Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

PHOENIX — Thanks to an updated agreement between the federal government and a nuclear power plant operator, owners of advanced nuclear reactors will likely have to foot the bill for spent fuel storage at their facilities, an industry expert said here Wednesday. For advanced reactors, the new spent fuel management contract between the Department of […]

PHOENIX – DOE is still deciding the longer-term fate of a landlord services contract for the Paducah Site in Kentucky after a federal appeals court ruled in December that incumbent Swift & Staley exceeded the size limits for the small-business set aside award, an agency official said here. “We are working through a decision-making process,” […]

The technology that powers the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s main nuclear-weapon testing center is a viable bedrock for a nuclear fusion power plant, the lab’s director testified Tuesday in Congress. Based on data available today from Livermore’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), “it is feasible to develop a fusion energy power plant based on the inertial […]

PHOENIX — It’s still unclear whether the final version of a proposed rule change aimed at streamlining nuclear power plant decommissioning  will require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to okay licensees’ plans for dismantling their sites, officials said here Tuesday. NRC staff, who are currently putting together the agency’s final decommissioning rulemaking, “are looking at” whether […]

PHOENIX —The chances of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state making its first glass from radioactive tank waste by Dec. 31, 2023 is “very low” but reaching that milestone during 2024 is doable, site manager Brian Vance said at a Waste Management Symposia session Tuesday morning. Vance’s assessment was in response to […]

Sam Shakir, president of Westinghouse Electric Company’s operating nuclear power plant services, has left the company, the company said in a press release Monday. Shakir’s departure was effective immediately, the company said. He had been head of Westinghouse’s operating reactors division for about eight months but has “decided to pursue opportunities outside of the company,” […]

PHOENIX — The top manager for the Bechtel affiliate now in charge of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico expects a new underground ventilation system to be operating by late 2025 or early 2026. Ken Harrawood, president and program manager of Salado Isolation Mining, which took over as prime contract […]

PHOENIX — A New Mexico bill could put Holtec International’s proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in that state in jeopardy, a company official said here Monday. “Despite all the efforts and resources used to inform and educate the public and organizations [on the proposed HI-STORE interim storage site], there is currently legislation […]

PHOENIX – Winning support for a new low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee took a lot of time and friendly arm-twisting, a member of the House Appropriations Committee told the Waste Management Symposia Monday via electronic hookup from Washington, D.C. “For over 10 years we have needed […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy has yet to select a candidate to lead its ongoing effort to find a willing community to host a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, the agency’s nuclear power head said here Monday. Although DOE is no longer accepting applications for its vacant deputy assistant secretary for […]

PHOENIX — An executive with an industry trade group thinks that the U.S. could have a geologic repository for its nuclear waste inventory by mid-century, he said here Monday. Rod McCullum, senior director of decommissioning and used fuel at the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), said Monday during a panel at the Waste Management Symposium in […]

Kim Budil, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, was set to testify Tuesday in Washington during a hearing of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. The hearing, “The United States, China and the Fight for Global Leadership: Building a U.S. National Science and Technology Strategy,” was on the slate for 10:00 a.m. Eastern […]

Russia’s suspension last week of the world’s biggest bilateral nuclear-weapons treaty is not official yet and Moscow was still talking to the State Department about the treaty as of Monday, a senior agency official said. “The suspension hasn’t been officially effected yet, in the sense that we’re still receiving notifications as recently as today under […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy anticipates the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory to treat its first batch of radioactive waste by the end of March, the agency’s top nuclear cleanup official said here Monday. Environmental Management Senior Adviser William (Ike) White reiterated his message to the Exchange Monitor on the […]

A bill intended to check a proposed private interim storage facility for spent nuclear in New Mexico got a step closer to the governor’s desk last week. New Mexico’s House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee, in a 6-3 vote Saturday, approved the proposed measure, which would amend state law to prohibit the storage of […]

A New York state legislator on Friday brought forward a bill that, if made law, would prevent the company decommissioning a shuttered nuclear plant there from discharging radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River. The measure introduced by State Sen. Peter Harckham (D), would amend state law to make it illegal “to throw, drain, run or […]

The Department of Energy on Friday marked the anniversary of Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine with a list of the agency’s contributions to Kyiv during the conflict. Both the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Office of Nuclear Energy merited callouts in Friday’s press release for showing Ukrainian personnel how to identify radiation releases, […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. February: 27: Meeting: The technical program for the 2023 Waste Management Symposia kicks off at 10 a.m. Mountain Time at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Ariz. 27: Meeting, Brookings Institution: Russia Suspends its Participation in the […]

The former site of a Wisconsin nuclear power plant is officially safe to use for other activities, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced in a press release last week. NRC released the site of the decommissioned  La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor for “unrestricted public use,” the agency said in the Friday press release. Such a designation […]

A worker at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state used a fire extinguisher to snuff out a small blaze within an administrative office at 242-A Evaporator facility, a federal safety board reported Feb. 3. An initial investigation identified the cause as “a lit candle that ignited combustible material while briefly left unattended,” […]

PHOENIX—Roughly 2,600 people involved with nuclear waste and related fields are taking over this desert city’s downtown convention center this week for the 49th Waste Management Symposia. Monday’s headliners including U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, and a French energy official. In addition to Granholm, other speakers in […]

Uranium broker and enrichment-technology developer Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., took a hit on the bottom line for 2022, though its core operations reported good health and revenue was nearly level year-over-year. Centrus’ net income fell 70% to about $52 million for 2022, according to the company’s Wednesday 10-K filing with the Securities & Exchange […]

Over a year’s time, it is common for Department of Energy weapons complex sites to experience multiple fires that are recorded with the agency’s Occurrence Reporting and Processing System, according to a report from the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments. “The number of reportable fires per year [over a seven-year-period] ranged from 4 to 10, […]

Hundreds of employees evacuated the National Nuclear Security Administration’s main factory for nuclear-weapon secondary stages in Tennessee early Wednesday morning after a fire there, a spokesperson said. “There was a fire at approximately 9:15 involving uranium in Building 9212, a production facility onsite,” a spokesperson for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission can allow California’s last nuclear power reactor to operate with an expired license, the plant’s owner wrote in a recent regulatory filing  Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) was rebuffing claims by a coalition of anti-nuclear groups who told the NRC the utility was asking the government to break the law in […]

SNC-Lavalin Group said Tuesday it has selected longtime Bechtel nuclear executive Jim Rugg to replace Tom Jouvanis as president of its Atkins Nuclear Secured Holding affiliate. Rugg, who spent more than 28 years at Bechtel, most recently as operations manager for defense and space, will officially become Atkins president on Feb. 27, according to the […]