Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Department of Energy’s special adviser for Environmental Management, William (Ike) White, told a Congressional panel Wednesday the agency’s cleanup branch is addressing research and development problems raised in an October 2021 Government Accountability Office report. The Office of Environmental Management has issued a definition for research and development (R&D) and is in the early […]

Ahead of the House’s scheduled debate of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday, the White House said it still does not want to build the sea-launched, nuclear-tipped cruise missile the bill would authorize. “The Administration strongly opposes continued funding for the nuclear sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) and its associated warhead,” the White House […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has selected a manager from the semi autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, Cathy Tullis, to be its next chief of staff effective July 17. Tullis, currently chief of staff for the associate administrator for management and budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), will fill the […]

The Department of Energy and South Carolina are investigating a July 4 spill of contaminated water around H Canyon at the Savannah River Site, officials confirmed this week. There was a spill of low-level radiologically-contaminated water from a temporary above-ground tank system used to take liquid from the pumping of a sump, which happens periodically […]

The Department of Energy has approved its plan to speed up spent fuel removal from the L-Basin storage area at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In a Monday press release, DOE announced approval of what it calls accelerated basin de-inventory ABD, which would use H Canyon to dissolve spent nuclear fuel without processing […]

Department of Energy contractor Mid-America Conversion Services is restarting the depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plant at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio for the first time since 2020, but operations at the Paducah Site in Kentucky are expected to be down until next month after a June 10 accident there, the agency said. Both depleted uranium […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission planned to release this week its findings on the environmental safety of a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico, the agency said Tuesday. NRC staff are “aiming for this week” to publish its final environmental impact statement (EIS) for Holtec International’s proposed interim storage project, an […]

The House Rules Committee was set Tuesday to decide which amendments to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, including several related to nuclear weapons, will reach the full House for debate on Wednesday. The committee was set to meet at 12:00 a.m. Eastern time. There were more than 1,000 amendments pending to the annual must-pass […]

The Department of Energy has issued an enforcement letter to an Amentum-Jacobs joint venture and its subcontractor GEM Technologies over “concerns with improper asbestos exposure monitoring” during cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Mouse House. The DOE’s Office of Enforcement, however, plans no additional action against URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) or GEM over asbestos […]

In keeping with federal guidance on COVID-19, many Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex sites are again requiring masks indoors. These include the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, their joint headquarters office in Lexington, Ky. All three have “high” community rates,  according to county-by-country transmission data from the Centers for Disease […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission asked a federal appeals court Monday to let its lawyers file a full response to the state of Texas’s claim that the agency’s decision to license a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the state was nullified by a recent Supreme Court decision, court documents show. If the […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has selected a Bechtel National-led joint venture to manage the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., starting as soon as October. In a Monday afternoon press release, the federal agency announced the award of the potential 10-year, $3-billion contract to Reston, Va.,-based Tularosa Basin Range Services, […]

The Department of Energy is planning to continue this year a legally-mandated working group aimed at developing incentives for communities impacted by spent nuclear fuel transportation efforts, the agency told the government’s independent nuclear waste technical committee in a recent letter. DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy plans to resume operation of its Nuclear Fuels Storage […]

Less than a month remains for anyone interested in selling domestic uranium to the government for a congressionally directed to submit their bids to the National Nuclear Security Administration. In a 2021 spending bill, Congress appropriated $75 million to the semiautonomous Department of Energy Nuclear Weapons agency to set up a 1-million-pound natural uranium reserve […]

The utility company in charge of California’s last operating nuclear power plant last week made an about-face on its plans to close and decommission the facility as scheduled telling local media that it would seek a Department of Energy bailout. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) “expect[s] to submit an application” to DOE in hopes of […]

House lawmakers returning to Washington this week after campaigning at home over the Fourth of July break were set on Wednesday to vote on the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which by and large authorizes all the budget the White House sought for nuclear weapons and waste. Floor votes were to begin at 12:00 a.m., […]

The Congressionally-created safety watchdog for nuclear defense facilities was not denied access to any Department of Energy records or personnel during the first six months of 2022. In a regular update to Congress, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said July 1 that the Secretary of Energy did not deny any written requests for […]

Improving low shipping rates at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and awarding a new prime contract are high priority issues for the disposal site, Reinhard Knerr, DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office manager, said in a recent town meeting. “And finally, we expect transition to the new M&O [management and operations] […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: 11, week of: House of Representatives, floor debate: 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. The bill sets policy and spending limits for agencies including the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security Administration. 13: […]

The Environmental Protection Agency does not share Holtec International’s position that the company’s plan to release irradiated wastewater from a shuttered Massachusetts nuclear power plant into a nearby bay meets federal regulations, the agency’s water chief told the company in a recent letter. EPA “does not agree” with Holtec’s claim that discharging wastewater from Pilgrim […]

Congress needs to amend federal nuclear waste law, not only allow the government to build an interim storage facility for spent fuel, but also to allow private companies to develop spent fuel reprocessing technologies, the CEO of such a company told Exchange Monitor Wednesday. “Congress is in the key role right now, because the Nuclear […]

The Department of Defense has created an Atomic Veterans Commemorative Service Medal, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. Those eligible include military veterans who participated in atomic tests and cleanups, and those exposed to ionizing radiation from the bombs that destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, the department wrote in a […]

A Honeywell-owned prime contractor for Sandia National Laboratories said in a Tuesday filing a wrongful firing suit brought against it by a scientist who worked on data for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant should remain in federal court. National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia said the wrongful termination suit brought by […]

The Department of Energy has taken care of seven of 25 priority issues identified by the Government Accountability Office in 2021 and should get to work on the rest, Congress’ investigative arm wrote in a letter to the agency. “We are also adding eight new recommendations related to project, program, and portfolio management; contract management; […]

The Department of Energy could start a federal readiness assessment sometime this month at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory facilities in California that prepare transuranic waste for shipment to the agency’s underground disposal site in New Mexico, according to a government safety board. On May 31, 2022, the lab began the contractor readiness assessment for restarting […]

New Mexico and the federal government this week asked a federal magistrate to give them until Oct. 3 to resolve litigation about the 2016 consent order governing legacy nuclear-weapons cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Department of Justice, on behalf of the Department of Energy, and the attorney general’s office for New Mexico […]