Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Three uranium processing systems for nuclear weapons at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., will be delayed for six months or more, a federal nuclear safety agency reported last week. Y-12’s electrorefining and direct chip melt front-loading furnace projects each will be delayed six months, according to a recent report by the […]

In less than two months, a federal judge may hear oral arguments in the state of Texas’s lawsuit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the Lone Star State, court documents show. If the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals holds such an oral session, tentatively scheduled […]

A coalition of environmental groups in a letter last week urged the governor of Michigan to walk back her plans to secure a federal bailout for a recently-closed nuclear power plant in the Great Lakes State. “We urge you in the strongest terms to cease and desist from your efforts to bail out the Palisades […]

State lawmakers in South Carolina were set this week to approve distribution of $525 million from a federal settlement the state won in 2020 after the Department of Energy failed to meet deadlines for removing plutonium from the Savannah River Site. The bicameral state legislature’s House and Senate each were set to convene at 12 […]

An article in the June 9 edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [“Nuclear cleanup leadership should be built to ‘span administrations,’ GAO reviewer says”] should have reported the DOE Office of Environmental Management is responsible for a half-trillion-dollars’ worth of environmental liability.

At least some of the 300 employees involved with an unsuccessful federal court challenge to the COVID-19 vaccination policy at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state could take their case to the Ninth U.S. Circuit of Appeals, a lawyer working with the group said last week. “We plan to appeal” a defeat […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The manager of the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico last week declined to provide a timeline for moving potentially combustible drums of stranded Los Alamos National Laboratory transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from a private site in Texas. Reinhard Knerr, who manages the DOE Carlsbad […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. June: 12-16 – The American Nuclear Society hosts its annual meeting at the Anaheim Hilton in Anaheim, Calif. NE-1 Kathryn Huff among the confirmed speakers. Register here. Recordings of plenary and executive sessions available to attendees. 13: Closed markup, […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is faced with cleaning up nuclear hazards dating to the 1940s era Manhattan Project and its leadership structure should also be designed for the long run, a Government Accountability Office representative said Wednesday. Nathan Anderson, director of the energy and natural resources team for […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is just starting to get rolling on environmental remediation at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, an agency official charged with overseeing cleanup at the gaseous diffusion plants there and in Portsmouth, Ohio, said Wednesday. “We are just dipping our toe into that,” Joel Bradburne, […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — One of the biggest challenges facing researchers looking into the advanced nuclear fuel cycle at Idaho National Laboratory is bringing down spent fuel management costs, a lab official said here this week. “It is strategically very important to us to show that, on the advanced reactors program, we are able to close […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — With the National Nuclear Security Administration hoping to see the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico producing 30 plutonium pits by 2026, the organization is working closely with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on plans for the increased transuranic waste levels, speakers told Radwaste Summit Wednesday. With the […]

The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee approved its contributions to the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday, kicking up to the full committee a package of reforms for the Nuclear Weapons Council and an order to study modernization of the Pantex Plant, among other things.  The subcommittee completed its markup without debate […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The Department of Energy’s $7.6 billion Office of Environmental Management is cleaning up nuclear hazards from Washington state to New York state while dealing with a “silver tsunami,” Jay Mullis, a top executive at the remediation branch, said here Wednesday at the Radwaste Summit. Mullis, currently the acting associate principal deputy assistant […]

In a hearing Wednesday, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said two would-be commissioners should stake out clearer positions on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s proposed decommissioning rule for nuclear power plants. Markey spoke at the tail end of a nomination hearing in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for Annie Caputo and Bradley Crowell, whom President […]

The Exchange Monitor’s annual RadWaste Summit was set to begin at 8:30 a.m. Pacific time, 11:30 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday in Summerlin, Nevada. The two-day event features detailed discussions of federal nuclear-waste cleanups across the old nuclear-weapons complex, beginning with an opening keynote from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Check exchangemonitor.com […]

A House Armed Services Committee panel wants the Government Accountability Office to scrutinize quality assurance steps taken by the Depart of Energy’s $7.6-billion nuclear cleanup office, according to a House subcommittee draft  of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2023. The House Armed Services’ strategic forces , subcommittee chaired by Rep. Jim Cooper, (D-Tenn.) […]

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a two-year extension of a law providing financial compensation to certain people sickened by radioactivity from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) Extension Act of 2022 is a clean, two-year extension for the federal program, which is open to atmospheric test participants, certain uranium miners […]

Legislation unveiled Tuesday would put the deputy secretary of defense on the Nuclear Weapons Council once a year and attempt to put the Pentagon on the hook for some risk management in the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons enterprise. The proposal by the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee is part of the National Defense Authorization […]

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thompson Dietz appears unlikely to set an end date for Swift & Staley’s tenure as landlord of the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky, based on an online court filing last week. The June 2 decision, filed under seal but described in the online docket for the Court […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — There are no plans to keep Diablo Canyon Power Plant operating beyond 2024 or 2025, even as the governor of California presses the federal government to open up its multi-billion dollar nuclear plant bailout program to the plant, a Pacific Gas & Electric executive said here Tuesday. “The bottom line is, there’s […]

The White House’s picks to fill out the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were scheduled to appear Wednesday before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the committee announced. The confirmation hearing for Annie Caputo and Bradley Crowell, who the Joe Biden administration tapped May 3 to become NRC commissioners, was on the slate for 10:00 a.m. […]

The annual defense appropriations process was set to begin in earnest Tuesday, when the House Armed Services Committee planned to reveal early details of its plans for the civilian nuclear weapons complex in 2023. The strategic forces subcommittee was set to unveil the text of its portion of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) […]

Jacobs-led Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership is less than two weeks away from the end of its five-year base period of its potential 10-year, $1.4-billion Deactivation and Remediation contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The five-year base, which began in June 2017, is set to expire June 19, according to the latest DOE Office of […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV.  — A protracted challenge to its recent purchase of a Wisconsin nuclear power plant hasn’t altered EnergySolutions’ strategy for future transactions, a company executive said here Monday. EnergySolutions COO Jeff Richardson told Exchange Monitor Monday that the company was “happy with the way we approached” its purchase of Kewaunee Power Station from Dominion […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — The final version of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s updated rule for decommissioning nuclear power plants should be ready in a little under two years, the agency said this week. NRC staff plan to send the updated decommissioning rule to the commissioners for approval in October 2023, teeing up final publication in the […]