Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Inching forward with plans to dispose of surplus plutonium at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the National Nuclear Security Administration plans public hearings after New Year’s on its just-released draft environmental review of the project, the agency said Friday. The nuclear-weapons agency on Friday released a draft environmental impact statement about its planned Surplus Plutonium […]

The Department of Energy last week issued a task order for Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership to continue with shipment and destruction of legacy R-114 refrigerant, better known under the brand name Freon, from the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Four Rivers, which also has Fluor and BWX Technologies on its team, received its $16 million […]

The Senate could vote this week on a short-term federal funding extension and soon after that on the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, leaving a long-term 2023 spending bill as the last domino to fall before the 118th Congress begins in January. In the Department of Energy, both the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) active […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday that it has lifted some environmental quality assurance requirements for a shuttered California nuclear power plant now that decommissioning work at the facility has wrapped up. In its Oct. 11 order, announced in a Federal Register notice Wednesday, NRC exempted Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) from regulations that required […]

A contractor readiness review at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has concluded the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility is about ready to start operations as a hazard category 3 nuclear facility, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report. The readiness review that occurred in Novemebr is designed to check to […]

The United States Nuclear Industry Council has selected Todd Abrajano, founder of Turning Point Public Affairs, as its new president and chief executive officer effective Jan. 2, the industry advocacy organization announced Wednesday. Abrajano will succeed Clarence (Bud) Albright who has led the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council (USNIC) since December 2019 and previously served as […]

The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used its bank of high-powered lasers on Dec. 5 to ignite a fusion reaction that produced more energy from a small pellet than the lasers put into the pellet, the lab said. The long-hoped for achievement marked “a new chapter in NNSA’s [National Nuclear Security […]

Orano USA has finished dismantling and packaging the main reactor unit at a Vermont nuclear power plant under decommissioning, the company announced Tuesday. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station’s single boiling-water reactor has been completely segmented and all irradiated components have been packaged for transport, Orano said in a press release dated Tuesday. The reactor’s pressure […]

Although the House Democrat currently in charge of the chamber’s energy committee will hand in his gavel in the next Congress, he will stick with the panel as its ranking member, according to a press release Tuesday. The House Democratic Caucus unanimously elected Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce […]

Federal agencies including the Department of Energy will make do with a couple more weeks of their 2022 budgets while Congress works toward a full-year spending deal. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees on Tuesday announced they had reached an agreement in principle on a framework for the full-year budget, but lawmakers had not released […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last week appointed Nichole Huntington a new resident inspector at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Huntington’s first day on the job was Dec. 5, according to a press release from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) acting executive director of operations Christopher Roscetti. Huntington […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant received 16 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during November, according to DOE. There were 14 shipments recorded on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) public website as of Tuesday Dec. 13. The website runs about two weeks behind active shipments and a site spokesperson said two more […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has set a date for hearing an anti-nuclear group’s case against the proposed decommissioning of a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant, according to agency documents. NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board planned Jan. 19 to hold an oral argument session on Three Mile Island Alert’s (TMIA) petition against a proposed license amendment […]

The Secretary of Energy and the department’s top nuclear-weapons official were to brief press at 10:00 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday about what media reported is a record-setting energy output at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The briefing was to be livestreamed. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Livermore’s California campus […]

The newly-appointed second-in-command at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, Jeffrey Avery, will formally assume his new job next month, a spokesperson said Monday. Avery, most recently director of regulatory and security affairs with the Office of Naval Reactors, is already listed as principal deputy assistant secretary or EM-2, in the latest org […]

Sam Brinton, hired over the summer to lead the Department of Energy’s efforts to find a disposal solution for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, was fired from the agency following multiple accusations of felony theft, according to reports. Brinton was removed from their post as DOE’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition, […]

After the Environmental Protection Agency last week threatened to throw the book at Holtec International over proposed wastewater discharges from a Massachusetts nuclear power plant, the decommissioning company is preparing a response, a spokesperson said Monday. Holtec will “respond accordingly” to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Dec. 5 letter reiterating concerns about the company’s proposal […]

The White House last week announced that nuclear risk management expert Nathan Siu will head up the government’s independent nuclear waste technology auditor, according to a press release. The Joe Biden administration appointed Siu, who was previously a senior technical adviser in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s risk analysis division, as designated chair of the Nuclear […]

Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley is ineligible for the $160-million landlord contract awarded at the Paducah Site in Kentucky two years ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Monday, only days after oral arguments in the protracted case.  The “per curiam” or unanimous decision, was issued in a one-page […]

A communications outage at the Los Alamos National Laboratory that began over the weekend was unresolved at portions of the lab as late as early Monday morning, according to the lab.  “The Laboratory experiences a communications outage over the weekend due to a fiber-optic cable cut near Santa Fe which impacted cellular and internet services […]

The incoming Bechtel National prime for the Departments of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico expects to get most of its hiring done by mid-January, according to the new contractor website. “We are working diligently to complete the majority of the hiring activities by mid-January and declare readiness to perform operations by late […]

Former Miamisburg, Ohio mayor and a founding member of the Energy Communities Alliance, Dick Church, has died at age 81, the advocacy group for Department of Energy localities said Friday. Church “was a founding member that led the organization through transition and helped it grow from an idea into an organization that works for and […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 13: Press conferences and panel discussion on “Major Scientific Breakthrough by NNSA National Laboratory.” Washington, D.C. Media only, invite only. Event begins at 10:00 a.m. Widely rumored to be the reported net energy gain said to […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security is in the early stages of returning a facility at the NNSA’s Pantex Plant in Texas to active explosive testing. In October, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board noted the effort to reclaim the facility after 30 years of inactivity following a contamination event. Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) spokesman Jason Bohne confirmed […]

A Hanford contractor and the U.S. Department of Labor agreed for the company to pay 151 Hispanic job applicants $157,621 for not complying with federal non-discrimination regulations, Labor announced last week. In a press release and other records, the federal department said Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) discriminated in 2019 against Latino applicants to become […]

Samuel Brinton, the Department of Energy’s recently-hired head of nuclear waste policy, has been implicated in another alleged theft, this time at a Nevada airport, according to documents obtained by the Exchange Monitor. Brinton, who has served as DOE’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition since June, was accused of grand larceny […]