Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The recent short-term continuing resolution that averted a government shutdown Sunday allows the Navy to start construction on its next nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine. The stopgap, which funds the government through Nov. 17, generally holds funding for government programs steady. However, the Navy got what is known as an anomaly that allows the service […]

Holtec International is creating a new subsidiary to switch back on the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan in less than two years, company executives told Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff Tuesday at agency headquarters in Rockville, Md. The new operating company will eventually employ about 500 people, including more than 200 who are working on […]

A federal district judge in Idaho has penciled in an Oct. 30 hearing date to consider the U.S. government’s motion to throw out Butte County’s lawsuit against the Department of Energy. The case, scheduled for 11 a.m. Mountain Time at the Pocatello, Idaho federal courthouse, will be presided over by U.S. District Court Judge David […]

The Navy has successfully launched the 191st Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile during a shakedown cruise of the USS Louisiana, marking the boat’s readiness for deployment.  Northrop Grumman, which builds the solid rocket motors that power the Trident, announced the successful launch on Oct. 2. The test was one element of the Navy’s Demonstration […]

Executives with Holtec’s decommissioning arm were scheduled to meet Tuesday with Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff to continue a discussion about potentially restarting the shuttered Palisades Nuclear Generating Station. The meeting at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md., was to begin at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time and run until 3:00 p.m. Eastern time, according to a notice […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear remediation office should draft clearer guidance to differentiate contractor work that directly advances cleanup from other chores, the Government Accountability Office said in a report published Monday. Until it does, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) lacks a clear understanding of how much of its multi-billion-dollar budget directly hastens cleanup, […]

The United Kingdom awarded contracts worth $4.9 billion total to three British companies to design and manufacture the future SSN-AUKUS nuclear-powered attack submarines. The U.K. Ministry of Defense signed the Detailed Design and Long Leads phase of work on Oct. 1 with BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and Babcock to “progress the program through the design, prototyping […]

An environmental coalition’s “last-ditch attack” on California’s only operating nuclear plant is riddled with legal errors and willfully disregards the state’s plans for the plant, Pacific Gas and Electric wrote in a recent court filing. The lawsuit does not belong in court in the first place and the anti-nuclear groups’ argument rests on a faulty […]

A federal safety watchdog for the Department of Energy continues to look for someone to fill its vacant executive director of operations post and discussed the search in closed session last week. On Sept. 26, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) held a “nonpublic collaborative discussion” on candidates for the position, according to a […]

The close brush with a federal government shutdown did spark the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management Friday to call off a meeting of nuclear cleanup advisory chairs previously scheduled to start this Wednesday in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board Chairs meeting previously scheduled for this week was postponed last […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 03: Conference: The Energy Technology and Environmental Business Association kicks off its three-day Business Opportunities and Technical Conference at the Knoxville Convention Center in Knoxville, Tenn.  03: Meeting: The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by curtailing coal-burning, buying more electric vehicles and curbing business travel, according to a recent environmental report. Ameresco Federal Solutions operates an on-site cogeneration power plant that uses biomass such as wood chips to supply steam and eliminate the […]

In a follow-up to prior reports, the Government Accountability Office said again Friday that using concrete-like grout would be a cheaper way to solidify the less-radioactive tank waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The Savannah River Site in South Carolina has treated 4 million gallons of its radioactive salt waste […]

Paul Murray, most recently chief technology officer for Orano Federal Services, will lead spent nuclear fuel programs in the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy effective next week. Murray will join the agency at its headquarters in the Forrestal Building in Washington on Oct. 10 as the deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and […]

The Department of Energy and Bechtel National should make several upgrades to the chemical safety program for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, according to DOE’s enforcement wing. While Bechtel and subcontractor Waste Treatment Completion Co. have a “generally adequate” chemical safety program, until key improvements are made, […]

National Technology and Engineering Solutions has established adequate safety systems management programs at Sandia National Laboratories, but a new watchdog report questions whether those programs can ensure safe nuclear operations at the lab’s New Mexico research reactor.  The Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments inspected the safety system management practices at Sandia’s New Mexico campus, […]

Holtec Decommissioning International plans this fall to demolish water tanks at the shuttered Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant that held radioactively contaminated water and, by mid-winter, package much of the radioactive waste from the plant’s reactor vessel. Members of the Massachusetts Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel heard that and more Monday from Dave Noyes, Holtec’s compliance […]

Crews at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site plan next week to open up a contaminated waste box recently returned to South Carolina from the agency’s underground disposal site in New Mexico, a federal advisory board heard Tuesday. “We are spending a lot of time planning it out to make sure we get it […]

Senate appropriators on Tuesday agreed on a short term budget that would keep the government funded at 2023 levels under mid-November. The bill, which essentially extends the omnibus appropriations act of 2023, now needs a vote in the full Senate and the House before it can become law. Department of Energy nuclear weapons and nuclear […]

A federal employee at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s W88 Alteration 370 Federal Program Office, whose computer access was restricted, used a subcontractor’s email for five years to bypass those restrictions, according to a new watchdog report.  The employee’s National Nuclear Security Administration building access also was restricted “due to a formal inquiry by a […]

No one will lose their jobs when the National Nuclear Security Administration assumes management of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management next year, according to a recently published transition plan.  “All incumbent employees will be retained,” the plan states. That pertains at least to employees […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should not vote on environmentalists’ requests to shut down one of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s two reactors until agency staff weigh in on the request, staff said Monday. It is the latest in a series of attempts by the groups to have Diablo Canyon shut down prior to 2030, the […]

The BWX Technologies-led nuclear remediation contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management have inked an eight-year task order for the next stages of cleanup, the site’s Citizens Advisory Board heard Tuesday. Michael Budney, DOE’s operations manager for the Savannah River nuclear cleanup, said the […]

There will be no slowdown in nuclear cleanup next autumn when the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management gives up its landlord role at the Savannah River Site, a citizens group heard Tuesday. “What we are not transferring are any of the EM [environmental management] missions,” Michael Budney, operations manager for DOE’s Office of […]

North Wind Group has appointed Shayne Naugle as the new North Wind Services president, although there is no word yet on a successor to the parent company’s CEO Christopher Leichtweis, who announced plans to step down this year. North Wind announced the promotion of Naugle, who previously led the company’s Northeast operations, to president of […]