Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Hill Air Force Base in Utah has awarded Lockheed Martin a $996 million, 16-year contract for the Mark 21A reentry vehicle, which will carry nuclear weapons on the planned LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile. The contract “provides for conducting engineering, manufacturing, and design to provide a low technical […]

Having been skipped the first time around, the Government Accountability Office was asked to consider a challenge by an Atkins-led team over a $45-billion Department of Energy contract for liquid waste management. The bid protest, dated Friday, arrived after DOE called upon losing bidder Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance and the winning bidder, BWX-Technologies-led Hanford Tank […]

Oral arguments are scheduled, but not inevitable, in January for a high-profile legal challenge by environmental groups who want to shut down California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant this decade. Arguments are on the slate for Jan. 10 in Pasadena, Calif., in the lawsuit brought by San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace and others against the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Radiological Security and Jordan’s Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission have eliminated the Middle Eastern nation’s reliance on radioactive materials for human blood research and testing.  With the NNSA’s help, Jordan has now replaced all high-activity cesium-137 irradiators with X-ray technology, the agency said in an Oct. 30 statement. […]

When the House last week passed its version of the Department of Energy’s 2024 budget, members crossed the aisle to defeat an amendment to cut the Secretary of Energy’s salary to $1.  Most of the “no” votes on the amendment from Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) were from Democrats and most of the “aye” votes were […]

The Department of Energy started site preparation this summer for expansion of a low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Idaho National Laboratory and the prep work should continue into July 2024, an agency official told an advisory panel last week. Construction of the third cell for the landfill should be done around September 2025 with […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday wrapped up a three-day inspection of wastewater discharges from the shuttered Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan, the U.N. group announced. The four-day mission began Oct. 24 and concluded Oct. 27. The task force included experts from 11 countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wrote in […]

The U.S. military will develop a new, higher-yield variant of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb designed for delivery by modern aircraft, the Pentagon announced on Oct. 27. Designated the B61-13, the new bomb will be suited for use against hardened and large-area military targets, the Defense Department said in a statement. Congressional approval and funding […]

Three years after Bechtel and a fellow contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state paid about $58 million to settle fraud claims, DOE’s Office of Inspector General still lacks confidence in Bechtel’s cost estimates, according to a new report. In an audit report out last week, DOE’s  Office of Inspector General […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. October 31: Webinar, Energy Communities Alliance. “Cleanup to Clean Energy: How to Develop a Project on Federal Land.” Executives with the Washington-based group, representing the interests of localities near Department of Energy nuclear-weapon cleanup sites, will discuss […]

Navy officials on Wednesday told a House panel that several legislative proposals are needed to prevent delays in the tripartite AUKUS nuclear submarine deal between the U.S., U.K. and Australia.  In a joint statement, Under Secretary of the Navy Erik Raven, Commander of Naval Submarine Forces Vice Adm. William Houston, and Program Executive Officer for […]

Another nuclear power plant in Ukraine is now at risk because of nearby combat, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.  Explosions blew out window glass and shook the foundations of the Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant (KhNPP) in western Ukraine overnight on Oct. 24, shattering windows at the site and temporarily cutting power to some off-site […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy hopes the agency can select its first clean power project at the Idaho National Laboratory within a year. “A year from today” is the target, Kathryn Huff, DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy, told reporters on the sidelines of the Idaho lab’s Cleanup to […]

The U.S. government and Interim Storage Partners this week asked an entire appeals court to overturn a decision by three of the court’s judges that effectively killed commercial interim storage of spent nuclear fuel. Two other courts have ruled that the “plain text” of federal law allows the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to approve the temporary […]

A first-of-its kind facility to convert sodium-bearing waste at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory into a solid form, is likely to stay offline for maintenance at least a few more weeks, an advisory board heard Wednesday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) is using a maintenance outage that began in September to replace […]