Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Donald Trump administration has not “committed wrongdoing” by authorizing U.S. companies to share nuclear-energy technology with Saudi Arabia, Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform said Monday. The committee minority published the conclusion in a nine-page report posted online almost six months after the House Democratic majority announced it was investigating the […]

Wyoming legislative leaders voted earlier this month to explore whether the state should host a consolidated interim storage site for used nuclear reactor fuel — similar to projects underway in New Mexico and Texas. The 7-6 email vote on July 8 by the state Legislature’s Management Council paved the way for establishment of the seven-member […]

Senior leaders at the Department of Energy offered condolences Monday for the family of Yukiya Amano, who died late last week after announcing he would resign as director general of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The agency, which guards against the spread of fissile material and promotes the peaceful use of nuclear […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office on Friday posted its first new organizational chart since April 1, before the June departure of Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White. Following Anne White’s May resignation, reportedly due to strained relations with her boss, Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar, the Office of Environmental Management is […]

A federal court has awarded two southern utilities over $143 million for the U.S. government’s continued failure to meet its legal obligation to remove used reactor fuel from their nuclear power facilities. The June 12 ruling from U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith was made public on July 3. The case consolidates lawsuits […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday opened the public comment period on a new finding that most Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste could be disposed of via near-surface facilities. Stakeholders have until Sept. 20 to submit comments on the draft regulatory basis issued last week by NRC staff, according to a filing in […]

The U.S. Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology are taking public comments through Sept. 16 on a proposed change to the dangerous waste permit for the Hanford Site. If approved, the state permit modification would allow DOE to connect a backup waste transfer line from the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant’s […]

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Thursday that negotiators from the White House, Senate, and House are close to “sealing a deal” to avoid triggering automatic spending cuts in fiscal 2020. “We hear that tremendous progress has been made and they have agreed basically in principle,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill. However, […]

Honeywell, the parent company of several Department of Energy site-management contractors, posted an annual increase in sales and profits in the second quarter, after accounting for businesses the company spun off in the last year. Net income rose to $1.5 billion from $1.3 billion in the second quarter of 2018, while sales fell 15% to […]

Holtec International beat two competitors to take a roughly $4.8 million, firm-fixed-priced contract to design and build transportation equipment for tritium-producing burnable absorber rods, a spokesperson for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said Friday. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which Battelle Memorial Institute manages for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, awarded the contract […]

FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) on Wednesday came closer to securing passage of a sought-after bailout bill for two struggling nuclear power plants in Ohio. But potential full passage of the state legislation is not expected until Aug. 1 at the earliest, which would be two weeks after the company’s Wednesday deadline. On Wednesday, the Ohio Senate […]

Staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that the vast majority of Greater-Than-Class C low-level radioactive waste could be disposed of via a near-surface facility. The waste, under existing federal regulations, must be interred in a geologic repository unless the federal commission approves a request for another means of disposal. The United States […]

A federal appeals court ruled this week that Bechtel National is not due reimbursement from the U.S. government for $500,000 in legal fees the company incurred prior to settling discrimination litigation brought by two former employees at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. In an opinion issued Tuesday, a three-judge panel for the […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Wednesday it has removed a breached cesium-137 source from a University of Washington medical research building in Seattle, clearing the way to begin remediation of the facility following its May 3 contamination.  The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency on Tuesday moved the cesium-137 source to the Pacific […]

The contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., is working on a five-year strategic plan that should be submitted to the agency and made public in August or September. Workshops on the contents of the plan will be held in Carlsbad and Santa Fe, N.M., sometime in those two […]

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) joined with the state’s full congressional delegation on Wednesday to demand the Department of Energy further study the potential earthquake risk to the location of the planned nuclear waste disposal facility under Yucca Mountain. The letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry followed two earthquakes on July 4 and 5 in […]

The U.S. Air Force said Tuesday it plans to award a contract sometime between July and September 2020 for production of the United States’ next nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile. The service plans to buy more than 600 Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) missiles, about 400 of which will go into silos starting around 2028 to replace […]

The U.S. Department of Energy is seeking a consultant to assist in developing investment strategies for the federal fund that would pay for licensing, construction, and operation of a disposal facility for the nation’s nuclear waste. The agency on July 9 issued a request for quotes for consulting services to the Office of Standard Contract […]

Mark Esper, President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, held strictly to nuclear orthodoxy in his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, boosting the Department of Energy’s stockpile stewardship program and urging continued funding for long-term modernization and maintenance of the nuclear arsenal. Esper, a former Raytheon lobbyist and current secretary of the Army, said in written testimony the […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is concerned about the age and reliability of the electrical system in a historic building still used for interim storage of radioactive sludge at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The board, in a July 2 report submitted to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, suggested installation of […]

Managers at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., plan more training to help ensure no mislabeled or improperly packaged shipments reach the underground disposal site for defense transuranic waste. Some training is being developed and could be rolled out in the near future to minimize the chance of any shipments ending […]

A bill to reauthorize the Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project Act was reported out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a voice vote Tuesday. The measure was passed in a bloc of 20 bills considered at once by the panel, including committee Chair Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) Nuclear Energy Leadership Act. […]

The University of California expects to bank some $22.5 million in fees in 2019 for its part in managing the two main U.S. nuclear-weapon design laboratories, the university’s Board of Regents estimated in a document published Wednesday. The University of California (UC) is a senior partner on Triad National Security, which has managed the Los […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – New Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal said Tuesday she hopes to consider whether reviving long-dormant U.S. recycling of spent nuclear fuel could provide a feasible alternative to the federal government’s current plan to bury it underground forever. “I don’t think we have a waste issue. We have a treasure […]

ESCO Technologies earlier this month said it acquired Globe Composite Solutions, LLC, a provider of composite-based products for the Navy and defense industry customers, including for the Virginia- and Columbia-class nuclear submarines. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Globe, which is based near Boston, is expected to have about $37 million in sales this year. Globe provides […]

A barrel of radioactively contaminated material at a Westinghouse Electric facility in Columbia, S.C., briefly ignited early Friday after becoming pressurized and popping off its lid, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported. The drum held mop heads, filters, and rags designated as “wet recoverable material,” along with laboratory waste, according to an NRC event notification […]

Centrus Energy expects the Department of Energy by Oct. 31 to finalize the company’s contract to build a new uranium enrichment cascade in Ohio, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A temporary DOE letter contract with the Bethesda, Md., nuclear fuel company’s American Centrifuge Operating Co. subsidiary authorizes $6.4 million […]