Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority was in the process of securing approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to increase production of tritium for nuclear weapons in one of the company’s reactors by November 2024, according to its latest annual earnings report. That date, disclosed in the authority’s latest 10-k filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, […]

Plaintiffs suing current and past Department of Energy contractors at the Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio asked a U.S. District Court this week to force a resident near the nuclear site to turn over information she collected over time with her own private air monitors. Attorneys for Ursula McGlone and several other residents living […]

People placed on leave from the Los Alamos National Laboratory for refusing a COVID-19 vaccinations will get no help from the courts in ongoing arbitration proceedings with the lab, a federal judge in New Mexico said recently. The decision dropped Halloween night in the U.S. District Court for New Mexico, where Judge Kea Riggs told […]

Sampling overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers around the Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Mo., has not turned up evidence of radiation above background levels, the Corps’ St. Louis District Office said Wednesday. “From a radiological standpoint, the school is safe,” Col. Kevin Golinghorst, St. Louis District commander, said in a press release.  […]

A federal court in Washington was scheduled Thursday to hear oral arguments in a joint lawsuit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over a proposed commercial storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in west Texas. Thursday’s oral argument in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals should prove an opportunity for a coalition of anti-nuclear groups, including […]

The legislative process could prove an obstacle to the Department of Energy’s goal to get a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel up and running within a decade or so, an agency official said during a recent webinar. DOE’s prediction that its proposed interim storage site could be open in 10-15 years is, […]

In congressional races in Washington state, incumbents who help control the purse strings for the Hanford Site, the Department of Energy’s largest and most expensive nuclear cleanup property, won re-election. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose 4th congressional district includes Hanford and who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, was declared the winner by the Associated […]

Key questions remain about the practicality of either immobilizing waste with grout or building of a second glass-making plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, a National Academies of Science panel said Tuesday.  This includes examination of the timeline for building another vitrification plant at Hanford or, if DOE decides to […]

The Department of Energy could award a contract to operate a small, Centrus Energy-built uranium enrichment cascade at the agency’s Portsmouth site in Ohio this month, the company’s CEO said Wednesday on a quarterly earnings call. “The Department has indicated in a recent industry briefing that a decision could come as early as this month,” […]

The Government Accountability Office on Tuesday rejected a challenge by a Westinghouse-led group to the Department of Energy’s July award of a potentially $3 billion management contract to manage the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. In a statement, the Government Accountability Office said it has denied the bid protest filed by Carlsbad Operations […]

The operator of more than a dozen U.S. nuclear power plants aims to extend the life of its fleet by up to two decades using federal tax incentives approved this year, its CEO said Tuesday. Nuclear production tax credits made law under the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in August, have had a “transformational […]

Alutiiq Logistics & Maintenance Services failed to comply with contractual obligations to provide certain services at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Albuqeruqe complex in New Mexico, the Department of Energy Inspector General said. The Department of Energy’s Inspector General substantiated eight allegations of contractual noncompliance by Alutiiq Logistics & Maintenance Services, the facility and maintenance […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., should start disposing of transuranic waste in the new Panel 8 this week, possibly as early as Tuesday, an agency spokesperson said Monday. In recent weeks, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) emplaced its final shipment of defense-related transuranic waste in Panel 7, according […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the third quarter, which the nuclear contractor attributed during a Monday earnings report to growth throughout its naval, weapons cleanup and commercial power lines. Net earnings for the 2022 third quarter were $61.6 million, or $0.67 a share, up from $60.2 million, or $0.63 a share, in […]

Department of Energy small business contractor Boston Government Services, Oak Ridge, Tenn., was acquired in October by a private equity fund, according to someone familiar with the deal. Bernhard Capital Partners, Baton Rouge, La., was the buyer for Boston Government Services (BGS), according to this person. Harry Boston, founder and president of BGS, did not […]