Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

While changes in a legally-binding consent decree allow the Department of Energy more time to start turning low-level radioactive tank waste into glass at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the agency’s goal is still to start the work by the end of 2023, the top fed at the property said Wednesday. While DOE has […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wednesday freshened its records to reflect EnergySolutions as the new owner of a Wisconsin nuclear power plant after the company earlier this week finalized its purchase of the site, agency documents show. Kewaunee Power Station’s operating license now shows EnergySolutions as the plant’s owner, NRC told the company in a letter […]

After a three-judge panel earlier this year ruled in favor of the Joe Biden administration’s executive order requiring virtually all federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19, the entire Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to rehear the case. In a two-page order published Monday, the 5th Circuit said it has agreed to grant […]

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), a candidate for the U.S. Senate, used a House Appropriation Committee markup Tuesday on a Department of Energy fiscal 2023 budget proposal to discuss health concerns and hopes for economic development at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. During the vote approving the Energy and Water Development subcommittee’s nearly $7.9-billion budget for […]

The House Appropriations on Tuesday approved a 2023 spending bill that included roughly the requested funding for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs, one of which should get almost double the funding it will receive under the bill, a Republican Congressman said. The 2023 energy and water development appropriations act should be “[r]aising the amount […]

The full House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday voted 32 to 24 in favor of a fiscal year 2023 spending bill with almost $7.9 billion for nuclear weapons cleanup at the Department of Energy. That’s about even with the 2022 appropriation, and with the Joe Biden administration’s ask, taking into account the roughly $190 million the […]

House appropriators during a budget markup Tuesday came out swinging against two proposed commercial interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel in Texas and New Mexico. “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is racing to license the construction of high level [nuclear waste] storage sites both in New Mexico and in Texas,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) told […]

Sam Brinton is the Department of Energy’s new deputy assistant secretary for spent nuclear fuel and waste disposition, according to an internal DOE email seen by the Exchange Monitor. It is Brinton’s first government job. In the role, Brinton will take the helm of DOE’s frustrated, decades-long effort to find a home for more than […]

Jamie Shimek, lead staffer on the appropriations panel that writes the first draft of the Department of Energy’s budget every year, will leave Congress and return to the national labs network, lawmakers said during recent budget debates. “She will be my newest constituent,” Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) said Tuesday during the House Appropriations committee’s markup […]

Almost a month after it shut down a Michigan nuclear power plant for good, Entergy has finalized the facility’s sale to the decommissioning company that will dismantle it, according to a Wednesday press release. Completing the sale of Palisades Nuclear Generating Station to Holtec International “​​completes Entergy’s planned exit from the nuclear merchant power business,” […]

House appropriators want to keep the Hanford Site’s budget flat in fiscal year 2023 and nixed the Joe Biden administration’s plan to increase the site’s liquid-waste budget at the expense of solid-waste programs, according to a bill up for debate in committee on Tuesday. Overall, the bill proposes roughly the $7.9 billion requested for DOE’s […]

A House Appropriations subcommittee recommends funding the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board at $41.4 million in fiscal 2023, the amount sought by the President Joe Biden administration and more than $5 million more than the safety watchdog received for fiscal 2022. The funding plan is included in the Energy and Water Development subcommittee’s bill report […]

The White House’s independent nuclear safety and radioactive waste technology organizations would get every dime of the funding they asked for if the House’s version of the 2023 budget became law, according to a report published this week by House appropriators. In its 2023 budget report published Monday, the House Appropriations energy and water development […]

House appropriators want to provide the National Nuclear Security Administration with all the funding it requested in 2023 to build plutonium pit factories in New Mexico and South Carolina and fund a megaton-capable bomb the White House wanted to kill. The 2023 energy and water development appropriations act, slated for a vote in the House […]

House appropriators on Monday reversed course and agreed to the White House’s request to move interim spent fuel funding out of the Department of Energy’s dedicated Nuclear Waste Disposal account, according to a draft budget report. Interim storage funding proposals in the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s 2023 budget report, published Monday, appeared […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: 28: Markup, House Appropriations Committee. Fiscal year 2023 energy and waste appropriations bill. This is the first draft of the bill that includes the Department of Energy’s budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. 10:00 Eastern […]

Blaming the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Energy on Friday asked a federal court to extend by almost two years the deadline for beginning solidification of liquid waste at the Hanford Site. The request, unopposed by Washington state, was part of a motion filed Friday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of […]

The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled Tuesday to vote on the first draft of the 2023 spending bill that funds nuclear weapons and waste programs at the Department of Energy and other agencies.  Defense nuclear weapons and waste programs at DOE would receive roughly the funding requested for 2023, under the bill approved last week […]

The National Defense Authorization Act passed early Thursday morning by the House Armed Services Committee authorizes nearly $315 million more for the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons cleanup in 2023 than the White House originally requested. The bill, an annual must-pass piece of legislation that sets policy and spending limits for military and civilian defense […]

The Department of Energy says it is conceivable that one company or joint venture could win both multibillion-dollar contracts being sought at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. In an online filing last week, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said such an outcome is not out of the question, provided […]

EnergySolutions planned to purchase a Wisconsin nuclear power plant by the end of the month, the company told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Tuesday. EnergySolutions received “all required regulatory approvals” for its purchase of Kewaunee Power Station, according to a letter to NRC dated Tuesday. The company and plant owner Dominion Energy were expected to finalize […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration would be authorized to spend $375 million more than requested on a plutonium pit factory at the Savannah River Site in fiscal year 2023, if a bill passed early Thursday morning by the House Armed Services Committee becomes law. The agency would also be allowed, along with the Navy, to […]

The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday voted for more scrutiny of Department of Energy nuclear-weapon-site contracting and against a proposal to condition funding for the Secretary of Defense’s office on an intercontinental ballistic missile test. The votes were part of the committee’s debate of the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the […]

Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal Services last week dedicated a new low-level radioactive waste vitrification facility at the Waste Control Specialists site in Andrews County, Texas, according to a release on LinkedIn. Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal Services (VNS Federal Services), which is a Department of Energy contractor, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony June 15 for its new […]

The ranking member of the House’s energy and water appropriations subcommittee said Tuesday he wants more clarity on a White House proposal to move cash for its consent-based interim storage effort out of the Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program. “I don’t know what the reasoning behind it is,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) told Exchange Monitor […]