Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

A Texas company that owns land in the state’s oil-rich Permian Basin told a federal court Monday that, despite claims by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company had the right to sue the agency over an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel proposed for the region, court documents show. Fasken Land and Minerals, LLC, […]

The cost of the next subcritical nuclear testing facility in Nevada crept up a little, according to an audit report published Monday by the Department of Energy’s Inspector General. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) now projects a maximum combined cost for the U1a Complex Enhancement Project (UCEP) of $577 million, a little more than […]

The administration of President Joe Biden has yet to submit its legal response to a brief filed earlier this month in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over legality of a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for most workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. The current deadline for the government’s answering briefing […]

An official for the company dismantling a shuttered Massachusetts nuclear power plant defended its controversial interpretation of a federal pollutant discharge permit during a community meeting Monday evening. It is “very clear” that Holtec International’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station “exempt[s] radionuclides as pollutants,” Dave Noyes, a senior […]

After the Department of Energy snubbed a shuttered Michigan nuclear power plant for a federal bailout, the company in charge of the facility does may not throw its hat in the ring for the agency’s second round of awards. A spokesperson for Holtec International, which in June took ownership of Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, told […]

The state of Minnesota has charged the Department of Energy’s recently-hired head of spent nuclear fuel management with felony theft, court documents show. According to a criminal complaint filed Oct. 27 in Minnesota’s 4th Judicial District Court, Sam Brinton, who began working in June as DOE’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition, […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. December 01: Meeting: The Environmental Management Advisory Board meets in hybrid session at 1 p.m. Central Time at Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, Napoleon Room C-3, 500 Canal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130. 02: Rollout of the […]

The Department of Energy will apply a little extra scrutiny to a worker’s heat exhaustion during legacy nuclear waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said recently. The worker “experienced heat exhaustion while supporting corrugated metal pipe retrieval operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on September 8, […]

A recent inspection at a shuttered New York nuclear power plant revealed that the facility’s radiation protection program did not meet federal regulations, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a letter to the company decommissioning the site. NRC’s Sep. 30 inspection at Indian Point Energy Center found that plant owner Holtec International failed “to develop […]

A New Mexico judge who worked for more than a decade at the Los Alamos National Laboratory was apparently murdered by her husband, who then killed himself, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday. “Eric Pinkerton is believed to have shot his wife and several animals in the house before shooting himself,” the sheriff’s office […]

In a federal lawsuit, Texas said recently that the state is legally allowed to take its complaint about a proposed nuclear waste storage depot directly to federal court and skip engagement with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, court papers show. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in a Friday brief […]

Two federal agencies and the state of Idaho signed off on expansion of a low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), DOE and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality have agreed to expand the existing on-site Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act waste […]

Wise Services paid about $300,000 to the federal government to settle allegations that the company billed the government for non-existent construction materials at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., the Justice Department said Monday. The Dayton, Ohio-based company was a subcontractor to CB&I MOX Services, which was building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility […]

Suzy Sterner was promoted to senior vice president and chief corporate affairs officer at BWX Technologies, the company announced recently. Sterner, who joined BWX Technologies (BWXT) in 2019, was already leading the Lynchburg, Va., company’s communications and government relations operations at the time of her latest promotion, according to a BWXT LinkedIn post. She’ll now […]

Dallas-based Jacobs, long involved in both nuclear remediation and nuclear power, plans to tap into the market for new small reactors as a source of carbon-free electric generation, executives said Monday. “Nuclear most recently has been surging with regard to becoming a clean energy transition solution,” Jacobs’ Chair and CEO Steve Demetriou said during a […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s latest mask mandate lasted only three days, after which COVID-19 community transmission rates dropped below high, according to a lab memo. The New Mexico nuclear weapons laboratory let employees take the masks off Nov. 18 after briefly making face coverings mandatory again on Nov. 15, according to an internal email, […]

The governor of Michigan on Monday applauded the state’s efforts in its ill-fated attempt to bring a recently-shuttered nuclear power plant back online with the help of a federal bailout. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) “brought together a coalition to develop a plan that would have reopened a non-operational nuclear plant for the first time in […]

Jacobs, the Dallas-based leader and member of various Department of Energy nuclear contractors, had a good fiscal 2022, with revenue and profit each rising for the year, the company reported Monday. The engineering giant had net earnings of more than $715 million, or $4.98 a share, up from about $430 million, or $320 a share, […]

California’s last operating nuclear power plant got yet another cash injection Monday morning as the Department of Energy announced it could award more than a billion dollars to the facility to keep it online past its scheduled shutdown date. If finalized, Diablo Canyon Power Plant should receive around $1.1 billion in aid from DOE as […]

After the Department of Energy last week refused to fund a proposal to restart a recently-shuttered nuclear power plant in Michigan, the company in charge of the facility said it planned to move ahead with decommissioning, according to a spokesperson. A Holtec International spokesperson confirmed to the Exchange Monitor Friday that DOE had rejected the […]

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 […]