Avery told the National Academies Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board. “We […]

Holtec and the Nuclear Energy Institute appeared in court to have their say in a two year-old lawsuit that could determine the future of commercially operated storage of spent nuclear fuel. The company and the industry’s Washington-based advocacy group filed friend-of-the-court briefs last week with the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, where Interim Storage […]

The Department of Energy is taking public comment until Dec. 12 on its draft finding that certain radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory can be disposed of there as low- rather than high-level waste. The draft document “demonstrates that the Calcined Solids Storage Facility (CSSF) at closure after waste retrieval is not high-level radioactive […]

Richard Driggs, most recently chief operating officer for Michael Baker International, has been appointed the new president and CEO of Idaho Falls-based North Wind Group, the company said Monday. Driggs is a seasoned hand in the engineering and construction industry and brings more than 30 years of experience as chief executive and chief operating officer […]

The Government Accountability Office should release a report on the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in the coming weeks, the Citizens Advisory Board for nuclear cleanup heard Monday. Savannah River Citizens Advisory Board Chair Gregg Murray dropped the news at the outset of the two-day meeting, being carried via Youtube. The report by the […]

The U.S. Forest Service killed roughly 1,200 wild hogs on the grounds of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina during fiscal 2023, many of which were eaten by vultures, the site’s Citizens Advisory Board heard Monday. During his presentation to the Savannah River Site advisory board, forest manager DeVela Clark, also […]

New state rules restricting discharge of irradiated water will delay cleanup of nuclear plants in Massachusetts and New York by four and eight years, respectively, Holtec International told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week.  These prohibitions mean the partial site release date of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts will slip to Sept. 24, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission discontinued efforts to get more insight into whether nuclear power plant owners are obeying agency rules about which investments are allowed in decommissioning trust funds, commission staff told the agency’s inspector general. Staff made the decision official in September, according to a memo dated Oct. 26 and uploaded to the NRC’s […]

A judge could decide by December the fate of a lawsuit about the Department of Energy’s years of allegedly illegal long-term nuclear-waste storage near Butte County. After hearing oral arguments Oct. 30 from the county, the state of Idaho and the U.S. Department of Justice on the government’s motion for dismissal of the county’s suit, […]

Jacobs, Dallas, got a two-year, $53-million contract from EDF Nuclear Operations to support activities ranging from defueling to life extension at several nuclear power plants in the United Kingdom, the company said Monday in a press release. The Project Management Resources framework contract is a successor to an existing deal Jacobs has with EDF Nuclear […]

Effective this past Friday, the Department of Energy’s new 10-year New Mexico Environment Department permit is officially in place for the nation’s only deep underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste. Renewal of the state’s hazardous waste facility permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant was finalized last month. In August, the state, DOE, federal […]

During a Senate hearing last week, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) pressed an Environmental Protection Agency official to prioritize remediation of radioactive contamination at the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site in Bridgeton, Mo. “It’s probably no coincidence that the folks who live in this area are not big-time donors to political parties, they’re not big-time party […]

A 66-year-old Arkansas man who allegedly drove his car through an outer gate at Duke Power’s Oconee nuclear plant in South Carolina and tried to run over security staff was arrested and charged with attempted murder, local law enforcement said over the weekend. Doyle Wayne Whisenhunt, of Lockesburg, Ark., was arrested Saturday evening, at an […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 06-07: Meeting: The Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board Savannah River Site meets in public session from 1:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. Eastern time at the Sonesta Hilton Head, 130 Shipyard Drive, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928. […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, currently lacking a quorum, said Wednesday it has filled one of three big staff vacancies by hiring a U.S. Export Import Bank manager as its new executive director of operations. Mary Jean Buhler, chief financial officer at the Export Import Bank, will become the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board […]

Bechtel National Wednesday pushed back against a Department of Energy Office of Inspector General audit report that questioned the reliability of the contractor’s cost estimates for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “We believe that the report overlooks relevant factual data that is essential for consideration prior to […]

A Virginia-based, woman-owned company starts its 60-day transition Thursday to become the new provider of occupational medical services at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, DOE said. DOE’s Richland Operations Office said Wednesday it is giving Inomedic Health Applications (IHA) a notice to proceed with the transition, which should be completed on […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission employees should get the equivalent of three telework days each week instead of four, commissioners decided in a lopsided vote that killed the agency’s latest remote work-policy. In a 3-1 vote that concluded this week, the four-member NRC voted to repeal the agency’s flexible work model, which allowed up to eight days […]

Former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner Forrest Remick died Oct. 9 at the Village at Penn State. He was 92.  “Good morning!” reads an obituary penned by Remick himself and published posthumously. “They’ve informed me that I’m no longer going to be with you and that I’m off on a new adventure and experience.” Remick did […]

A draft solicitation for a carbon-free power project at the Hanford Site in Washington state could be released within a month, a senior adviser with the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office said during an online presentation Tuesday. Hanford was the first DOE Office of Environmental Management property to hold a “Cleanup to Clean Energy” […]

Three long-serving feds at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management have been formally appointed to key management roles on a permanent basis, the No. 2 official at the nuclear cleanup branch said recently. Greg Sosson will become associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations effective immediately, said Jeff Avery, DOE Environmental Management […]

Gary Petersen, retired vice president of the Tri-City Economic Development Council in Washington state and a former manager at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, died Oct. 27 at age 83, according to published reports. The Tri-City Herald newspaper reported Monday that over a long career Petersen was a vocal advocate of nuclear […]

Carrie Safford is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s new Secretary of the Commission, making her the fifth person in the agency’s history to hold the primary gatekeeping post for the commissioners.  The NRC announced Safford’s new role in a press release on Tuesday. Most recently a deputy director in the division of fuel management, Safford now […]