Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

FirstEnergy Corp. faces at least eight class action lawsuits from stockholders and ratepayers, as well as possible legal action from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, regarding an alleged $60 million bribery scheme to keep two of the power company’s nuclear plants operating, according to a filing Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All […]

Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal on Tuesday warned of the potential risks of closing the sole remaining operational nuclear power plant in California, in light of the state’s blackouts during a current heat wave. “Keeping SONGS on line could have prevented some of California’s current blackouts,” Baranwal tweeted, referring to the retired […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 23 shipments of transuranic waste in July, bringing the total to 109 for the first seven months of 2020. That is down significantly from 194 recorded during the first seven months of 2019. Nuclear Waste Partnership, the Amentum-led prime contractor for the underground […]

A Washington state law that makes it easier for workers at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site to qualify for certain compensation benefits has been upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced in a press release Wednesday that a three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit unanimously […]

Florida’s Public Service Commission on Tuesday provided the last regulatory approval needed for expedited decommissioning of the retired Crystal River nuclear power plant. Following a 14-month review, the five-member panel signed off on the decommissioning plan. Facility owner Duke Energy aims in October to seal a contract with Accelerated Decommissioning Partners to complete the cleanup […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday it will dispatch a radiation-sniffing helicopter to the skies of Charlotte, N.C., ahead of the 2020 Republican National Convention scheduled there next week. A twin-engine Bell 412 helicopter, rigged with passive radiation-sensing instruments, “will conduct low-altitude helicopter flights over downtown Charlotte and areas in and around Yorkmount […]

Comments are due Sept. 17 on the draft request for proposals (RFP) for a new remediation contract potentially worth $8.3 billion for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The DOE Office of Environmental Management on Tuesday issued the draft RFP for an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract with a 10-year ordering period. The Energy Department […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology and the Energy Department have agreed to mediate their dispute over access to certain records from the Hanford Site. “The data access case is still pending, but the parties have agreed to try to mediate the dispute,” Ecology spokesman Randy Bradbury said in an Aug. 11 email. The mediation […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina has confirmed a total of 368 cases of COVID-19 infections among its workforce, though about two-thirds of those personnel have recovered and been authorized to return to the job. The total, posted Friday on the website for the DOE operations office at Savannah River, represents […]

International Isotopes recorded nearly $230,000 in net income for its latest quarter, even as the company wrestled with the continued ramifications of its May 2019 release of cesium-137 at a hospital facility in Seattle. Revenue for the three-month period ended June 30 came in at nearly $2.16 million for the Idaho Falls, Idaho, nuclear medicine […]

Two companies and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection have reached an agreement to allow the sale and decommissioning of reactor Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. Last October, nuclear services firm EnergySolutions signed a contract to buy TMI-2 from FirstEnergy Corp. and several subsidiaries. A subsidiary, TMI-2 Solutions, would be […]

A U.S. nuclear industry group on Monday highlighted the sector’s safety record in pushing back against New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s (D) recent criticism of plans for temporary storage facilities for radioactive spent nuclear fuel in her state and neighboring Texas. The U.S. Nuclear Industry Council responded to Lujan Grisham’s July 28 letter to […]

David Wilson, a former official with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), joined Energy Department contractor Longenecker & Associates on Aug. 10 as a senior associate. Wilson, who spent 37 years with the state agency before retiring as its acting director in 2019, will take over a newly created post and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is preparing for its third virtual job fair of the summer, coming to a computer or connected device near you on Aug. 26. The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time, according to an announcement from the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency. Those interested […]

Robert Wilkinson and Amy Basche, the two top executives for the current support services contractor at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, will remain in charge of its successor. A DOE hosting page for the Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) website cites Wilkinson as president and general manager and Basche as chief operating […]

Democrats do not explicitly endorse a no-first use policy for nuclear weapons, according to a leaked draft of the 2020 platform that crystalizes their pitch to voters ahead of the November presidential election, but they come about as close as they could. The draft party platform says Democrats “believe that the sole purpose of our […]

Thomas Summers, a former Air Force officer confirmed last month by the U.S. Senate for a post at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), will be sworn in on Monday. Summers will be vice chairman of the federal health-and-safety watchdog for defense-nuclear sites, DNFSB Manager of Board Operations Tara Tadlock said in a Wednesday […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board asked Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette for an in-person meeting by “early fall” to discuss a possible memorandum of understanding about a  now two year-old DOE order that limits the agency’s contact with the board. This summer, DOE finalized changes to Order 140.1, adding congressionally mandated language requiring that […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory blamed a new type of glovebox glove for a June 8 incident that exposed at least one person, and likely more, to radioactive contamination from plutonium 238, the independent federal Defense Nuclear Nuclear Facilities Safety Board reported. Alarms sounded in Los Alamos’ PF-4 Plutonium Facility after a lab Actinide Material Processing […]

Four people employed by Nuclear Waste Partnership, the prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, tested positive for the coronavirus over the weekend. The Amentum-BWX Technologies venture said in a Tuesday press release that three of the people showed no symptoms when tested and were already in quarantine due […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management announced this week that Nicole Nelson-Jean, a familiar face in the weapons complex, will become head of field operations at the end of the month. A 28-year Energy Department employee and member of the senior executive service, Nelson-Jean now manages the Savannah River Site field office in South […]

An Energy Department effort to disallow $15.4 million in fees to Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance can go forward, the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals ruled recently. The services vendor at the Hanford Site in Washington state asked Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) for summary judgement against the agency’s attempt to disallow $15.4 million in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has pushed back to this fall the expected submission of a report on the potential path forward for two rules proceedings for disposal of radioactive waste, a senior official said Tuesday. Earlier this year, the report had been anticipated this summer. “That’s being pushed back slightly. It’ll probably be in the […]

All spent fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California has been transferred to dry storage, majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE) said Friday. The dry-storage pad at the retired nuclear power plant in San Diego County now holds roughly 3.5 million pounds of fuel rods in 123 canisters. Fifty canisters store […]

Four more workers at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state have tested positive for novel coronavirus 2019, the agency said Monday. An additional 12 workers have undergone testing for COVID-19 and are awaiting results, according to an announcement on the Hanford website. The announcement did not state whether the individuals work directly for […]

If any of the factors that led to the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee shipping mislabeled radioactive waste to Nevada are present elsewhere in the Department of Energy complex, the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments did not find them in a year of looking, according to a recent report. The complex-wide evaluation“did not find […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a series of additional webinars to discuss its draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for a planned facility in New Mexico for storage of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. In the document issued in March, staff at the federal regulator said the Holtec International project would largely have […]