Publications: Morning Briefing

The Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at Idaho National Laboratory is still in an outage that began in June, a Department of Energy spokesperson said Monday. “The IWTU entered a scheduled outage in early June to replace the facility’s process gas filters,” the DOE spokesperson said in a Monday email reply to an Exchange Monitor […]

The New Mexico State Land Office issued an executive order Sept. 4 that would ban any new uranium mining activities in the state. The order, issued by New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, pushes for the state agency to prioritize nuclear cleanup at legacy uranium sites, according to a press statement. It will also […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released more overarching regulations in its latest rulemaking that will affect decommissioning, reactor licensing and oversight. Proposed on Sept. 11, the newest rulemaking in the NRC’s regulations as a part of Executive Order 14300 implementation. The 339-page proposal will have changes that are “intended to make NRC regulations more efficient, predictable […]

The United States would be willing to provide nuclear fuel to Iran if Tehran resolves concerns surrounding its nuclear program, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said, potentially offering a path for civilian nuclear cooperation. Wright reportedly told Bloomberg that the U.S. could provide Iran with nuclear fuel from outside the country. He tied the proposal to […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency has resolved outstanding safeguards questions concerning Syria’s past nuclear activities after Damascus provided the agency with access and information, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Sept. 14. Grossi told the IAEA’s General Conference in Vienna that the development resolves a safeguards matter that had remained open for nearly two decades […]

Berkeley, Calif.-based small modular reactor developer Deep Fission installed and retrieved its full-size prototype reactor canister from a borehole in Kansas, the company said Sept. 10. According to the company’s press release, Deep Fission’s workers lowered its 20-foot canister to 100 feet below ground in a 34-inch wide borehole and then brought it back up […]

Tim Walsh, the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for Environmental Management, or EM-1, is one of the headline speakers for this week’s National Cleanup Workshop in Arlington, Va, and he could update key front-burner issues facing the nuclear cleanup branch. In March, Walsh told the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix that EM could soon be […]

The Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently announced it has finished decommissioning and tearing down the 1950s era nuclear power reactor at Fort Belvoir, Va. In a Sept. 10 news release, the Corps said it has finished dismantling the SM-1 Former Nuclear Power Plant, near the Potomac River, about 20 miles […]

Torrance, Calif.-based Antares Nuclear was awarded $161 million by the U.S. Air Force last week to advance its nuclear reactor technology for space applications. The Air Force award to Antares represents the largest Department of Defense contract for space nuclear power so far, according to the company’s Sept. 11 press release.  Under the program, the […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee’’s Energy subcommittee plans a Tuesday hearing on the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses that would co-locate fuel cycle activities with advanced nuclear energy projects.  Announced Sept. 8, the hearing, titled: “Nuclear Spent Fuel Policy: Examining Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses”, will be held Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern […]

The area around the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Western Kentucky experienced a rare event last month that some headline writers dubbed a “quake-nado,” in which a tornado and an earthquake strike at the same time. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 2.5 magnitude earthquake centered in Massac, Ky., about eight miles from Paducah, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has removed all high-risk cesium-137 from Vermont, making it the 15th U.S. state or territory declared free of high-risk quantities of the radioactive material. This follows a July operation in which a team from Idaho National Laboratory removed a self-shielded cesium irradiator from the University of Vermont in Burlington […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) recovered about $1.4 billion in indirect costs in fiscal 2024 from work it performed for outside partners, helping offset the costs of maintaining facilities and infrastructure, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). NNSA’s eight contractor-operated laboratories, plants and sites conducted nearly $15 billion in Strategic Partnership Projects (SPP) […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking:  September: 15: Workshop: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission holds its annual data science and artificial intelligence workshop starting at 9 a.m. E.T. at NRC headquarters in Rockville, MD. 15-16: Conference: The Department of Energy’s National Cleanup Workshop hosted by the Energy Communities Alliance […]

Although the maintenance program at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site tank farms and liquid waste facilities is satisfactory, there are a couple of issues that demand attention, according to a recent DOE report. The facilities at the complex are overseen by BWX Technologies-led contractor Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C), which needs to […]

The United States Navy is in the mix of using advanced nuclear energy power naval installations, selecting Naval Weapons Station Crane in Indiana to be the first base to use the technology. The Department of Defense (DoD) said in its Wednesday press release the project will be completed in collaboration with the Army’s Janus program; […]

West Virginia has been selected as a finalist to host a nuclear campus under a high-profile Department of Energy program Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) announced in a Tuesday press conference. West Virginia is now the sixth state to be considered to host a nuclear lifecycle innovation campus, joining Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah, which […]

Although the maintenance program at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site tank farms and liquid waste facilities is satisfactory, there are a couple of issues that demand attention, according to a recent DOE report. The facilities at the complex are overseen by BWX Technologies-led contractor Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C), which needs to […]

North Korea has built a new uranium enrichment facility at its Yongbyon nuclear complex capable of housing up to 28 centrifuge cascades, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in an Aug. 28 report. The IAEA identified a new two-story building at Yongbyon as the site’s second uranium enrichment facility by comparing satellite imagery with […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has approved the next major phase for modernizing the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), allowing the project to advance into design for replacing aging accelerator systems. NNSA said in a Wednesday press release it approved Critical Decision 1 (CD-1) – meaning it gave the green light to proceed from […]

The Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor for Los Alamos National Laboratory recently drilled a borehole more than 1,000-feet deep for a new groundwater monitoring well to help keep tabs on a hexavalent chromium plume. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management announced Sept. 1 that legacy cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) had finished drilling […]

James Biggins, a longtime senior manager at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has started a new position as chief of staff and chief counsel at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Biggins joined the Government Ethics office this month, he announced in a LinkedIn post. Biggins has held various key DNFSB posts, including […]

Centrus Energy and Radiant Nuclear agreed to a long-term deal where Centrus will provide high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for Radiant’s incoming fuel needs following its Janus program selection. The Army’s Janus program awarded Radiant with $750 million to construct its Kaleidos microreactor at Fort Benning in Georgia and develop 15 microreactors across several military installations. […]

West Palm Beach, Fla.-based ONE Nuclear Energy said Tuesday it began the environmental evaluation process for its small modular reactor plans, Project Amberjack, in Louisiana. ONE Nuclear, a developer of natural gas and advanced nuclear technologies, said in its press release Project Amberjack would be a multi-unit SMR campus that could produce up to 1,000 […]

The Department of Energy has sent its first shipment of remote-handled transuranic waste since 2009 from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) using a new shipping container. Remote-handled waste is more radioactive than contact-handled transuranic (TRU) waste, which accounts for the vast majority of TRU waste disposed […]

The South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP) is demanding the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) conduct a public environmental review of plans to provide 19.7 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium to private nuclear companies. SCELP published the letter of demand Sept. 8 on behalf of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, […]