Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Wide-ranging talks between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology on radioactive waste issues at the Hanford Site have apparently not progressed beyond the starting line. “The parties are still working through some preliminary arrangements,” Ecology spokesman Randy Bradbury said in a Thursday email. The agencies confirmed in October they […]

The former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist is set Friday to change his plea of not guilty to charges that he lied about alleged connections to a Chinese-sponsored talent-recruiting program, a new court filing shows. Turab Lookman’s plea-change hearing is slated for 10 a.m. local time in U.S. District Court for New Mexico in Albuquerque. […]

Another California advocacy organization pitched its case Wednesday to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission against on-site storage of all spent reactor fuel at the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). Following a Tuesday presentation from the San Diego-based Public Watchdogs, Oceansiders Against San Onofre Corruption made its arguments to the NRC’s Petition Review Board […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) hopes to meet soon with new U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to discuss public health and safety issues at nuclear sites overseen by his agency. In a Jan. 16 letter, DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton congratulated Brouillette on his December confirmation as energy secretary and said the board would […]

The White House on Jan. 6 nominated Nuclear Regulatory Commission member David Wright to a full five-year term, through June 30, 2025. The move came as no surprise – the Trump administration had stated in November it intended to reappoint Wright. Wright’s nomination was referred to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. As of […]

A Bechtel-led joint venture filed a protest Tuesday with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the December award of a potential 10-year, $10-billion cleanup contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Project W Restoration partnership is led by Bechtel National, and the other members of the venture are Tetra Tech and EnergySolutions, […]

Legislation introduced Wednesday in the New Mexico Senate would update the responsibilities of the state Radioactive Waste Consultation Task Force to include oversight of commercial spent nuclear fuel storage. The task force was established in the 1978 state Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Act, largely to act as the New Mexico government’s negotiator for siting, licensing, […]

Passage of a law to reauthorize the U.S. Energy Department’s cleanup of the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state drew kudos Wednesday from participants at a local meeting. The measure, which passed the U.S. Senate on Dec. 2 and was subsequently signed into law by President Donald Trump on Dec. 20, would reauthorize […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) said Monday it has appointed Brandi Smith as program director for the U.S. Navy’s Columbia-class submarine program at the company’s Newport News Shipbuilding division. There was no incumbent Columbia program director at HII, according to a Tuesday email from a spokesperson for the shipbuilding subcontractor for the Navy’s next nuclear-armed ballistic-missile […]

Massachusetts-based UniTech Services Group has made Michael Bovino its new vice president, effective Jan. 1. Bovino brings 35 years of management and contamination control experience to the post at the nuclear services company. The executive is a 29-year veteran of UniTech and its parent, UniFirst Corp., most recently serving as division general manager responsible for […]

Three members of New York state’s delegation to Congress have posed a long list of questions to Holtec International regarding its plans to acquire and decommission the Indian Point Energy Center. The lawmakers submitted their questions to Holtec President and CEO Kris Singh in writing on Nov. 21, 2019. Their letter was posted to the […]

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control is “making every effort” to publish the final versions of two long-awaited environmental reports for cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in this summer, a spokesman said this month. The state agency oversees remediation of the 2,800-acre site in Ventura County, about 30 miles northwest of downtown […]

Decommissioning trust funds for 119 operational and retired nuclear power reactors together held $64.7 billion at the end of 2018, according to the latest update from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Agency staff on Dec. 31 provided the NRC commissioners with its review of the 2019 decommissioning funding status reports from nuclear utilities. The report, […]

The head of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is deeply unhappy with a rumored budget request of roughly $17.5 billion for the upcoming 2021 fiscal year, a new digital publication reported Tuesday. The figure would prevent the semiautonomous Energy Department branch from meeting the goals set out in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, […]

A California advocacy group took its latest crack Tuesday at persuading the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to order a halt to decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The NRC’s Petition Review Board heard Public Watchdogs’ case for approval of a 25-page petition filed in September. The meeting was not a hearing, but […]

A former employee of the liquid waste contractor for the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site has been awarded $240,107 in front pay she would have earned if the company had not unfairly denied her employment after she was initially laid off. In addition, U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs ruled on Jan. 17 that […]

The logistics branch of nuclear company Orano at the end of 2019 wrapped up the transfer to dry storage of spent fuel canisters with the highest heat load to date at U.S. power plants, according to a Jan. 15 press release. At the customer’s request, Orano is not identifying the nuclear power plant where the […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) pledged to this year implement several incremental steps toward a common financial reporting system that Congress has ordered put in place by December, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The GAO’s report includes a letter from NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty describing three steps the agency […]

Lynchburg, Va. -based BWX Technologies has promoted Richard Loving to a newly created post of senior vice president and chief administrative officer (CAO). Loving has been senior vice president for human resources at BWXT since mid-2016. He has about 40 years of management experience in manufacturing, energy, and government operations, according to a press release. […]

A recently unsealed lawsuit accuses a former U.S. Department of Energy contractor at the Savannah River Site’s now-canceled plutonium recycling plant of filings thousands of dollars’ worth of false claims by paying out relocation packages to an employee who never actually moved. Then, when employee Peter Michael Wanco Jr. resigned from MOX Services after allegedly […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s request for proposals (RFP) for the Nationwide Deactivation, Decommissioning, and Removal contract has seemingly sparked significant interest from the contractor community. Vendors submitted 152 questions in response to the agency procurement for the potential 10-year, $3 billion award. The DOE Office of Environmental Management in December released the final request for […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is extending its contract with the panel of scientists known as JASON for up to a year, while the Pentagon works to resurrect its old arrangement with the group. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency retained the JASONs last year for a trio of studies including […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Fernald Preserve in Ohio, a former Superfund site, has been honored for reuse by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “The Fernald site has come full circle with restoration, creating one of the largest man-made wetlands in Ohio,” said DOE’s Office of Legacy Management Deputy Manager Peter O’Konski, during a November […]

One senator on Wednesday questioned the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s consideration of cutting back on inspections of spent fuel storage facilities at the nation’s nuclear power plants. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) raised the issue during a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee featuring testimony from two senior NRC officials. “When we have […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week cited a Westinghouse fuel facility in South Carolina with two violations of federal nuclear rules, but details were scarce this week. The two Severity Level IV violations were identified in an inspection of the Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF) from Nov. 18-21, 2019, according to a Jan. 10 […]