Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Holtec International will know by June or July whether it will get the funds it wants to restart the shuttered Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Calvert, Mich., executives told Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff Wednesday. It was the most specific public timetable Holtec has set yet for the full-court fundraising press the company initiated to restart […]

A land developer will not soon be building what amounts to a small city in the buffer zone around the Diablo Canyon Power Plant after a California court ruled Monday that the developer does not have a valid lease on the land. The Local San Luis Obispo Tribune first reported the proposed ruling in the […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory added SambaNova Systems’ spatial data flow accelerator to the lab’s Livermore Computing Center as part of an effort to see if artificial intelligence can aid the nuclear-weapons program. Livermore will integrate the new hardware to further investigate cognitive simulation approaches combining artificial intelligence (AI) with high-performance computing to learn if deep […]

Butte County, Idaho has already tried and failed to convince federal courts the locality is entitled to “impact payments” because of ongoing storage of spent nuclear fuel at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, according to Justice Department legal papers filed Monday. “Plaintiff already tested—and lost—its theory that it was entitled to impact assistance […]

Holtec International and Pacific Gas and Electric were scheduled to speak to Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Wednesday about novel regulatory efforts to extend the lives of two nuclear power plants. Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., was scheduled to go first, with their 10:00 a.m. Eastern presentation to commission staff about the regulatory pathway to restart […]

Jessie Hill Roberson, a fixture in the public and private sectors of the nuclear field for more than 30 years, plans to exit the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this October when her latest term expires, a board spokesperson said Monday. The exit of the longtime nuclear hand could, temporarily at least, leave only two […]

The House Appropriations Committee postponed markups of several fiscal year 2024 spending bills with no rain-check date given, the panel’s chairwoman said Monday.  Citing ongoing negotiations between the administration and House Republican leadership, Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who chairs the appropriations committee, said all markups scheduled for the week are now postponed. “Given recent developments […]

With the head of field operations at the Department of Energy’s $8-billion nuclear remediation branch recently announcing departure plans, more of the Cold War and Manhattan Project cleanup sites will start reporting directly to the No. 2 boss at headquarters in Washington, D.C., officials said Monday. “We are making a change in a couple of […]

A Sunday fire near the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has been extinguished but not before it burned 1,300 acres, according to a Hanford announcement on Facebook. “Wind gusts fanned the flames, but the Hanford Fire Department, managed by Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, got it under control within a few hours with […]

A long-awaited report released Monday from the National Academies finds a “strong technical case” for using concrete-like grout to augment operation of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine lauded a study by DOE’s Savannah […]

A $1.4-billion facility to convert sodium-bearing waste into a solid granular form at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is now running with 100% radioactive waste, the head of the $8-billion nuclear cleanup office said Monday. The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Lab is now “at 100% waste feed,” William […]

The Illinois legislature on Friday exempted advanced nuclear reactors from a state ban on new nuclear power plants. On the last day of the state’s legislative session, the state House approved a bill lifting the ban by 84-22 and the state Senate voted 36-14 to go along with their House colleagues. The second House-amended version […]

A federal judge in Idaho will allow the U.S. government to file up to 30 pages  in a motion to dismiss a March lawsuit by Butte County, which claims the Department of Energy has avoided adequate economic payments to the locality while using Idaho National Laboratory as a “default repository” for nuclear waste. “Plaintiff may […]

The BWX Technologies-led group won a $45-billion liquid-waste cleanup contract at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state will file court papers early this week defending its eligibility for the award. In an order dated Saturday, May 20, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Marian Horn gave the winning bidder, Hanford Tank Waste […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 22: Meeting: The Environmental Management Advisory Board holds a hybrid meeting starting at 3 p.m. Eastern Time.  24: Observation Meeting, Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “ Meeting with Holtec Decommissioning International” to discuss with the NRC staff their […]

Meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, the site of the first of the only two nuclear weapons deployed in wartime, leaders of the Group of Seven nations reaffirmed a commitment to rid the world of nuclear weapons.  Along with the city of Nagasaki, Hiroshima “offers a reminder of the unprecedented devastation and immense human suffering the people […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this morning it found no significant environmental impact from allowing Waste Control Specialists to move containers of long-stranded Department of Energy transuranic waste to another location within the company’s Andrews County, Texas property. The move, sought by Waste Control Specialists (WCS) 11 months ago, would allow relocation of 74 containers […]

NAC International’s contract to transport irradiated rods containing tritium from the Tennessee Valley Authority to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina was renewed without competition in September, even though the National Nuclear Security Administration identified four companies that the agency believes could do the work.  The new five-year follow-on contract is being awarded on […]

The Department of Energy’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center is in the market for small companies to support upcoming procurements in the weapons complex. The Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) on Tuesday published a combined sources sought and request for information for small businesses designated as an Indian Tribe or Alaska Native Corporation […]

A Senate committee unanimously voted Wednesday to ban imports of Russian uranium and to require a report from the Department of Energy about the cost of a federal bailout for struggling nuclear power plants. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the ban and the report as part of S. 452, the Nuclear Fuel […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff plan to submit a proposed rulemaking about near-surface disposal of Greater Than Class C waste to the commission in November, officials told the public Wednesday. The proposed rule, years in the making, combines a 2015 inquiry into a rules change for Greater-Than-Class-C (GTCC) waste with changes to low-level waste disposal governed […]

The Department of Energy and Canadian nonprofit Nuclear Waste Management Organization signed an agreeement to cooperate on used nuclear fuel management, the Canadian organization announced Tuesday. “The agreement reflects the U.S. and Canada’s shared commitment to safely managing used nuclear fuel, including that from small modular reactors,” the Nuclear Waste Management Organization wrote in a […]

The White House has ended remaining COVID-19 federal jobsite vaccination rules triggered by two 2021 executive orders but attorneys for 315 workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site say the legal fight should go on. The administration of President Joe Biden (D) and other defendants in David Donovan versus Brian Vance “have not relinquished […]

Legislation to encourage domestic production of nuclear fuel are on the move this week in Congress, and the movement began Tuesday in House subcommittee, which easily passed a bill to prohibit imports of Russian uranium by Jan. 1, 2028. Summing up Republican sentiment H.R. 1042, the “Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act,” Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could issue a Federal Register notice this week of a draft environmental review to allow Waste Control Specialists to move stranded Department of Energy transuranic waste to a different location within the company’s 1,300-acre property in preparation for its ultimate removal from Texas, a federal spokesperson said Tuesday. The public notice, […]