Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The state of Texas wants more time to develop its legal argument against a proposed interim storage facility within its borders, according to a new court filing. Texas would have until Feb. 7 of next year, nearly five months from the day it sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. – Department of Energy officials kicked off the National Cleanup Workshop here Wednesday by praising the Office of Environmental Management and its contract workers for continuing remediation of nuclear site remediation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, in a pre-recorded message, thanked Environmental Management (EM) workers for “going into the […]

The senior vice president of Pacific Gas & Electric’s generation business, also the head of its nuclear energy segment, will retire at the end of the year, the company said Monday. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) Senior Vice President of Generation and chief nuclear officer Jim Welsch planned to retire effective Dec. 31, according to […]

Although federal attempts to site an interim storage facility for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel have yet to succeed, the Department of Energy’s current nuclear power chief thinks that things will shake out differently this time. “[T]here is something very different now than there has been in the past,” Kathryn Huff, DOE’s assistant secretary for […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board announced Monday it has appointed Eric Richardson as a resident inspector at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In this role, Richardson will advise the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on the safety conditions of facilities at federal complex near the Georgia state line, […]

A compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act, passed Tuesday by the House and awaiting a vote in the Senate, would authorize funding for Department of Energy nuclear waste and weapons programs at or above the requested level for fiscal year 2022. In the bill, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management would get the requested […]

With virtually all federal employees mandated to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board envisions a staff return-to-workplace date of Jan. 24, a spokesperson for the board said Tuesday morning. “[P]lans may change, but this is our current plan,” Tara Tadlock, the associate director for board operations at the Defense Nuclear Facilities […]

For the second time in two months, the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site has dealt with a truck fire, according to a recently-published staff report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. A truck that workers used to move soil into a radiological buffer area in the West section of Hanford caught fire “and was […]

The Department of Energy’s recently-rebooted search for a federal interim storage site to store spent nuclear fuel is one step in the right direction, one of Congress’s foremost advocates for nuclear-waste management said in an op-ed Sunday. DOE’s Nov. 30 Request for Information (RFI) about using a consent-based process to site a federal interim facility […]

A federal district judge in Eastern Washington has rejected claims filed against President Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci and various federal agencies connected with a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for federal contractors in a lawsuit filed by an individual representing himself. “The Court finds that Plaintiff’s claims against Federal Defendants are properly dismissed for either a […]

Oak Ridge Environmental Partners, the same venture that last month challenged the Department of Energy’s issuance of the new Cleanup Contract, potentially worth $8.3 billion, at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, protested the contract again. A notice dated Friday on the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) website showed another protest of the contract issued to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to approve the sale of two Michigan nuclear power plants to a decommissioning company by Dec. 13, the agency said in a letter last week. NRC will issue “an order approving the transfer of licenses” of both Palisades Nuclear Generating Station and Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant to Holtec […]

The National Nuclear Safety Administration announced Monday Corey Hinderstein was sworn in as deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at the National Nuclear Security Administration.      The Senate unanimously confirmed Hinderstein Nov. 30. The swearing in was announced by National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) administrator Jill Hruby in a press release. “I would also like to […]

Community members and other stakeholders gathered at a rally on the West Coast this weekend to show their support for California’s last nuclear power plant, slated to close in the coming years. Flying a small blimp with the phrase ‘save clean energy’ emblazoned on the side, demonstrators marched through San Luis Obispo, Calif., on Saturday […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: Dec. 06-10 – The House, then the Senate, were scheduled to vote on a compromise National Defense Authorization Act, media reported. The compromise bill would replace a version of the annual military policy bill that the Senate  last […]

Prospective bidders on the Department of Energy’s multibillion-dollar Hanford Integrated Tank Waste Disposition Contract in Washington state need not submit proposals before Christmas after all, thanks to an extension announced Friday. The deadline for submitting bid proposals on the potential $45-billion contract is being extended by 17 days to Jan. 6, 2022, rather than Dec. […]

Two years into the pandemic, the Department of Energy could see most of its federal employees return to their pre-COVID-19 work locations by mid-February, according to a Friday email message from agency leadership. The current “maximum telework” policy for DOE’s federal workforce will be phased out starting Jan. 18, Tarak Shah, chief of staff to […]

A federal district judge in South Carolina refused late Friday to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the COVID-19 vaccination mandate by the prime contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs ruled the 97 vaccine holdouts suing Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) “have not made a clear showing that […]

Niowave, Lansing, Mich., will get $13 million from the National Nuclear Security Administration, under a cooperative agreement, to support  domestic production of the Molybdenum-99 medical isotope, the agency announced Friday. This is the fourth and final round of congressionally mandated funding established by law in 2012 as part of the federal government’s efforts to establish […]

In a revised complaint that they hope will convince a federal judge to block expected firings arising from a COVID vaccine mandate at the Savannah River Site, employees who have not taken a vaccine argued that the site’s operations contractor effectively pressured two employees into resigning before the official deadline for getting the vaccine. The […]

The Department of Energy is hoping to give economically-troubled nuclear power plant operators a little certainty by speeding delivery of subsidies recently signed into law as part of this year’s bipartisan infrastructure plan, a DOE official said Wednesday at an industry conference. “[I]t can take a little while for tax credits to kick in, [so] […]

A compromise stopgap budget bill to avert a government shutdown would keep Department of Energy nuclear weapons and waste budgets at 2021 levels past Valentine’s Day and preserve a funding safety valve for uranium-enrichment cleanup. “Agreement has been reached on a Continuing Resolution,” House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Ct.) wrote in a statement […]

A Hanford-focused consulting firm was acquired by Deep Isolation, a California company developing a new method of spent nuclear fuel disposal.  Deep Isolation bought privately-owned, 23 year-old Freestone Environmental Services of Richland, Wash., the Berkeley, Calif., firm announced Tuesday. Deep Isolation declined to reveal the price. Freestone has 25 employees.  Deep Isolation plans to take […]

If California wants to talk about keeping its sole surviving nuclear power plant online, the Department of Energy would listen, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday. During an interview with Reuters Tuesday, Granholm said that keeping the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in Avila Beach, Calif., open “may be something that [California] decide[s] to take […]

As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission navigates some internal controversy surrounding a recently-approved decommissioning rule, its oversight of plant dismantlement came under fire Wednesday at a hearing in the Senate. “[W]ith its recent approval of the proposed decommissioning rule, I fear the NRC now stands for not recognizing [public] concerns,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) at […]

The monthly pace of retirement notices among prime contractor employees during 2021 at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is up sharply compared with last year, especially in recent months, according to the two most recent monthly reports by the site’s services contractor. “The Retirement Program has had a significant increase in […]

After senior and junior partners Fluor and Amentum, the new prime contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s main weapons production sites also includes Criterion Systems, General Atomics, and SOC, Fluor said Tuesday. Fluor, which has a 60% stake in new prime Nuclear Production One (NPOne), announced some more of the details of its winning […]