Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Over the weekend the Russian Federation — which in February again invaded neighboring Ukraine — expanded a list of sanctions against U.S. citizens. Most of the U.S. citizens were federal lawmakers and some of those federal lawmakers have a history of involvement with, or a significant degree of power over, U.S. nuclear weapons and nuclear […]

A prominent nuclear-professional organization on Tuesday rallied behind a proposed Nuclear Regulatory Commission rulemaking aimed at streamlining decommissioning of nuclear power plants. The American Nuclear Society (ANS) said in a statement Tuesday that it was “pleased” with NRC’s proposed changes to decommissioning regulations.  “This rulemaking has been under development for many years, and changes to […]

A Georgia congressman released a written request that House appropriators accept the White House’s funding request for the Savannah River Site’s proposed plutonium pit factory and reject a proposed cut for the site’s H-Canyon chemical separations plant.  Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) made the requests ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled Member’s Day hearing, an annual exercise in […]

Andrew Kline joined the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on Monday as an on-site inspector for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., the board announced Monday. Kline was previously a design engineer, operations process manager and project manager at the Savannah River Site, a former Cold War plutonium production complex with […]

The big Cerro Pelado wildfire outside Los Alamos that has been burning for a month has grabbed the headlines, but it was neither the only wildfire in New Mexico nor the only one near a National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear-weapons site last week. At the Sandia National Laboratories last week, workers reported the much smaller […]

Some nonproliferation news came out of President Joe Biden’s first trip to Asia today, when Biden and the Japanese prime minister announced the Savannah River Site and Y-12 National Security complex had taken delivery of a combined 30 kilograms of uranium from three Japanese facilities. The shipment, completed in March, was part of a four-year […]

The company aiming to purchase a Michigan nuclear power plant won’t expedite the process even though the site went offline earlier than expected, a spokesperson said Monday. Although Palisades Nuclear Generating Station shut down Friday, around 11 days earlier than its scheduled May 31 closure date, Holtec International has “no plans” to finalize the plant’s […]

On Friday, earlier than expected, a Michigan nuclear power plant shutdown for good, according to the utility in charge of the site. Although Palisades Nuclear Generating Station was scheduled for shutdown on May 31, plant staff made the “conservative” decision to bring it offline Friday “due to the performance of a control rod drive seal,” […]

Holtec International’s plan to dispose of a Massachusetts nuclear power plant’s irradiated wastewater meets regulatory requirements, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told the head of a local town council in a recent letter. Holtec’s license with NRC allowing it to decommission Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station requires the company “to ensure that the releases of gaseous and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration could do a better job tracking the performance of some $300 million worth of research and development activities in its Advanced Manufacturing Development program, the Government Accountability Office wrote in a report published Friday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency “may be using inconsistent measures across individual projects […]

The Cerro Pelado wildfire in New Mexico, which started a month ago today, was about 80% contained on Sunday, according to the latest update from state and federal agencies. Firefighters over the weekend gained a little ground on the blaze compared with last week, in part thanks to cooler temperatures and less intense winds. The […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week:  May 25: The Northern New Mexico Environmental Management Site Specific Advisory Board holds a hybrid meeting starting at 1 p.m. Mountain Time.   June 06-07: Exchange Monitor’s annual Decommissioning Strategy Forum at the JW Marriott Las Vegas […]

The Cerro Pelado wildfire that started nearly a month ago in northern New Mexico was more than 70% contained, making it safe for employees who had been telecommuting to come back to work, the lab said. Employees who had been working remotely were cleared to return to work inside the fence on Tuesday, according to […]

A top manager from the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup and Washington state officials told the Hanford Site’s advisory board they are seeking better communication with tribal governments and other minority populations near the former plutonium production complex. The aim is to find out “what is it they need, what is it that they want […]

Orano’s company-led inspection of its own waste storage canisters at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station revealed no degradation after nearly two decades, the company in charge of waste management at the site said Wednesday. During the months-long inspection that began in November, Orano USA found no signs of chloride-induced stress corrosion in the stainless […]

Operators of nuclear power plants facing impending closure now have until mid-summer to apply for a federal bailout, the Department of Energy said Wednesday. Just a day before the scheduled application deadline for DOE’s civil nuclear credits program, the agency announced in a Wednesday press release that it would push the due date back 47 […]

The NNSA’s new facility for manufacturing nuclear-weapon secondary stages will not be completed until August 2026: eight months later than expected, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration told Senators Wednesday in a hearing. Bechtel National, under contract to the Bechtel-led site prime Consolidated Nuclear Security, has been building the current incarnation of the […]

National Nuclear Security Administrator Jill Hruby and the senior leadership of the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous nuclear weapons agency were set to testify before Senate appropriators at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday morning.  The scheduled hearing before the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee will be among the final hearings of the season […]

Even after a judge stayed his earlier ruling finding incumbent Swift & Staley is too big for the small business set-aside contract awarded by the Department of Energy in late 2020, the parties are still arguing over how long the company should remain the landlord at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Swift & Staley, the […]

A federal judge in Washington state tossed a revised lawsuit brought by 300-plus employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, many of them security guards, over the COVID-19 vaccination rule, saying the plaintiffs never fixed major legal issues with the case they filed in the fall. “We haven’t decided the next step at this […]

It will take all summer to finalize a plan aimed at hastening construction of a key nuclear-weapon-component factory that has fallen behind schedule in South Carolina, a Pentagon official said Tuesday in a congressional hearing. It is nearly the end of the annual budget-hearing season in Washington, and federal agencies including the National Nuclear Security […]

The state regulator tasked with approving the proposed sale of a Wisconsin nuclear power plant was scheduled Wednesday to discuss the transaction, according to a new meeting notice from the organization. If the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (WPSC) during its Wednesday meeting approves the sale of Kewaunee Power Station, decommissioning company EnergySolutions will be one […]

The state of Texas doubled down Monday on its argument that federal law precludes the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from licensing a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the Lone Star State, new court filings show. NRC’s claim that neither the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) nor the Atomic Energy Act prevented the […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: 16: The Citizens Advisory Board for the Savannah River Site holds a public meeting starting at 1 p.m. E.T. The session can be assessed at the advisory board’s youtube page.  17: The Environmental Management Site Advisory Board […]

Department of Energy managers at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina expect the Salt Waste Processing Facility to process 4 million gallons of waste this year, they told a DOE-chartered advisory group Monday. The prediction was offered by Michael Budney, Savannah River Site manager for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, in response to questions […]