Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) posted a video online over the weekend to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Tri-Party Agreement between Washington, D.C. and Washington state that governs cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Inslee used the anniversary of the 1989 legal agreement between the Washington Department of Ecology, DOE and the […]

In a blow to Fluor and Amentum, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Monday it canceled a potentially 10-year, $28-billion contract for a joint venture of the two companies to manage the agency’s main nuclear-weapon production sites. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency awarded the big-money deal to the Nuclear Production One joint […]

A long-serving fed, Savannah River Site deputy manager Thomas Johnson Jr., planned to retire at the end of the month after 30 years with the Department of Energy and about 40 as a federal employee. Michael Budney, the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s top boss, announced the pending retirement Monday at a webcast meeting of […]

The clock is running down for financially troubled nuclear plants on the brink of shutdown to seek a federal bailout, the Department of Energy said Monday. Thursday is the deadline for interested applicants to submit their bids on a roughly $1.2 billion chunk of DOE’s $6 billion civil nuclear credits program, the Office of Nuclear […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was not required to interview affected workers or record a March 1 public meeting about an incident last year that exposed 22 workers to radiation at a reactor near Richland, Wash., the regulator told one such worker’s lawyer on May 13. The decision not to talk to any of the workers […]

Around a month after a workplace injury paused decommissioning work at a California nuclear power plant, things are spooling back up again, the plant’s operator said last week. Decommissioning at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) is “slowly ramping up” after operator Southern California Edison (SCE) put a hold on things to evaluate an April […]