Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

PHOENIX — Holtec International’s proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel could be greenlit by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the coming months, the company’s government services lead said at an industry conference Monday. NRC could make a licensing decision on the Holtec site, proposed for Eddy County, N.M., by the second quarter of […]

PHOENIX — The nuclear industry has done its fair share to convince the public that private spent-fuel depots are safe, and the federal governments must now step up to the plate, the head of Westinghouse’s environmental services division said Monday. “If [the government] wants to stand behind a commercial site, they would have to take […]

PHOENIX— The Department of Energy’s $7.6 billion Office of Environmental Management is now responsible for only 15 cleanup sites, with the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York coming off the board. Meanwhile, DOE Environmental Management planned to sign a new collaboration agreement with the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority later today (Monday) at the 2022 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration was recently searching for a new director for its office of enterprise project management, according to a want-ad posted on the federal government’s official recruiting website. According to the listing, the agency conducted interviews only for a month, from Jan. 21 to Feb. 22. The current occupant of the office […]

Todd Shrader, second in command at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management since 2019, is leaving the cleanup office for a clean energy job at the agency, according to an internal email sent Monday. Longtime DOE hand Candice Robertson will step in for Shrader on an acting basis, William (Ike) White, senior advisor […]

Nearly all of the commercial nuclear power reactors in the U.S. meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s highest regulatory standards, the agency said in a press release Monday. NRC has issued its 2021 performance reports to all 93 of the country’s operating nuclear plants, the commission said, and of those sites, 91 were in NRC’s highest […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: March 6-10 – Annual Waste Management Symposium. Phoenix, Ariz. IN PERSON. Professional networking for technical and business leaders in radioactive waste management, with appearances by representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy and foreign government officials. […]

A major U.S. industry group threw its weight last week behind a proposal to protect Ukraine’s nuclear power plants from military threat after a Russian assault at one such site put international regulators on alert. The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) “supports the creation of safe zones surrounding all nuclear power plants in Ukraine,” CEO Maria […]

This past week there were only 65 confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, down from 82 the prior week, according to an agency spokesperson. By comparison only a month ago, with the nation still experiencing a surge in the highly transmissible Omicron variant, there were 775 cases within […]

Top nuclear cleanup officials from the United States and the United Kingdom, along with the outgoing chief executive officer of Maryland-based contractor Amentum, were scheduled to kick off the annual Nuclear Waste Management Symposia Monday in Phoenix. The conference devoted to radioactive waste management and related topics is returning this year as an in-person event […]

A bipartisan bill introduced Wednesday in the Senate would prevent the government from using federal funds to develop privately-owned interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel, according to a press release. If it became law, the bipartisan legislation unveiled Wednesday by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) would bar the feds from using […]

Fewer people than five years ago want to share ideas about how to site a federally owned interim storage site for nuclear waste, a Department of Energy official told the federal government’s nuclear agency Wednesday. As of Tuesday, DOE had gotten just around 125 comments on its interim storage request for information (RFI) since the […]

In light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its seventh day, the Democratic controlled House and its Armed Services Committee are certain to authorize an increase in the defense budget for fiscal year 2023, the committee’s leader said Thursday. “It’s gonna go up,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the Armed Services chair, said in a […]

A New Mexico citizens group and the Department of Energy filed a proposed settlement agreement Tuesday with a U.S. District Court in a long-running legal fight over a 2016 consent decree governing legacy nuclear cleanup around the Los Alamos National Laboratory. A 33-page agreement outlining proposed changes to the 2016 “compliance order on consent” was […]

A federal judge in Knoxville overseeing litigation brought by a half-dozen employees refusing vaccination against COVID-19 at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has called for parties in the case to confer with him by telephone March 25. U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. issued an order Monday setting the scheduling conference in […]

Dominion Energy, Richmond, Va., saw its profits rebound last year from a loss in 2020, according to recent financial filings. The utility company reported a net income of around $3.2 billion, or $3.98 a share, for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, according to a 10-K form filed Feb. 24. That figure was up significantly, […]

One of the Tennessee Valley Authority reactors that produces tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons on Tuesday switched off for the scheduled replacement of all four of its steam generators, the federally owned corporation said Wednesday. Besides replacing the steam generators at Watts Bar Unit 2, workers will “load 88 new nuclear fuel assemblies, perform inspections […]

Despite the Russian president’s declaration of a nuclear alert following that country’s invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine, U.S. nuclear posture had not changed as of Tuesday, the head of the U.S. Strategic Command told lawmakers in an open hearing. “My command, as always, is ready to execute our strategic deterrence mission,” Adm. Charles Richard, commander […]

Did luck keep a Columbia Generating Station radiation-exposure incident in May from being worse than it was? Or did good planning play a key role?  Those questions face Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials as they decide how much Energy Northwest should be blamed for a May 28, 2021 pipe-welding incident that exposed 22 people to radiation […]

Nuclear segment revenue at Entergy, New Orleans, was down over $200 million in 2021, mainly due to a New York nuclear reactor shutting down last spring, the company said in recently-published financial documents. For the year ended Dec. 31, Entergy Wholesale Commodities, the business segment responsible for operating the company’s nuclear fleet, reported around $698 […]

Hanford returned to business as usual by 3 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday after an apparent false alarm over reports of shots being fired. “We have found no evidence to suggest there was an active shooter,” the Benton County Sheriff’s Office posted on its Facebook page Tuesday afternoon. Hanford officials believe the reported shots were some […]

The Department of Energy Monday released fee scorecards for four contractors in charge of major reclamation, tank waste management, laboratory operation and site services at the sprawling Hanford Site in Washington state. In its first eight months on the job, Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co. (CPCC) won 79%, or $20.8 million, of a potential $26.5 […]

Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, the Department of Energy contractor in charge of remediation at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, was deemed mostly “satisfactory” during fiscal 2021 and earned roughly half of its potential “adjective” fee, according to a recently-released scorecard from the agency. The joint venture made up of Jacobs, Fluor and BWX Technologies, earned […]

With the Department of Energy’s depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants offline during fiscal 2021, Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services won 70% of its subjective fee and 95% of its performance-based incentive fee, according to a scorecard published last week. The contractor earned more than $1.3 million out of a potential $1.9 million in subjectively reviewed fees […]

By Dan Parsons Around 2024, the National Nuclear Security Administration expects to take delivery of a pair of new AW139 helicopters, joining the Air Force in swapping a rotary fleet of Bell birds for Leonardo aircraft. The two Leonardo helicopters for the civilian agency’s aerial measuring system (AMS) fleet will carry the same distinctive livery […]

The White House on Monday officially nominated Kathryn Huff to lead the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, sending her nomination to the Senate about a month after announcing its intention to do so. Next up for Huff, who the Joe Biden administration tapped Jan. 24 to become the deputy assistant secretary of nuclear […]