Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

WASHINGTON — The Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex would benefit from a continuing resolution, the site’s prime said, while plutonium pits could suffer under a short term budget extension, a spokesperson at the Department of Defense told the Exchange Monitor last week. A House committee on Monday planned to consider a […]

Here are some events related to civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week and next. September 24 – Centrus Energy Corp. Hill briefing: Restoring U.S. Uranium Enrichment. Amir Vexler, president and CEO of Centrus to attend. 2075 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington. 11:00 a.m. Eastern time to 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. […]

The House Rules Committee said it will consider on Monday a new funding bill that would largely freeze federal budgets at 2024 levels through Dec. 20. The committee was scheduled to consider the bill at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, setting up a floor vote as soon as Tuesday. Friday, Sept. 27, was the […]

The six-month continuing resolution voted down Wednesday in the House would have delayed completition of nuclear-powered submarines, among other things, the Secretary of the Navy wrote this week in a letter to congressional appropriators. In the letter, dated Sept. 12 and publicly released Monday, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro reiterated some points made […]

WASHINGTON — After lurching back to the House floor Wednesday, the House speaker’s six-month continuing resolution again failed to rally enough support to pass the chamber. The bill went down 202-220, with 14 Republican holdouts, two Republicans voting present and three Democratic supporters. It was mostly clean for the Department of Energy, aside from an […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Groups helping the Department of Energy define both consent and who may give it, when it comes to storage of spent nuclear fuel, will give the agency a progress report in December, an official said here Tuesday at an industry gathering. That should give DOE time to incorporate feedback from the 13 […]

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD — The head of the U.S. Strategic Command on Wednesday told a roomful of military personnel to produce the nuclear weapons needed to counter pressure from Russia and China. “We now have two nuclear peers,” Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander of United States Strategic Command, said in a panel on “the […]

ARLINGTON, VA — After earlier trouble scrubbing liquid radioactive waste down to levels acceptable for solidification, the Hanford Site has produced more than 550,000 gallons of compliant waste, a federal official said here at an industry gathering. That is the beginning of a batch of roughly 800,000 gallons of compliant waste that the site wants […]

Garret Harencak plans to step down as president of the prime contractor of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada National Security Site, people familiar with his plans said Tuesday. In August, the board of directors of Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS), the site’s Honeywell-led prime, informed site employees that Harencak, a retired Air Force […]

The U.S. made “huge strides” reinvigorating its civil nuclear industry, the deputy energy secretary said Monday at the International Atomic Energy Agency general conference. “The U.S. civil nuclear industry is providing products and services to partner with countries to achieve their civil nuclear goals, while incorporating effective and efficient nuclear security, safety, and safeguards early […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Congress should pass a three-month continuing resolution to keep the government open when fiscal year 2025 begins, the Republican chair of the House appropriations subcommittee that writes the Department of Energy’s budget bill said here Tuesday. “We need to keep the federal government open,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) said here at the […]

After House leadership said the chamber could vote on a federal spending bill, the leader of the Democrat-controlled Senate said the upper chamber will not pass a six-month extension of 2024 federal budgets. The House schedule, posted by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the majority leader, said that “an item related to government funding may be […]

A federal judge last week gave the Department of Energy and the former operators of three shuttered New England Power Plants until January to settle their differences in a lawsuit of the agency’s latest failure to take custody of the plants’ spent fuel. On Friday, at the request of both parties, a request the Yankee […]

In court papers last week, a federal judge declined to stop construction of a walking trail that environmentalists said could endanger hikers near the demolished Rocky Flats plutonium pit factory in Colorado. Workers had planned to break ground on parts of a pedestrian bridge and underpass on Sept. 9 and the U.S. District Court for […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 50 shipments of transuranic waste during August, according to DOE’s public website. Leading the shipments again was the Idaho National Laboratory, accounting for 36 of the month’s 50 shipments. Savannah River Site sent seven, Los Alamos sent five, and the Oak Ridge National […]

The Savannah River National Laboratory will this week formally begin its search for a new lab director, a Department of Energy official said Monday at a public meeting in South Carolina.  DOE’s Office of Environmental Management will post a job announcement seeking a replacement for Majidi this week, Edwin Deshong, EM’s deputy manager the Savannah […]

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who collapsed at an event in Washington last week, got a pacemaker and can return to his duties on Capitol Hill, he said Monday in a video message. “With the pacemaker implant, issues have been now resolved for my public service,” Wilson said in a recorded video statement posted Monday to […]

An ambassador from the International Atomic Energy Agency advocated in a statement last week for a Middle East free of “weapons of mass destruction” and for more safeguards there. “We remain committed to working with the regional states to advance this goal in an inclusive, consensus-based manner that takes into account the legitimate regional security […]

Here are some events related to civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 17: Public meeting: Savannah River Citizens Advisory Board. 1:00 p.m. Eastern time.  University of South Carolina, Close-Hipp Building, 1705 College Street, Columbia, S.C. 29208. Streaming on YouTube. 17-18: Conference: The National Cleanup Workshop program, which runs for two […]

The 10th annual National Cleanup Workshop, an annual gathering of Department of Energy nuclear-weapons-cleanup officials and contractors, will be held in Arlington, Va., just outside of Washington. The annual gathering is hosted by the Washington-based Energy Communities Alliance, a group that represents the interests of people and local governments near DOE nuclear-weapons sites. After a […]

The Department of Energy is bidding adieu to its Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office in Washington state effective Oct. 1, DOE’s manager for the Hanford Site said Tuesday. “We are going to be the Hanford Field Office, it’s going to be a new name,” Vance told the Hanford Advisory Board Tuesday evening. […]

Congressman Joe Wilson, 77, whose district abuts the Savannah River Site, was hospitalized in Washington Tuesday night after taking ill, according to his office’s post on website X. Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-S.C.) son, South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson, said on the website X that the congressman was experiencing “stroke-like symptoms,” according to doctors at […]

WASHINGTON — House speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Wednesday in Washington that he was pulling his stopgap six-month GOP spending bill that would extend federal agencies’ 2024 budgets from its scheduled House floor vote. The bill was mostly clean for the Department of Energy aside from an anomaly that grants the agency permission “to sustain […]

A federal advisory panel heard Tuesday the Department of Energy’s top manager at the Hanford Site in Washington state still expects to start making test glass in November from a simulant designed to mimic low-level radioactive tank waste. DOE site manager Brian Vance told the Hanford Advisory Board cold commissioning of the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste […]

WASHINGTON — In a committee hearing here Wednesday about his nomination to join the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Matthew Marzano said he agreed with a sometimes controversial commission’s decision to require fresh environmental reviews to relicense a nuclear power plant. “I think what the commission did in that case was appropriate,” Marzano said in response to […]