Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The environmental cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina will start testing its newest supersize Saltstone Disposal Unit for potential leaks right after Thanksgiving. BWX Technologies-led Savannah River Mission Completion will start a leak-tightness test at Saltstone Disposal Unit No. 8 (SDU 8) on Nov. 26, the company said […]

While Cattaraugus County, N.Y., home of the West Valley Demonstration Project, experienced a cold and snowy weekend, it seems to have avoided the worst of the mega-storm that dumped several feet of snow 35 miles to the north in Buffalo, N.Y. “The site is in a two-hour delay, to allow employees who live away from […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received at least 29 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during October, according to a public website for the facility. As of Thursday morning, the website, which typically trails actual shipments by about two weeks, listed the last shipment during the month occurring on Oct. […]

While the House of Representatives is reportedly swinging to red from blue, a Democrat and political newcomer has claimed the Republican-held seat in Washington state not far from the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat who owns an auto repair shop with her husband, claimed 50.2% of the vote in this […]

Pit production will continue to share space at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s PF-4 Plutonium Facility with other missions for the foreseeable future, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration told a federal safety agency on Wednesday. The semi autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency is upgrading PF-4 to produce multiple war-ready pits some […]

A recent D.C. appeals court decision shows that the state of Texas had no right to sue the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, the commission said Tuesday. NRC, which is facing a lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals over […]

The Department of Energy has deducted about $890,000 in fee award from the prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. after a worker lost part of two fingers in a 2021 accident. The agency’s Enterprise Assessments’ Office of Enforcement issued a preliminary notice of violation of worker health and safety standards […]

A Bechtel affiliate underbid a rival, the Huntington Ingalls Industries-led National TRU Solutions, by about $14 million for 15 months of work as prime contractor of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., according to a decision made public Tuesday. Bechtel’s Tularosa Basin Range Services doing business as Salado Isolation Mining […]

Ohio’s former state House speaker wants to exclude statements by a dead alleged accomplice from his upcoming federal trial for bribery related to two financially struggling reactors. Attorneys for ex-speaker Larry Householder (R) also want a federal judge to ban from his trial references to a separate but related bribery scandal involving the former head […]

The company in charge of decommissioning a nuclear power plant in Vermont has finished packaging the last of the site’s low-level waste, a spokesperson said Tuesday. NorthStar, which is currently dismantling Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, “has reached another milestone” in the decommissioning process, as the site’s Greater-Than-Class-C waste “has been loaded into a dry […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory again ordered employees and visitors to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 after transmission rates in the area rose, according to an internal lab message. “COVID-19 community levels have moved to high in Los Alamos and Santa Fe Counties,” reads the message, the text of which the Exchange […]

The governor of Massachusetts last week struck down a provision in a recently-passed economic development bill aimed at blocking proposed wastewater discharge from a nuclear power plant under decommissioning, saying that it would step on the federal government’s toes. Although Gov. Charlie Baker (D) on Thursday signed the state’s sweeping economic development package, he vetoed […]

Advanced reactor developer NuScale Power Corp. is still losing money but is otherwise in excellent financial shape, with a $ 268.6 million war chest, short-term investments of $50 million and no debt, NuScale CEO John Hopkins and CFO Chris Colbert said in a teleconference with analysts.  In the third quarter of 2022 that ended Sept. […]

Local residents must retain a voice in what goes on at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina after federal responsibility for the complex shifts  to the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration in 2025, the head of the Citizens Advisory Board said Monday. Last month, DOE confirmed its Office of Environmental Management […]

Starting after Thanksgiving, citizens of the city of Aiken, S.C., can give the city council their two cents about how to spend $25 million in federal settlement money the city got because of a federal lawsuit involving the Department of Energy’s canceled plutonium recycling plant at the Savannah River Site, local media reported Monday. Aiken […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District plans a community briefing Thursday to discuss early results from sampling for radioactive contamination at Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Mo., the Corps announced Monday. The St. Louis District’s Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) is hosting a town hall-style meeting, Nov. 17, from 5-8 […]

A former Navy employee and his wife will go to prison for more than 19 and more than 21 years, respectively, for conspiring to sell nuclear-submarine secrets to a nation reported to be Brazil, a federal judge ordered recently. Jonathan Toebbe, 44, a former Q-cleared Naval Reactors employee who smuggled technical data about Virginia-class attack […]

The Department of Energy is investigating the source of dried radioactive waste found near a pipe-fitting at the Tank-Side Cesium Removal project at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a spokesperson said last week. The ongoing review could show if there is a leak in the process piping in the Tank Side Cesium Removal system […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a recent vote gave agency staff permission to start work on a proposed rulemaking that would require licensees shipping highly-radioactive materials to notify tribal governments about such shipments. NRC’s five-member executive committee voted unanimously Oct. 17 to approve the proposed rulemaking activity, according to agency documents published Thursday.  The staff […]

Nuclear waste management should not go overlooked as the U.S. weighs expanding its carbon-free energy market with more nuclear power, one of the newest lever members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said during an industry conference Monday. “Progress on nuclear waste management must keep pace with our renewed efforts to bring more carbon free nuclear […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. November 14-18: Conference. The American Nuclear Society kicks off its annual winter meeting in Phoenix, Ariz., with opening plenary session starting at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. Virtual access available. 14: Meeting: The Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory […]

As Nevada over the weekend counted the final ballots from last week’s midterm elections, the state’s incumbent senior senator, a staunch opponent of a national nuclear waste repository there, managed to hold onto her seat, state election stewards reported. Although she trailed former state attorney general Adam Laxalt (R) heading into the weekend, Catherine Cortez […]

Engineers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory continue to upgrade the ventilation system at the plutonium pit production facility after two separate incidents where the system failed to blow contaminated air away from clean rooms where employees were working.  The most recent failure occurred on Aug. 22, when ventilation in the Plutonium Facility, called PF-4, […]

The Department of Energy awarded a subsidiary of Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., a potentially 10-year contract to operate the company’s own uranium enrichment centrifuge at the Portsmouth site near Piketon, Ohio. DOE did not disclose the total value of the HALEU Demonstration Cascade Completion and HALEU Production contract in its award announcement on Thursday. […]

With both bid protests now rejected by the Government Accountability Office, a Bechtel affiliate said Friday it is starting its 90-day transition to take over operation of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. Tularosa Basin Range Services doing business as Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, and headed by Ken Harrawood, said […]