Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

A federal district court in New Mexico has set a Nov. 17 settlement conference for federal and state agencies to bridge their differences surrounding a 2016 consent order on cleanup of legacy waste around the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar issued a May 18 order scheduling the formal […]

Despite this year’s spate of plant closures the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is asking for increased funding for regulation of new reactors during the 2022 fiscal year, according to recently published budget documents. Of the roughly $890 appropriation NRC would get if the Joe Biden administration’s budget plan were to become law, about $89 million would […]

The Department of Energy Wednesday rolled out its much-anticipated solicitation for a new long-term operations and management contract potentially worth $3 billion at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The final request for proposals (RFP) is for up to 10 years, starting with a four-year base followed by six one-year options, the DOE […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., shipped low-level waste to the Nevada National Security Site in May for the first time in nearly two years after the desert site reinstated a certification that was yanked in 2019 following disclosure that Y-12 had sent 32 containers worth of improperly labelled waste to the […]

The Department of Energy spending request put forward Friday by the Joe Biden administration for fiscal 2022 would increase funding for environmental cleanup of past weapons work at several National Nuclear Security Administration sites. The DOE Office of Environmental Management budget for physical cleanup of this legacy contamination would rise by about a third, to […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday that rubble removal at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant in Washington state is resuming after an extended COVID-19 hiatus. After taking down the last major processing facility at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP), DOE said last February it anticipated removing all the rubble from the site by summer […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security will remain on the job at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s two big production sites at least two months longer than planned and possibly as many as six, the agency announced Tuesday. The Bechtel National-led prime for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, […]

The Joe Biden administration proposed putting the Department of Energy back in charge of Manhattan Project site cleanup efforts as part of its fiscal year 2022 budget request, according to a recent press release. The Army Corps of Engineers, which currently oversees the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), would continue cleaning up the […]

The state of New York and other stakeholders involved in an ongoing suit over the sale of Indian Point Energy Center moved to dismiss the case following the approval of a joint settlement, according to recent court filings. New York State, alongside environmental watchdog Riverkeeper and the towns of Cortlandt and Buchanan, N.Y., will withdraw […]

Thanks to an easy victory in Tuesday’s special election, the Democratic Party maintains control of Mexico’s 1st Congressional District seat vacated in March when Deb Haaland resigned to become President Joe Biden’s secretary of interior. Democrat Melanie Ann Stansbury, a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, won 60% of the vote to defeat […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: June:  03: The Portsmouth Environmental Management Advisory Board meets at 6 p.m. E.T.

Voters in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District were set to decide today whether Democrat Melanie Ann Stansbury, Republican Mark Moores or one of four other candidates will succeed former U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) who was sworn in as secretary of interior on March 16. Both major party candidates are already members of the New […]

A May 24 article in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, “Nevada DOE Managers Make Plans for Transuranic Waste” should have said the Honeywell-led Mission Support and Test Services is overseeing preparation of Nevada spheres for shipment to the Idaho National Laboratory from the Nevada National Security Site. In Idaho, the transuranic waste will be processed for […]

Among the highlights of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s detailed fiscal year 2022 budget request: it will cost more than double what the agency once estimated to convert a plutonium recycling plant in South Carolina into a factory for nuclear-weapon triggers; planned air- and sea-launched cruise missiles will share a nuclear tip; next year’s costs […]

The company set to decommission Indian Point Energy Center in New York is now the plant’s official owner, according to a press release last week. Holtec International completed its acquisition of the Buchanan, N.Y. nuclear plant from Entergy Friday, the company said Friday. Holtec subsidiary Holtec Indian Point, LLC now holds the site’s ownership and […]

The nearly $7.6-billion fiscal 2022 budget request the Joe Biden administration made Friday for the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management is larger than White House requests for nuclear cleanup made during the Donald Trump administration and, if enacted by Congress, would continue a run of beefy appropriations. In February 2020, the Trump White […]

Although details are sparse, funding to site a federal interim storage facility for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel would be included in the Department of Energy’s budget proposal for 2022 if it became law, according to the agency’s latest top-level budget summary. The Office of Nuclear Energy’s (ONE) fuel cycle program should receive funding “for […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not publish today in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday.

A story in Wednesday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing (“SRS Finished Tritium Upgrades for B61-12 in February,” 05/26/2021) should have said that the NNSA plans to replace the tritium facilities at Savannah River Site’s H-Area Old Manufacturing Facility with a new Tritium Finishing Facility that is supposed to be operational around 2030.

A group of plaintiffs who last year sued current and former Department of Energy contractors at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio have asked a federal court for a four-month delay in the case while they replace two Florida attorneys, one of which is apparently facing disbarment proceedings back home. The plaintiffs, including former Portsmouth security […]

An Oregon designer of small modular reactors has linked up with a venture to build four small reactors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford site in Washington. The same design company also  lined up an undisclosed amount of incoming cash and a pipeline for parts from a Japanese company.  Both transactions were announced Wednesday.  NuScale […]

It could be late fall before New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney makes a ruling on whether the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant can complete development of a new underground shaft. That is based on timelines allotted by the New Mexico Environment Department, a state agency spokesperson said in a Monday email. Up […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted four nuclear power plants exemptions to federal regulations governing employee work hours and training during the month of April, according to a notice published by the agency Tuesday. Between April 6 and April 29 NRC granted work-hour control exemptions to: Fermi Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan; Clinton Power Station in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will make a final decision about whether to license one of two proposed interim storage sites for spent nuclear fuel “shortly after” it completes environmental impact statements for the project this summer, the agency’s spent fuel licensing project manager said Tuesday.  NRC is “currently close to completing the final safety evaluation […]

After a lawsuit by gold companies forced it to back off its initial selection of a commercial site in Texas for long-term storage of elemental mercury, the Department of Energy is again shopping around for a contractor and Waste Control Specialists is again one of the finalists. That is a key takeaway from DOE’s notice […]

Without much Republican support, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday favorably reported the Joe Biden administration’s nominee for the State Department’s top arms control post to the Senate floor. The vote in the evenly divided committee was 12-10 on Bonnie Jenkins’ nomination for under secretary of state for arms control and international security. The […]