Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Department of Energy’s solid-waste cleanup contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state now recommends tearing down the above-ground portion of the decaying 324 Building before digging up radioactively-contaminated soil under the structure’s B cell. In an Aug. 23 presentation to the Hanford Advisory Board, Central Plateau Cleanup Co. President John Eschenberg said he […]

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant has started pumping water from the first of a dozen or so planned new groundwater wells as officials attempt to shore up sufficient cooling sources for its six reactors after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam earlier this summer, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Aug. 22. The collapse of […]

In a recent visit to Ukraine, the United Kingdom’s top nuclear energy official discussed providing uranium enrichment services to the embattled nation so its nuclear power plants can stay online this winter. Grant Shapps, the U.K.’s energy security secretary, was in Kyiv just as London announced a $243 million loan allowing Urenco — a British-German-Dutch […]

The Oak Ridge, Tenn., City Council could select a new manager next week for the municipality, population 31,000, which hosts the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site. The selection is expected during a special city council meeting on Aug.28, according to an update posted on the city’s website. The ultimate hiring could come after Oak […]

A $1.4-billion facility that since April has solidified more than 60,000 gallons of sodium-bearing waste at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory received “minor superficial damage” from a crane accident in July, an agency spokesperson said Wednesday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was repaired and the IWTU maintenance crane was returned to service […]

Thanks to retirements, the Department of Energy and its Washington state regulator have some new managers at the Hanford Site, the Hanford Advisory Board heard Wednesday. Hanford Advisory Board member Pam Lasen also announced during the start of the two-day board meeting that a former longtime board member from Oregon, Norma Jean Germond, died this […]

In a move with ramifications for Holtec International’s decommissioning of the Indian Point Energy Center, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Friday signed into law a state ban on discharging radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River. Holtec would now face escalating fines for discharges into the Hudson. For a first time offense, Holtec would […]

Major National Nuclear Security Administration projects to modernize nuclear-weapons production infrastructure shot $2 billion past estimated budgets and are collectively overdue by nearly a decade, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office.  The overruns have several causes, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in the first of what will become biennial reports […]

When it comes to nuclear deterrence, and the warheads and delivery systems that support it, the more options the better, said U.S. Strategic Command head Air Force Gen Anthony Cotton. Though he was careful not to name specific delivery systems or weapons, Cotton said that when advising the president on how to keep nuclear competitors […]

The BWX Technologies-led team that won a $45-billion Department of Energy contract at Hanford Site in Washington state, only to see the award blocked by a federal court in June, should brief an appeals court in early October about why the trial court’s ruling was wrong. The team, Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, should […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission planned to host a public informational meeting about the agency’s oversight of high-assay, low-enriched uranium for use in nuclear reactors.  Centrus Corp., Bethesda, Md., is the only company in the U.S. with a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to produce HALEU. In early February, the company completed construction and […]

As a byproduct of Post-Tropical Cyclone Hilary, some normally arid Department of Energy weapons complex sites out West experienced unusually heavy rain or wind, according to the latest from the National Weather Service. However, a DOE Office of Environmental Management spokesperson said Tuesday morning no significant weather-related damage or disruptions have been reported at the […]

Recently, Pacific Gas and Electric formally communicated to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it intends to apply for a license extension that could keep the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant operating into the 2060s. By Dec. 31, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) will ask NRC to extend Diablo Canyon’s two reactors “for up to 20 […]

This week, a trade group for nuclear professionals released a 76-page report that recommends changes to the Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for nuclear-waste repositories.  Broadly, the new report from the Illinois-based American Nuclear Society (ANS) aims to make the standards set for the failed Yucca Mountain deep-geologic repository in Nevada the standard for all U.S. […]

Waste Control Specialists was expected to provide an update next week in Andrews, Texas, about the company’s efforts to expand its existing low-level waste disposal site there, a tri-state waste-disposal commission announced Wednesday. The update from Waste Control Specialists, which operates a state-owned low-level waste disposal site at its Andrews County property, was scheduled as […]

Dan Brouillette, the second secretary of energy of the Donald Trump administration, will become president and CEO of the Edison Electric Institute, effective Oct. 1, the trade group for investor-owned electric companies said Wednesday. Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Chair Pedro Pizarro made the announcement in a press release, about five months after longtime EEI head […]

Members of United Steelworkers Local 1-689 employed in cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio voted Monday to extend their existing collective bargaining deal with Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth until March, a union official said. The extension includes a retroactive 2% raise, a $1,500 cash bonus and buys time until a new Amentum-led team […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 39 shipments of transuranic waste during July and is on pace for its biggest year since an accidental underground radiation release in 2014, according to a Department of Energy website. Along with 31 shipments from Idaho National Laboratory, there were five from the Los Alamos National […]

Frank Rose, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s principal deputy administrator, recently spent a week in East Asia where he visited counterparts in Japan and South Korea. The trip, from July 18 to July 24 “aimed to strengthen bilateral ties, regional nuclear security, and enable discussions of how best to address challenges in the evolving geopolitical […]

Southeast New Mexico College in Carlsbad is receiving $11.7 million in Department of Energy grant money over five years to develop employee training programs for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the agency said Monday. The college will collaborate with DOE and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), to provide training and education for current and […]

The New Mexico Environment Department plans a hybrid public meeting next month on the proposed new 10-year hazardous waste permit for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. The meeting, slated to start at 5 p.m. Mountain Time on Sept. 22, will be conducted both online via Webex and in-person at locations […]

In court documents filed Monday Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., formally denied its ex-finance chief’s allegations that the company overvalued itself in an investor pitch.  Holtec also said the former chief financial officer, Kevin O’Rourke, acted maliciously and breached a non-disclosure agreement by filing a lawsuit that detailed, among other things, Holtec’s attempts to woo Hyundai […]

Looking toward a future as a developer of small nuclear reactors, Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., added power generation to the responsibilities of its lead decommissioning executive, the company announced Monday. Kelly Trice is now president Nuclear Generation and Decommissioning for Holtec, the company wrote in a press release. In his new role, Kelly will now […]

Atkins Nuclear Secured Holding Corp. has appointed a former Bechtel National executive, Michael Hughes, to serve as an outside director on the Atkins board of directors, the company said in a Monday press release. Hughes, who has 35 years of experience leading nuclear ventures around the Department of Energy’s weapons complex, will provide oversight for […]

A community organization focused on reindustrialization around the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee will close up shop within two years, the group said last week. The Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET) is starting the “orderly, planned closing of the CROET Corporation and its affiliate organization, Heritage Center, LLC,” CROET announced […]