Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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. […]

A recent poll conducted by New Mexico-based environmental organizations found that more than half of respondents opposed a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the Land of Enchantment, local media reported over the weekend. The survey, taken in December as a joint effort between the Southwest Research and Information Center and the […]

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), a dependable ally of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex, is in the mix to lead the influential appropriations committee that writes the first drafts of DOE’s annual budget, a source said. Fleischmann, who since 2011 has represented Tennessee’s largely rural third district […]

Local officials this week voted to express formal concerns about the Department of Energy’s plan to ship weapon-usable plutonium through the Santa Fe, New Mexico area as part of long-planned materials-disposal effort. On Tuesday, all five Santa Fe county commissioners approved comments to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) about the agency’s Surplus Plutonium Disposition […]

The timeline to start converting low-level radioactive waste into glass at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has already been slowed by technical and workforce issues and more challenges could arise, a DOE manager told the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board. The Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant is a complex project and […]

New Mexico and the Department of Energy are close to resolving the state’s lawsuit about cleanup rules for the Los Alamos National Laboratory and asked a federal judge Wednesday for another 90 days to negotiate. Lawyers for the state and the Department of Justice told the U.S. District Court for New Mexico that the two […]

A coalition of anti-nuclear groups on Tuesday asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to refuse a proposed 20-year license extension for California’s last operating nuclear power plant, saying it would violate federal law, an agency filing shows. Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) November request with NRC for a license extension for Diablo Canyon Power Plant is […]

The newly-elected governor of Massachusetts last week signaled that she would stand against a proposal from Holtec International that would see irradiated wastewater from a shuttered nuclear power plant released into the Cape Cod Bay, local media reported. Speaking at a community event in South Yarmouth, Mass., Gov. Maura Healey (D) said that the Bay […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans by Oct. 31 to have permanent leadership for the three new procurement- and infrastructure-focused offices it created last year when it broke up the former Office of Acquisition and Project Management, according to a Government Accountability Office report published Tuesday. The agency “will establish specific outcome-oriented goals and performance […]

Amid the winter rainstorms that pounding California, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has temporarily curtailed all but essential activity at its experimental test site in the San Francisco Bay Area, a spokesperson said Tuesday. “Site 300 has been in minimum safe configuration Jan. 4-5 and Jan. 9-11, due to adverse weather and infrastructure conditions on […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management last month suspended heat up of a long-anticipated waste treatment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory after a small leak of “non-radioactive, non-hazardous solids,” was discovered, DOE said Tuesday. The suspension came Dec. 29, 10 days after beginning warmup to prepare for radiological operations at the Integrated […]

Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge plans this summer to hire a subcontractor to start site preparation for a new landfill to dispose of 2.2-million cubic yards of low-level waste at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, a federal spokesperson said Tuesday. “There are still several significant steps remaining,” before United Cleanup Oak […]