Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

HENDERSON, Nev. — Congress appears set to again deny the Trump administration’s request to appropriate funding for licensing of a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev., one issue observer said Tuesday. The Trump administration for fiscal 2020 requested $116 million for Yucca Mountain and interim storage of radioactive waste, the large majority of that […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) hopes to receive a briefing in early October from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) regarding criticality safety at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. Board member Joyce Connery, writing on behalf of DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton, indicated in an Aug. 23 letter to NNSA Administrator Lisa […]

Three members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation want the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep emergency preparedness and planning regulations in place for the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. Staff at the agency has already recommended that Pilgrim be exempt from certain regulations following the end of operations and removal of used fuel from the reactor. Power […]

The city of Broomfield, Colo., said this week no contractor will likely be selected to build a new stretch of bypass near the old Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant until questions are addressed over a soil sample showing the presence of plutonium in the right of way for the road. The Broomfield City Council posted […]

HENDERSON, Nev. — The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and the vendors that provide it with nuclear remediation services are reasonably satisfied with the “end state” approach to contracting — although some lingering issues remain. That was the message shared Tuesday by the No. 2 official at the nuclear cleanup office, Todd Shrader, along […]

Longtime Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), perhaps the loudest voice on Capitol Hill in favor of building a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada, on Friday announced he would not seek re-election in 2020. This would have been Shimkus 13th campaign for the House. He was first elected in 1996 and has represented three different […]

As a discrimination case filed against Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor approaches trial next month, the company is petitioning a federal judge to bar evidence from being presented regarding four white employees on the basis that their jobs are irrelevant to the case. Adrienne Saulsberry, an African-American woman who was terminated by Savannah River […]

An activist organization is legally challenging the movement of used nuclear fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California as too dangerous to the public. The Aug. 29 lawsuit from San Diego-based Public Watchdogs in U.S. District Court for Southern California seeks an order requiring the NRC to put a hold on decommissioning […]

The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority as of Monday has assumed management of the company that is decommissioning the nation’s Magnox reactors. Magnox Ltd. shifted from the privately operated Cavendish Fluor Partnership to the nondepartmental executive agency of the U.K. government. “This is a very exciting time for Magnox,” new CEO Gwen Parry-Jones said in […]

The Canadian Nuclear Laboratories on Friday announced the full transfer of radioactively contaminated soil from three locations in Port Hope, Ontario, into a long-term storage facility. The project – covering the Pine Street North Extension, the Municipal Sewage Treatment Plant, and Center Pier – is one part of a much broader environmental remediation of low-level radioactive […]

Removal of radioactive waste from a major single-shell tank, AX-102, is getting underway at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. AECOM-led tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions announced via social media Thursday its workers would start waste retrieval over the weekend. It is the latest effort to relocate waste from leak-prone […]

The U.S. Energy Department expects the number of transuranic waste shipments to its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., to grow by more than 50% between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2023. The agency anticipates it will receive about 400 shipments of defense-related TRU waste at the underground disposal site in fiscal 2020, which […]

Calling the Department of Energy’s 2018 shipment of plutonium to Nevada a “nuclear incident” and a nuisance, the state is asking a federal judge to boot half a metric ton of the fissile material out of the Nevada National Security Site (NSS) and prohibit further shipments. The draft amended complaint filed Friday is the latest change of legal […]

Nearly two years after it said the complexity of remediating the Santa Susana Field Laboratory was responsible for missed cleanup deadlines, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has still not published two key environmental reports In its summary of June activity at the 2,850-acre chemically and radioactively contaminated site in Ventura County, the […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is looking for a new manager for its Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico, according to a want ad on an official federal jobs board. There are seven NNSA field offices, where local officials who report directly to the NNSA administrator oversee the agency’s multibillion-dollar […]

A Finnish construction company has received another contract for excavation of tunnels for the nation’s spent fuel repository. Posiva Oy, the organization in charge of the project, on Wednesday announced the award of the 17 million-euro contract to Helsinki-based YIT. The contract will cover two central tunnels and five disposal tunnels, according to a YIT […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published Monday, in observance of the Labor Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Sept. 3.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is taking public comments on a draft rules package that would set specific radioactivity limits and other restrictions on disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material (TENORM) waste in the state. This is the state’s second effort to establish regulations on TENORM disposal: A package issued in […]

Nine containers of transuranic waste stored at Area G of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico did not, as of late July, meet the acceptance criteria for disposal further south at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The situation was cited in a nonconformance report from the U.S. Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office, […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Wednesday it had completed the last of four new funding agreements for private manufacturing of the medical isotope molybdenum-99. This means Northwest Medical Isotopes, of Corvallis, Ore., will now receive $15 million from the NNSA that it must fully match. The announcement comes almost five weeks after […]

In an era when many people buy a new smartphone every couple years, the information technology (IT) network at the U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico is 20 years old and needs to be replaced. “If the site network infrastructure is not updated to newer technology, client disconnects and disruption […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) confirmed Wednesday that Stephen Younger will retire as director of the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico effective Dec. 31, after two years managing the nation’s nuclear-weapon engineering laboratory. The local Albuquerque Journal reported the news first, on Tuesday. “I am profoundly grateful to Dr. Younger for his […]

Claire Chase, government affairs director for a New Mexico oil and gas company, intends to seek the Republican nomination to represent the congressional district that covers the U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad. If successful in a GOP primary for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, Chase would challenge Rep. Xochitl Torres […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s guidance on decommissioning of nuclear power plants has not kept up with an increasingly popular business model in the industry, the agency’s Inspector General’s Office said in a report this week. The “Audit of NRC’s Transition Process for Decommissioning Power Reactors” found generally that the federal agency effectively oversees sites […]

Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is joining the board of directors for medical isotope manufacturers SHINE Medical Technologies. Ryan represented Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District for 20 years, until the beginning of this year. The district includes the city of Janesville, where SHINE is headquartered and Ryan has lived since leaving Congress (though he […]

An article in the Aug. 22 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing provided incorrect shifts for plutonium downblending operations at the Savannah River Site. Current operations cover one 12-hour shift per day, seven days a week. A scale-up that could come in fiscal 2020 would cover two 12-hour shifts per day, seven days a week. An article […]

Boston Government Services disclosed Tuesday it is partnering with Cincinnati-based Trinity Engineering Associates in the BTP Services joint venture that on July 31 won a potential $49.5 million technical support services contract from the Energy Department. Oak Ridge-based Boston Government Services previously said it is majority owner of the partnership. Headed by founder and President […]