Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The former Ohio speaker of the House was expelled from the state legislature Wednesday over his indictment in an alleged bribery scheme involving two nuclear power plants. State Rep. Larry Householder (R) was removed from the Ohio legislature in a 75-21 vote Wednesday afternoon. Householder, speaking on the state House floor, argued that his expulsion […]

The head of the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee is dissatisfied with current legal checks on the President’s authority to launch nuclear weapons, he said in a hearing Wednesday, during which he otherwise offered no other indication that he was eager to disrupt current nuclear weapons policy. The President’s sole authority to launch U.S. […]

The Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, like much of the Southwest, is suffering through an “exceptional drought,” a program manager for the legacy cleanup contractor said during an online meeting Wednesday. The U.S. Drought Monitor, a service run by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal entities, places 60% […]

National Nuclear Security Administration shipments of transuranic waste from the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., remain suspended following a February drum sparking incident, a spokesperson for the disposal site said Wednesday. “Shipments from LANL-NNSA [Los Alamos National Laboratory-National Nuclear Security Administration] remain paused,” a […]

The United States and Russia seek to “lay the groundwork for future arms control” with bilateral talks that will start “in the near future,” the presidents of both countries said in a joint statement Wednesday following talks in Geneva.  In the English-language statement released by the White House, President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, the […]

The Department of Energy expects to hand over control of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina early next week to Battelle Savannah River Alliance. The DOE is “working toward” Monday June 21, an agency spokesperson said by email Tuesday. That is when operations of the national laboratory will shift to the Battelle-led group […]

New Mexico is planning to voice its displeasure with the Department of Energy over a proposed commercial interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in their state, a member of its Congressional delegation told the secretary of energy in a hearing Tuesday. The Department of Energy isn’t meeting its responsibility to designate a permanent repository […]

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) used a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday to question Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm on why the Joe Biden administration’s $7.6-billion budget request for nuclear cleanup trims funding for the Hanford Site during fiscal 2022. The White House has proposed to split about $2.47 billion between Hanford’s two […]

Firefighters at the Nevada National Security Site have completely contained the Cherrywood Fire that started burning on May 17 and spread over 26,410 acres of the former test site, the site said Monday. The fire crossed into a contaminated area less than a week after it started burning, but in a statement Monday, the Honeywell-led […]

By suggesting that the Navy cancel a nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile, the service’s acting secretary imperilled arms control negotiations and undercut President Joe Biden, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said during a hearing Tuesday. “Everybody at the Pentagon needs to understand the severity of the actions you have taken and its implications for the United States […]

There’s no need for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to change existing regulations surrounding disposal of very low-level nuclear waste, according to the results of a three-year agency scoping study published this month. The study, which began in 2018, was commissioned because of the “anticipated increase of early nuclear power plant closures,” NRC wrote Tuesday in […]

The House Armed Services Committee will hold its full committee mark-up for the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act on September 1, pushing back the annual process due to the delayed submission of the president’s budget request. The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday also announced plans to have its defense and homeland security subcommittees […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm was scheduled to testify before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Tuesday morning on the Joe Biden administration’s $46-billion fiscal 2022 budget request for the department. Granholm was  to appear before the committee, chaired by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) at 10 a.m. Eastern Time to explain, and if need […]

As far as the Department of Energy could tell at deadline, the hack of a small, veteran-owned consulting business in Albuquerque, N.M., did not compromise any National Nuclear Security Administration data. “The Department of Energy is aware of the cyberattack against Sol Oriens, a veteran-owned consulting firm whose clients include the Department of Energy/National Nuclear […]

With no new contract awarded yet, the Department of Energy will keep North Wind Portage on at least through August as its technical assistance provider at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, an agency spokesperson said Monday. The $51.8-million small business contract that began in November 2015 would have otherwise expired June 3 without […]

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 […]