Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

A New Mexico citizens group that is a frequent critic of the Department of Energy wants a firm end date for closure of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant  near Carlsbad, N.M., and greater transparency surrounding the federal transuranic waste program. In addition, Don Hancock, nuclear waste program director at Southwest Research and Information Center, told […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina will maintain precautions for “high” community rates for transmission of COVID-19, a DOE spokesperson said Monday. Savannah River DOE managers made the decision after learning the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control failed to update its COVID case numbers last week with the […]

An APTIM-North Wind joint venture that ran into bad luck and bedrock while building the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee may have its contract extended beyond the current Dec. 5 expiration, a Department of Energy spokesperson said recently. “The Mercury Treatment Facility is scheduled to be operational in […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week August 01-26 – United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. 10th Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Review Conference. United Nations Headquarters, New York. 08: Second quarter earnings call, BWX Technologies,  5:00 p.m. EDT with a webcast […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state of Texas traded blows Wednesday about whether a recent Supreme Court decision moves the needle in the Lone Star State’s ongoing lawsuit against a proposed, privately owned interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, court documents show. Wednesday’s filings with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals are the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration now expects to produce the proof-of-concept article for the refurbished W80 nuclear cruise-missile warhead by the end of fiscal year 2027, roughly two years later than planned. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency will turn out the W80-4 first production unit by Sept. 30, 2027 instead of some […]

An Aug. 3 article in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing “DOE hoping to move quickly on mercury storage” should have reported today’s online public hearing starts at 1 p.m. Eastern Time.

The entire Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Sept. 13 in New Orleans on a case surrounding the Joe Biden administration’s authority to require most federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. That’s according to a notice posted recently on the appeals court’s website announcing the date of the “en banc” or […]

A bevy of safety violations at a New Jersey nuclear power plant under decommissioning have been resolved, the company dismantling the site told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a recent letter. Since NRC on Jan. 26 slapped Holtec International with around $50,000 in fines for several security violations at Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, Holtec […]

A venture called Carlsbad Operations Alliance LLC has filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office challenging the Department of Energy’s selection of a Bechtel-led entity to serve as the next prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant A notice of the contract challenge dated Monday was filed online with the Government Accountability […]

A worker who on July 5, experienced radiological contamination on “unprotected areas” of the head and arm, at the Hanford Site 222-S laboratory tested negative for any internal contamination, a Department of Energy spokesperson said Tuesday. “The contamination was successfully removed from the individual’s skin and clothing without incident in the facility,” the DOE spokesperson […]

The full Senate Wednesday night confirmed the White House’s nominees to fill out the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, bringing the nuclear safety regulator’s executive committee to five members for the first time in over a year. Annie Caputo and Bradley Crowell, who the upper chamber approved to become NRC commissioners on a voice vote Tuesday, will […]

The nuclear energy industry accounted for just nearly a tenth of all power grid retirements in the first half of this year, the government’s independent energy reported Wednesday. The decline stems from one plant closure: Michigan’s Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, which shuttered for good May 20 and removed roughly 769 megawatts (MW) of electricity from […]

As of Wednesday morning, House Appropriations Committee member Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) was leading an open primary in his 4th Congressional district that encompasses the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Newhouse, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 insurrection, was No. 1 out […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration this week split its two headquarters-based procurement offices into three, the head of the agency said. Effective Monday, the agency’s Washington-based procurement bureaucracy comprises: the Office of Partnership Services; the Office of Infrastructure; and the Office of Environment, Safety, and Health. Peter Rodrik is the acting associate administrator for partnership […]

The final major test run of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory concluded last week and, after a decade of trying, the agency is hoping to start radiological operations this fall. The confirmatory run of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) ended July 27 after DOE and its […]

While the Department of Energy’s latest environmental review of the problem picked no preferred site for long-term storage of elemental mercury, the feds favor placing the metal in an existing facility that could accept the material quickly. “Because statutory milestone dates have now passed, DOE needs to designate a facility and begin accepting elemental mercury […]

The state of Michigan is still working to find a potential buyer who will save Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, a spokesperson for the state governor said Monday. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) office continues to work with “potential buyers, operators, and stakeholders to keep this vital energy source and the 600 good-paying jobs right here in […]

The final tab for getting the Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear generator back in shape to produce power for homes and businesses and irradiate tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons will be about $600 million, the Tennessee Valley Authority said Monday in a regulatory filing. On July 1, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) finished installing four […]

Earnings rose at Jacobs, Dallas, in the 3rd quarter of fiscal 2022, which the engineering, procurement and construction contractor, active in the Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex, attributed to strong performances in the climate, data and consulting sectors. Net earnings for the third quarter ended July 1 were $196 million, or  $1.52 a share, […]

The South Carolina plant that puts together the rods that help the National Nuclear Security Administration top off the tritium reservoirs of U.S. nuclear weapons cleared an environmental hurdle last week that sets the facility up to operate for another 40 years. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recommended a 40-year renewal for the operating license […]

Nuclear services company NuScale’s advanced reactor design should soon be certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be built in the United States, the agency said in a press release last week. The commission directed its staff to draw up a final rule approving NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR) design, first proposed in 2016, according […]

The political future of Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose 4th Congressional district surrounds the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, faces a big hurdle Tuesday during an open primary, his first electoral test since casting one of 10 GOP votes in the House of Representatives to impeach former president Donald Trump following the […]

Keeping California’s last operating nuclear power plant running past its planned shutdown date would be a tall order for the utility company in charge of the facility, its CEO told investors during a conference call last week. Amid pressure from the nuclear industry, activists and state Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) […]

The main nuclear-armed states and the nearly 200 states that have pledged not to acquire nuclear weapons were set to meet at U.N. headquarters in New York today for the 10th review conference of the world’s main non-proliferation treaty. The 10th review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was set […]

The highly-contaminated Hanford Site in Washington state accounted for over half the environmental liability for the entire Department of Energy, but opportunities exist for curbing increasing costs at the property, according to a congressional watchdog. In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said DOE could save “tens of billions of dollars” by abandoning […]