Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Here are some events related to defense nuclear matters that ExchangeMonitor staff are tracking this week. October 22 – The Stimson Center. Panel discussion. “Navigating a Shifting Nuclear Landscape from Energy to Defense.” Stimson Center, 1211 Connecticut Avenue Northwest Floor 8 Washington, D.C. Bonnie Jenkins, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, […]

Briefings in a federal appeal of a ban on commercial interim storage of spent nuclear fuel may not be finished until January, according to the U.S. Supreme Court’s docket. The Supreme Court case consolidates two appeals of a 2023 ruling in which a lower court, responding to a lawsuit by the state of Texas, held […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received more shipments of transuranic waste during fiscal 2024 than fiscal 2023, although traffic was down in September 2024 compared to a year earlier. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad received 39 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during September with the most […]

State and federal agencies plan a public meeting this week to discuss cleanup plans for a naval prototype reactor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. The public comment period on remediation of the Submarine 5th Generation General Electric Prototype Facility and its defueled reactor vessel at the Idaho National Laboratory started Oct. 15 […]

The Government Accountability Office found ‘no basis’ to object to the Department of Energy’s approach to evaluating contenders for its National Training Center contract, according to its public decision on the incumbent’s bid protest. On Oct. 9, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied two protests by the Albuquerque, N.M.-based National Training Center’s incumbent, Kupono Government […]

Karl Thedéen this week replaced Camilla Hoflund as president and CEO of Studsvik AB, the Nyköping, Sweden-based nuclear-power-services company announced Wednesday in a press release. Thedéen was most recently CEO Outpost24, a Swedish cybersecurity company. He had held the post since April 2021, according to Outpost24’s website. Thedéen was brought aboard at Studsvik as part […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could take until February to issue its final updated rule for decommissioning nuclear power plants, according to a document from the agency’s Inspector General. That would be about five months later than an estimate of August that an NRC spokesperson provided to the Monitor in February, after the final proposed rule […]

This Friday, Oct. 18, will mark the end of the official term for Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chair Joyce Connery, but Connery will stay on longer to prevent the panel from losing a quorum, a spokesperson said Wednesday. A “quorum saving provision” in Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) rules allows Connery to stay […]

Jeff Allison’s retirement from his deputy manager position at Savannah River Field Office was announced Tuesday at the South Carolina Nuclear Advisory Council meeting. A spokesperson from the Savannah River Field Office told the Monitor that Allison will retire at the end of the calendar year. Allison has served as the deputy manager since January […]

The Savannah River Site is hitting its self-imposed milestone to complete 60% of the design of the site’s plutonium pit facility, construction on which could start by December 2025, the head of the site’s prime contractor said Tuesday in a public meeting. “You’re talking somewhere between August and December of ‘25 is where I see […]

Environmental groups want an appeals court to rehear a case that affirmed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s authority to license commercial consolidation and storage of spent nuclear fuel. The groups led by Beyond Nuclear last week filed for a rehearing en banc, or by all the members of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington […]

The Department of Energy on Tuesday told a BWX Technologies-led team to proceed with the takeover of the Hanford Site’s liquid waste cleanup mission under a $45 billion contract. The 120-day transition from Amentum-led incumbent Washington River Protection Solutions will begin Oct. 21, more than a year after DOE first awarded the Hanford Integrated Tank […]

James Peery, who has a tenure of over 30 years at National Nuclear Security Administration laboratories, announced his retirement last week, Sandia National Laboratories confirmed to the Monitor Tuesday. Peery served as lab director for Sandia National Laboratories from January 2020 to present, according to his bio on Sandia’s website. A spokesperson for Sandia told […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday published a vision for the U.S. nuclear-weapons production complex that could exist in the decades when the last nuclear-arms-control treaty lapses and China finishes a major military modernization. The fruit of a year of work, the 40-page Enterprise Blueprint published Tuesday, and provided to the Exchange Monitor under […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received more shipments of transuranic waste during fiscal 2024 than fiscal 2023, although traffic was down in September 2024 compared to a year earlier. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad received at least 37 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during September with […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions appointed James Dawkins as chief operations officer and executive vice president, according to Dawkins’ LinkedIn profile Saturday. In Dawkins’ new dual role, he will oversee the management and operations of National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) related programs at Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., according […]

The Government Accountability Office last week denied a summer protest of a contract award to Eagle Harbor for management and operations of the Department of Energy’s National Training Center. The full decision against the protest lodged by incumbent Kupono Government Services was not public as of Monday. The award, made in 2022 to Eagle Harbor […]

As part of a suit filed in April against New York, Holtec International this week asked a federal judge to void a state law that prohibits a company subsidiary from discharging irradiated water from the decommissioning of a nuclear-plant into the Hudson River. The company’s motion for summary judgment against New York, which Holtec said […]

The prime contractor for the Hanford Site’s primarily solid-waste cleanup program on the complex’s central plateau laid off 60 people on Oct. 1, the company’s president said. Amid a six-month hiring freeze “we made the difficult decision to lay off approximately 60 CPCCo employees as part of a necessary restructuring to align our workforce with […]

The city of Oak Ridge, Tenn., could delay development of a long-sought airport on remediated Department of Energy land after Orano-USA selected Oak Ridge as its preferred site for a new uranium enrichment plant. The September announcement by Orano means the city could pause development of the general aviation airstrip and reconsider the proposed location, […]

The Department of Energy last week awarded six contracts for turning future stocks of government-owned, high-assay low-enriched uranium into forms suitable for use as nuclear reactor fuel. DOE made the awards a little less than a year after soliciting bids for the work. The six contracts combined are worth up to $800 million over 10 […]

A judge Monday granted an extension for parties involved in a three year-old lawsuit against the Department of Energy to reach a compromise, a court document shows. The new due date for a joint proposal by both parties is Oct. 25, according to a filing in the case. Judge Mary Lewis last week ruled that […]

Andrii Korotkyi, head of security at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, was killed in a car explosion, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s director general Monday. “Any targeting of employees of nuclear power plants would constitute a blatant violation of this pillar fundamental for overall nuclear safety and security,” International Atomic […]

Savannah River Site returned to its normal operations Monday after the site was limited to essential personnel in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, a spokesperson told the ExchangeMonitor. “Phased resumption of workers returning back to the site began [in the] middle of last week,” the spokesperson told the Monitor in an email. “During the storm […]