Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

As the government funding deadline looms and the House is until Wednesday, government agencies, including the Department of Energy and its semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, are preparing for the possibility of a shutdown. If no eleventh-hour stopgap is agreed to, a shutdown could start at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday Oct. 1, just after the end […]

Two new Department of Energy contractor teams this week take over billions of dollars’ worth of work at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. A new Amentum-led team will be in charge of remediation at Portsmouth while an AtkinsRéalis-led team will take landlord responsibility at both Portsmouth and Paducah. This […]

Top management for the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office should use available information to identify the scope and cost of remediating contaminated soil and legacy landfills, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said last week.  DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) should also use that information to prioritize work at nuclear sites, GAO said in […]

An article in the Monday September 29 edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing should have reported the previous plan to address stranded transuranic waste at Waste Control Specialists in Texas set up a “DOE island” there prior to direct shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.

Connecticut has been granted certain authority to oversee radioactive materials, becoming the 40th Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreement state. NRC Chairman David Wright and Connecticut Gov. Edward “Ned” Lamont (D) signed the agreement Sept. 25. The final agreement was published in the Federal Register on Monday. According to the governor’s Sept. 25 press release, the agreement […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) have completed treating four flanged tritium waste containers, according to a Sept. 26 press release by the New Mexico Environment Department. The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous branch in charge of maintaining the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile informed the New Mexico Environment Department […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will hold oral arguments at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Oct. 6 on challenges to Long Mott Energy’s construction permit application for a small modular reactor in Seadrift, Texas. The petitioner, San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper (Waterkeeper), was certified for oral argument on Sept. 16 in […]

Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) created a state task force focused on advancing nuclear energy on Sept. 22 at a Western Governors’ Association’s workshop held at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The Idaho governor also said the new task force will replace the Leadership in Nuclear Energy (LINE) Commission. The commission formerly […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Perma-Fix has ratified an expanded labor agreement with Local 598. Building Trades Union that covers the company’s 35-acre treatment facility near the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., the company’s CEO said Thursday. Perma-Fix CEO Mark Duff made the announcement Thursday Sept. 25 at DOE’s annual National Cleanup Workshop here. […]

Here are events related to nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking: September 30 Fiscal 2025 ends at midnight which could trigger a federal government shutdown Oct. 1 unless a continuing resolution is agreed upon. October 06: Hearing: An NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will hear oral arguments on Long Mott’s construction permit […]

ARLINGTON, VA — The Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is weighing a new strategy for moving transuranic waste stuck for years at Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Texas, a federal manager said Thursday. The prior plan declared several acres inside the WCS property in Andrews, Texas a temporary “DOE island,” […]

The Navy’s Strategic Systems Program conducted four missile test flights of unarmed Trident II D5LE missiles from an Ohio-class nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) off Florida’s east coast  from Sept. 17 to 21.  The tests were launched from a submerged SSBN and landed in a “broad ocean area of the Atlantic Ocean,” the Navy said.  […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — Two Department of Energy cleanup properties are expected to issue solicitations for artificial intelligence (AI)-related data centers soon, federal officials said here Wednesday. The Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee could issue a request for proposals in early November for a potential data center, Rob Seifert, director of infrastructure disposition and regulatory policy […]

Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said this week a potential conflict of interest exists between Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Oklo, a company where Wright previously served on the board of directors.  Markey, a frequent nuclear critic, voiced his concerns to President Donald Trump in a letter Tuesday. Markey posed several questions to the White House […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) failed to provide “real-time monitoring data” on its radioactive tritium venting to the local community, local environmentalist groups said this week. A Sept. 18 statement by Communities for Clean Water (CCW), a coalition of organizations in Los Alamos that includes Concerned Citizens […]

This fall, the Defense Department may approve an updated acquisition strategy for the Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel future ICBM before a possible re-approval of the program for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) by early to mid-2027. “We are definitely making sure we get the restructure of the program right,” Brig. Gen. William Rogers, program executive […]

ARLINGTON, VA — The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects to meet its fiscal 2025 target of receiving 425 shipments of transuranic waste within days, a DOE manager said here Wednesday. As of this week, WIPP has received 419 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste from across the weapons complex, […]

Environmental health officials reemphasized Tuesday that the radioactive wasp issue at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, one that made national headlines last month, is not currently considered a concern to the public. During a bimonthly meeting with the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB), site officials fielded questions about the July 3 discovery of […]

Orano and Zeno Power have agreed to partner to secure a supply chain of americium-241 from Orano’s spent nuclear fuel recycling operations in France. Through the agreement, Zeno will make a multi-million-dollar investment to gain priority access to large quantities of americium-241 annually from Orano’s la Hague used fuel treatment and recycling site in Normandy, […]

ARLINGTON, VA — The new acting head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch reiterated here Wednesday the department remains committed to start making glass in mid-October from the radioactive tank waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Following his address to the National Cleanup Workshop, Joel Bradburne, acting assistant secretary for DOE’s […]

Nuclear waste management in the United States is not a technical issue but a political one due to differing energy priorities from administration to administration, a panel said Monday at City College of New York in New York, N.Y. The hybrid panel for “What Now, What Next: Tackling Spent Nuclear Fuel for a Sustainable Future” […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a meeting with his security council Monday that Moscow will respect the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) for one year past its expiration date. Putin said Moscow would adhere to the limits of the nuclear arms reduction treaty for one more year if the United States does […]

The prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has finished its $15-million overhaul of the so-called “salt pocket” at the Department of Energy’s underground transuranic waste disposal site in New Mexico. The DOE Office of Environmental Management and Bechtel-led Salado Isolation Mining Contractors began the work in January. Completion of the project means […]

Oklo held a groundbreaking ceremony Monday at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory to mark the start of work for its first Aurora powerhouse project. “This opportunity positions us to build our first plant more quickly,” Oklo CEO and co-founder Jacob DeWitte said in a Monday press release. “We have been working with the […]

Over the past seven-plus years, the Department of Energy’s legacy waste cleanup contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has shipped more than 20,000 cubic meters of waste offsite. That figure, which reflects the period between April 30, 2018 and Aug. 31, 2025, was posted as part of a Sept. 10 slide […]

Joel Bradburne, the Department of Energy’s acting head of its $8-billion nuclear remediation branch, will help kick off the National Cleanup Workshop Wednesday in Arlington, Va. Bradburne was appointed this month to oversee DOE’s Office of Environmental Management following the forced departure of Roger Jarrell. Jarrell apparently differed with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright on […]