Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The commonwealth of Massachusetts has signaled it will request a hold on the anticipated approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week of the license transfer application for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. Staff at the federal regulator indicated in a filing last week that it was prepared around Aug. 21 to authorize the […]

Requiring comprehensive consent to build a nuclear waste disposal site is “an excuse to do nothing,” according to a leader in the Nevada county that would be home to the long-delayed repository under Yucca Mountain. “To believe that any controversial project in the 21st century will get consent from every level of government – state, […]

The AECOM-led incumbent vendor that is managing underground radioactive waste tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state expects its latest contract extension from the U.S. Energy Department could be worth $725 million. The business extension will keep Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) on the job for up to 12 months, from Oct. 1, 2019, […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has certified Holtec International’s latest spent nuclear fuel transportation package. The Camden, N.J., energy technology company last week announced the approval following a review that began in February 2018, which will allow it to deploy the HI-STAR 100MB. Management expects it will be used to ship spent fuel from nuclear […]

Jacobs Engineering on Tuesday said it would pay £250 million ($302 million) to acquire the nuclear branch of the Scotland-based John Wood Group. The deal is expected to be sealed in the first quarter of 2020, pending regulatory approval in the United Kingdom according to the companies. “This acquisition brings deep technical expertise with unique […]

A measure introduced in the California State Senate calls on the U.S. Congress and President Donald Trump to approve federal legislation that would prioritize removal of used fuel from power plants in the state. Senate Joint Resolution 11 was introduced on Aug. 12 by state Sens. Patricia Bates (R) and Bill Monning (D). It was […]

While there could be cheaper alternatives to vitrifying all low-activity radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Energy Department should do more vetting before committing to one or more of those options, according to a new assessment from a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine panel. The fiscal 2017 National Defense […]

The U.S. Energy Department and contractor Bechtel National reached a key milestone this week toward operation of the $17 billion Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The company and DOE’s Office of River Protection held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday to mark the start of testing on equipment within an […]

Neile Miller, former principal deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), has joined Nevada National Security Site operating contractor Mission Support and Test Services as head of government affairs, the company announced Monday. Miller was No. 2 at the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency from August 2010 through June 2013, according […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is doing early planning for a new technical assistance contract for the office in southeastern New Mexico that oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). On Monday, the federal agency issued a request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice for interested businesses with the necessary expertise to serve […]

International Isotopes on Wednesday reported a net loss of nearly $1.2 million for the second quarter of 2019, primarily due to expenses for ongoing remediation of a May radioactive contamination incident in Seattle. The net loss was close to four times the $332,279 loss reported in the same period of 2018, the Idaho Falls, Idaho, […]

A federal appeals court on Tuesday declined to overturn a lower court’s refusal to stop the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) from carrying out an already-completed shipment of plutonium to Nevada. After deciding the appeal on briefs, without an oral argument from either Nevada or attorneys representing the NNSA, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in […]

Staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory commission said in a notice Tuesday it plans to approve the license transfer for the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. The license transfer will enable owner Entergy to sell the single-reactor facility on Cape Cod to Holtec International for decommissioning. Staff expects to formally approve the transfer […]

A worker at the Savannah River National Laboratory was restricted from radiological work for the rest of 2019 after receiving a dose of radiation somewhere off site that put him well above a key exposure threshold at the Aiken, S.C. site, a spokesperson for site contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions said Wednesday. The employee took […]

The Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) is again telling the U.S. Energy Department to pay a former cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory more than $33 million in fees. In a ruling issued Aug. 8, a three-judge panel for the CBCA said DOE’s reasoning for failing to pay CH2M-WG Idaho (WGI) the full […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a series of public meetings to take public input on best practices for community advisory boards for nuclear power plants undergoing decommissioning. The meetings will contribute to the agency’s preparation of a report to Congress on best practices for forming and operating such local boards, as required by […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center last week issued a sources sought notice/request for information for potential contractors for nationwide deactivation, decommissioning, and removal (DD&R) operations. Information provided by interested companies would support planning for “potential upcoming procurement(s)” for DD&R, waste management, and program support for DOE’s Offices of Environmental Management and […]

The U.S. Energy Department intends to extend the current contracts for both radioactive-waste tank operations and Central Plateau cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state for up to one year while it readies new awards. The current contract extensions for AECOM-led Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) and Jacobs subsidiary CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation are […]

The contractor that manages the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico will have new leadership starting next month. Sean Dunagan will succeed Bruce Covert as president and project manager for AECOM-led Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP), according to an announcement Tuesday. He will begin with a two-week transition alongside Covert starting […]

The U.S. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has officially closed an 8-year-old recommendation that identified significant failings in the safety culture for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) being built at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. “The Board has concluded that the Department of Energy has adequately addressed the underlying causes […]

The story “Power Outage at Nevada Site Knocks JASPER Support Offline for Two Weeks” (Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, July 30, 2019) should have said that the Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research (JASPER) facility at the Nevada National Security Site simulates some of the effects of a nuclear detonation by propelling a non-nuclear target down […]

The Department of Energy expects to release this year some $35 million in funding for Centrus Energy Corp. to begin building a new uranium enrichment cascade required to produce 600 kilograms of high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel by June 1, 2020, according to a letter contract filed Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has awarded Cray Inc. a $600-million contract to build the El Capitan exascale supercomputer, which the agency wants to start crunching numbers in 2023 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Cray must deliver El Capitan in late 2022, the NNSA stated in a press release Tuesday. The machine […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) is investigating possible breaches of federal nuclear safety regulations by the cleanup contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The probe involves “radiation protection program implementation deficiencies at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant,” according to an Aug. 8 notice of intent to investigate Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth. Investigators […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week awarded a $95 million contract for environmental remediation in the St. Louis, Mo., area under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). HydroGeoLogic, headquartered in Reston, Va., overcame one other bidder for the cost-plus-fixed fee deal, according to an Aug. 8 procurement notice from the Pentagon. […]

US Ecology has indicated that a customer failed to provide it with necessary information about waste that caused an explosion that killed one worker and injured eight others while being processed at the company’s its Grand View, Idaho, facility. In an executive summary to the report on the company’s investigation of the Nov. 17, 2018, […]

The Scioto Valley Local School District in Ohio plans a community meeting Saturday to discuss radioactive contamination concerns at a middle school located about 2 miles from the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site. Zahn’s Corner Middle School will be tested for radioactive byproducts released into the air by the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant during past uranium […]