Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Feds at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina are busy planning to transfer responsibility for the complex to DOE’s nuclear weapons office from the cleanup branch in fiscal 2025, a top local boss said Monday. “As we discussed before, we have been charged to come up with a plan by June […]

Amentum-led Department of Energy contractor Washington River Protection Solutions asked for expressions of interest from makers of robots that could provide a better view of the pits that lead to underground radioactive waste tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “The robotic solution will be referred to as the Pit Vyper in this document,” […]

The Department of Energy’s ongoing funding opportunity for communities interested in hosting a federal interim storage facility got a little larger Monday after the agency announced it would tack on roughly $10 million in additional funding for the program. The agency increased the total award for its interim storage funding opportunity to around $26 million, […]

Akima Systems Engineering, Herndon, Va., protested the award of a potentially $340-million operations and maintenance contract at the Department of Energy’s National Training Center in Albuquerque, N.M., which the agency in December awarded to Eagle Harbor, Manassas, Va. Akima lodged the protest on Jan. 17, just shy of a month after DOE awarded Eagle Harbor […]

With a Department of Energy solicitation for a new Occupational Services contract expected as soon as February for the Hanford Site in Washington state, the agency last week released various details about the work, including a video tour of two existing worker health facilities. DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center published both a list […]

The Department of Energy is once again seeking candidates to run the agency’s spent nuclear fuel disposal programs, according to a job posting listed last week. DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy is looking for a “seasoned executive” to join the agency as its Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition, according to the […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 23: Meeting: The Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board kicks off a two-day meeting at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The second day (Jan. 24) will start at 9 a.m. The sessions are being held at the […]

A federal safety watchdog reports there were two mishaps in radioactive waste storage areas last month at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, including one where a container of radioactive waste fell four feet. Both incidents, one on Dec. 10, and another Dec. 20, occurred at Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, according to […]

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) will chair the appropriations subcommittee that writes the first draft of the Department of Energy’s annual spending bill, the full committee confirmed this week. Fleischmann takes the gavel of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee from Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who now will chair the House Appropriations interior and environment […]

Key parts of a pretreatment system for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant should hold up over decades, Department of Energy bosses and a contractor from the Hanford Site in Washington state told the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last month.  Managers from DOE and Washington River Protection Solutions told the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety […]

Sandia National Laboratories’ Ion Beam Laboratory reopened late Wednesday after tritium levels spiked inside a glove bag on Monday and prompted an evacuation, the Albuquerque, N.M.-based lab said. “On Monday, Jan. 16, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories were performing work to characterize tritium samples inside of a confinement glovebag at the Ion Beam Laboratory. Workers […]

The U.S. should develop a series of scientific criteria that can be used to extend the operating lifetimes of nuclear power plants through the middle of the century, the Department of Energy’s lead nuclear power official said Wednesday. “If we would like our existing fleet to make it to 2050, we should establish a scientific […]

Two members of congress from Missouri, a Republican senator and a House Democrat, want the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do more testing for radiological contamination at a St. Louis area school. “We write to urge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to conduct additional radioactive contaminant testing of Hazelwood School District’s properties,” […]

The Ion Beam Laboratory and the Sandia National Laboratory’s Albuquerque, N.M., site remained off-limits to most lab employees Tuesday after being evacuated on Monday, according to the labs. “Continue to avoid Bldg. 720, the Ion Beam Laboratory, until further notice due to the ongoing incident response,” the labs wrote in an emergency alert issued around […]

Three employees who claim Consolidated Nuclear Security illegally withheld more than $10 million in wages from a big group of employees need new lawyers after their attorneys quit last week, citing a conflict of interest. “Due to a conflict that has arisen, Plaintiffs’ counsel, attorneys [Justin] Gilbert and [Ron] Rayson, have no choice but seek […]

Due to winter weather, onsite employees at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico should plan to arrive between 10 a.m. and noon local time, according to a notice posted this morning on the laboratory’s webpage. Workers could also call a laboratory hotline for more details, according to the notice. The […]

While Department of Energy contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Co. is doing a good job on hazardous nuclear remediation within Building 324 at the Hanford Site in Washington state, it needs to tackle some safety risks, according to the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments. Generally, the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments said in a review published […]

The Department of Energy Tuesday announced that Michael Goff has started as the number-two official for the agency’s nuclear energy office, according to a press release. Goff, who most recently served as a senior advisor to DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), will now oversee the division’s research and development portfolio as its principal deputy […]

In a little less than a month, the Department of Energy will start doling out fines for the unauthorized sharing of nuclear technology and know-how overseas, the agency said last week. On Thursday, the agency published its final rule in the Federal Register for implementing those penalties. They will go into effect Feb. 13, DOE […]

California’s public utilities commission last week agreed to kick off a new rulemaking that, if finalized, would allow the Golden State’s last operating nuclear power plant to operate into the next decade, documents show. During a Thursday meeting, the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) voted unanimously to greenlight the proposed rulemaking, which would, among other […]

By the end of this month, the manager of the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico will leave to become deputy manager of the Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office in Lexington, Ky., an agency executive said Tuesday. Carlsbad manager Reinhard Knerr, responsible for overseeing the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant since July 2020, is […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration in December removed some surplus, weapon-usable plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the agency said Friday.  The agency did not say how much of the material it removed from the site near Aiken, S.C. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has said the glove boxes and facilities […]

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) will chair the appropriations subcommittee that writes the first draft of the Department of Energy’s annual spending bill, the full committee confirmed Monday. Fleischmann takes the gavel of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee from Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who now will chair the House Appropriations interior and environment subcommittee. […]

In December, the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management completed what its head of field operations calls the “beta phase” of a new electronic “dashboard” for tracking nuclear remediation technology development. All of the research-and-development data run through Environmental Management (EM) headquarters in Washington, D.C., has been entered into the system, Nicole Nelson-Jean […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 18: Meeting: A hybrid meeting of the Nevada National Security Site Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board starts at 4 p.m. Pacific Time. To attend virtually, email board administration Barbara Ulmer by 4 p.m. P.T. on Jan. […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., had its busiest month of 2022 during December, receiving 53 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste. Forty shipments originated from the Idaho National Laboratory, 12 came from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, one came from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. […]