Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 58 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during August, with all but a half-dozen coming from the Idaho National Laboratory, according to the latest figures available on its public website. The data indicate the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) continues to experience its busiest […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has launched its market research for up to $40 million worth of environmental restoration work around the Superfund site in Maywood, N.J., according to a procurement notice published online Friday. A sources sought notice was issued online Friday in the Systemwide Awards Management website (SAM.gov) for small businesses to […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security moved a meeting for potential bidders on a construction contract for the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, to a nearby college from the nuclear-weapons maintenance site, the contractor wrote in an online notice. “[D]ue to the number of requests we have moved the venue off site to prevent issues with badging,” the […]

On Tuesday, SNC-Lavalin, the Montreal-based engineering and project managing company, rebranded itself AtkinsRéalis and its chief U.S. subsidiary Atkins Nuclear Secured is now rechristened as AtkinsRéalis Nuclear Secured, company officials said this week. The parent company, which is involved in the nuclear industry and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, will officially change its stock […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — This winter the Department of Energy and Waste Control Specialists should start moving remaining containers of transuranic waste, stuck at the company’s Texas facility for nine years, to a new above-ground storage facility to prep the material for shipment to the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The “notional” deadline […]

In a court filing this week, Holtec International’s ex-finance chief said he neither disclosed corporate secrets nor violated a nondisclosure agreement by publicly suing his former employer.  Kevin O’Rourke sued Holtec, Jupiter, Fla., June 1 in the Superior Court of New Jersey in Camden County, alleging the company overvalued itself in an effort to get […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has told transuranic waste generators that it won’t take shipments during February 2024, the head of DOE’s prime contractor said here Wednesday. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has traditionally held a multi-week maintenance outage during the winter and February tends to be hardest […]

ARLINGTON, VA —Planned plutonium pit production for nuclear defense purposes at two Department of Energy sites depends on the ability to dispose of resulting transuranic waste, a National Nuclear Security Administration executive said here Wednesday. “A single bad waste drum is likely to have a bigger impact on our mission” than any bad pit, James […]

ARLINGTON, VA — A facility at the Idaho National Laboratory has solidified more than 68,000 gallons of sodium-bearing, liquid radioactive waste since starting operations in April and it will commence a maintenance outage later this month. That was the word shared with DOE’s National Cleanup Workshop Tuesday on the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) by […]

ARLINGTON, VA —Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) Tuesday prodded hundreds of people here for the National Cleanup Workshop to urge their congressional representatives to avoid a federal government shutdown but stopped short of predicting a stopgap agreement before fiscal 2023 ends Sept. 30. “Reach out to your member of congress,” said Fleischmann, who chairs the House […]

ARLINGTON, VA — A planned test to solidify 2,000 gallons of low-level radioactive tank waste from the Hanford Site into a concrete-like grout could pave the way for a second method of treating waste at the former plutonium production complex near Richland, Wash., the Department of Energy’s top nuclear-cleanup official said here Tuesday. During the […]

The U.S. and Philippine governments are in the home stretch of signing a 123 agreement to boost cooperation on both civil energy projects and nuclear non-proliferation efforts.  Quoting Philippine Energy Undersecretary Sharon Garin, the Manila Bulletin — that nation’s largest English language newspaper — said the two countries are on the brink of signing the […]

The Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy and Grid Deployment offices got new chiefs of staff, the agency announced Tuesday. Emily Doran, a former campaign staffer for President Joe Biden (D), will be the staff chief at the Grid Deployment Office while Rory Stanley, most recently a staffer on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, […]

Two electric cooperatives would purchase electricity generated by the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan if the plant restarts, plant owner Holtec International said Tuesday in a statement. If Palisades restarts, something Holtec has said could happen in August 2025, if everything goes according to the company’s unprecedented plan, Wolverine Power Cooperative will purchase two […]

The U.S.-Japan Nuclear Security Working Group convened for its 12th meeting at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee earlier this month for a wide-ranging discussion on nuclear non-proliferation issues.  Corey Hinderstein, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation, and Ambassador Mitsuko Hayashi, deputy director general of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign […]

No major safety or operational issues were found during a recent Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection of the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, clearing the way for the facility to produce high-assay, low-enriched uranium fuel. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials completed an inspection of the American Centrifuge Plant on Aug. 16. In a Sept. 7 […]

A Department of Energy spokesperson confirmed Monday the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico sent a problematic shipment of transuranic waste back to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The shipment, which sat for nearly a year in a Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) parking lot and required special permission by the U.S. […]

ARLINGTON, VA — William “Ike” White, the acting boss of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup program, was set to kick off the main program for 2023 National Cleanup Workshop here Tuesday morning with an overview of priorities for the $8-billion-plus Office of Environmental Management. With the clock ticking toward the Sept. 30 end of […]

California waded into a lawsuit filed by environmental groups opposed to a life-extension for the state’s last nuclear power plant, writing in a legal filing last week that the plan “presents no undue risk” to the public. In a friend-of-the court brief uploaded Friday and dated Sept. 5, California asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court […]

A Veolia Nuclear Solutions subsidiary has hired Bob Miklos, a retired nuclear waste manager at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory as VNS Federal Services’ executive vice president of program assurance, the company announced last week. Miklos will help Veolia Nuclear Solutions (VNS) target opportunities for its GeoMelt and similar technology across DOE’s nuclear […]

Two decades after planning began, the fire department for the Y-12 National Security Complex has moved into its brand-new station, site officials said in a recent statement.  Construction began in the spring of 2021 after 20 years of discussion and planning, according to a post on the site’s blog. When visiting the new Y-12 Fire […]

A series of explosions was heard near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in recent days, a team of International Atomic Energy Agency officials based at the facility have reported.  The blasts point to a possible escalation of military activity in the area surrounding the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 11: Conference: The two-day National Cleanup Workshop hosted by the Energy Communities Alliance kicks off at 8 a.m. Eastern Time at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va.  11: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, all-hands public meeting. NRC […]

As a safeguard against wildfires, crews for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico started to thin out the forest in certain areas of Rendija Canyon, lab officials announced last week. The Rendija Canyon Wildland Fire Fuels Reduction and Defensible Space Project, which should be finished in November, will create a […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans an Oct. 19 hearing on a proposal by Kairos Power to build a demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tenn., on land once used for a Department of Energy gaseous diffusion plant. The hearing at Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) headquarters in Rockville, Md., marks the final phase of the agency’s review […]