Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 20 shipments during May, equal to the throughput of May 2020, when operations scaled back due to COVID-19, and about half of the 42 logged during the pre-virus days of May 2019. The figures are from DOE’s public website for shipments to the […]

Two of the government’s top decision makers on nuclear energy again asked the nuclear energy industry for its help to get their goals for nuclear power across the finish line at a trade conference Monday. The Joe Biden administration “can launch more nuclear projects across the country, we can power more communities with clean energy, […]

Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., said Monday it is now licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to enrich uranium to about 20% U-235 by weight in Piketon, Ohio — and that company plans a demonstration by early next year. Centrus is under contract to produce high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for the Department of Energy under […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: 14: Air Force Association, “Sustaining and Modernizing Ballistic Missile Operations Forum.” Streaming online. Includes appearances by: Air Force Maj. Gen. Anthony Genatempo, commander, Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center; Air Force Col Jason Bartolomei, senior materiel leader upper […]

The article “L.A. Court to Hear Enviros’ Petition Against SONGS Decommissioning” (RadWaste Monitor, June 11, 2021) should have said that the spokesperson who provided comment represents Southern California Edison.

The Department of Energy is looking for a cash boost to keep researching whether recycling highly-enriched uranium from test reactors is a possible route to producing advanced nuclear fuel, the agency said in budget justification documents published last week. In its fiscal year 2022 budget request, the agency seeks $35 million this fiscal year to […]

A pilot program to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium at the Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, will cost $2 million to $3 million more than expected because of the COVID-19 pandemic and vendor reliability, according to DOE’s fiscal year 2022  budget request.  “State COVID related work restrictions initially led to unanticipated costs,” the budget request reads. […]

The transuranic waste sitting at the Separations Process Research Unit in Schenectady County. N.Y. could head to the Idaho National Laboratory starting in fiscal 2024 to be prepped for final shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to the Department of Energy’s fiscal year 2022 budget request. Processing of the Separations […]

The Department of Energy expects the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could receive up to 14 shipments of transuranic material a week in fiscal year 2022, which starts Oct. 1. The DOE Office of Environmental Management rate of shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should go from 10 per week to 14 per week […]

“The bow wave has arrived” for the civilian nuclear-weapons budget, the Government Accountability Office warned Wednesday in a report that, amid recommendations for streamlining budget and project organization, made room for a we-told-you-so about the effects of deferring upgrades for nuclear weapons and their production infrastructure. “DOE’s appropriation for fiscal year 2021 includes a 23 […]

The Joe Biden administration’s fiscal year 2022 budget request would shift $20 million in existing funding for the siting of a non-Yucca Mountain federal interim storage site into a different silo of DOE’s Nuclear Energy office, according to a recently published budget document. The administration also wants to increase the program’s focus on so-called consent-based […]

The April announcement from the Department of Energy that the B-109 tank is leaking at the Hanford Site in Washington state is not a cause for alarm, site manager Brian Vance said Wednesday. The single-shell tank is leaking at the rate of about 1,000 to 1,500 gallons per year, Vance told an online meeting of […]

A proposed testing program for an experimental, 20-kilowatt nuclear reactor — and its eventual dismantling and defueling after a planned two-year run — won’t harm the environment, the Department of Energy reiterated this week in a final environmental review for the project. In a proposed finding of no significant impact notice published Tuesday on its […]

While not divulging details yet, the manager of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state says the complex will loosen its COVID-19 protocols for fully-vaccinated workers next week. The relaxed rules will technically go into effect Friday, which is not a workday at the site, Brian Vance, the top federal boss at the […]

The Joe Biden administration’s budget request proves they’re willing to help out the nuclear energy industry as part of its clean energy agenda, the Secretary of Energy said at a trade group conference Tuesday. “The administration isn’t just ready to talk the talk, we’re willing to walk the walk” on nuclear energy, said Jennifer Granholm […]

The company in charge of decommissioning a New Jersey nuclear power plant will lay off just under a hundred of its employees later this summer, according to the state’s labor department. Holtec International subsidiary company Consolidated Decommissioning International (CDI) will lay off 92 workers at Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Forked River, N.J. effective […]

A proposed consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel won’t need a special construction permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, the military civil works formation said in a recent letter. If Holtec International got the go-ahead from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build its consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in southeastern New Mexico, […]

Rear Adm. John Mitchell (ret), whose decade-plus, post-Navy career with Bechtel National took him on a tour of senior leadership posts at defense-nuclear sites and Yucca Mountain, died June 1. He was 79. That is according to a short memorial post online that indicated Mitchell’s final arrangements would be handled by a funeral home in […]

Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions took home $44.6 or 96% of nearly $46 million in available fee for its work as operator of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina for the 16-month period ended Nov. 30. That is according to the latest fee scorecard for the joint venture published Tuesday by […]

The Amentum-BWX Technologies joint venture that runs the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico will be kept on at least until early 2022 as the agency moves ahead with its solicitation for a new prime, according to a nugget tucked inside the White House budget justification for the Office of Environmental […]

The Hanford Site in Washington State would receive a haircut under President Joe Biden’s budget request for the Department of Energy in fiscal 2022, but still account for nearly a third of the entire $7.6-billion budget sought for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Should the spending package for cleanup at the former […]

The Department of Energy’s environmental liability, which stands at more than a half-trillion dollars, continues to grow and most of it is concentrated in the agency’s nuclear cleanup office, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday in an update to Congress. The DOE liability stands at $512 billion as of fiscal 2020, which is the most […]

The Navy should scrap plans to develop a nuclear-tipped sea-launched cruise missile, the service’s acting secretary wrote in a memo dated June 4. Media this week widely reported on the memo that Thomas Harker, the acting secretary of the Navy, sent to the undersecretary of the navy, the commandant of the marine corps, the chief […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory published new research about how near-surface detonations can affect nuclear-weapon yields, the California-based design lab said Monday. The findings, summarized in a paper titled “the reflection of a blast wave by a very intense explosion,” were published last week in Proceedings A of the Royal Society Publishing. The authors are […]

The Small Business Administration, Swift & Staley and a firm that successfully challenged the latter’s size eligibility for a Department of Energy landlord contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky have until after Independence Day to file briefs with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Federal Claims Judge Thompson Dietz last week gave the government, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will focus on modernization of the existing fleet of nuclear power plants and developing regulations for advanced reactors, the agency’s chairman told one of the nuclear industry’s largest trade groups at its annual conference Monday. NRC wants to ensure the nation’s current fleet of nuclear plants are outfitted with new technologies […]

A story in Monday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing (“RLUOB Recategorization in April ‘22 Instead of March ‘22, Defense Board Reports”) should have said that the Radiological Laboratory/Utility/Office Building (RLUOB) is classified now as a radiological facility and can legally accept just under 40 grams of plutonium at once.