Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has set a $23.5 billion performance baseline for the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility’s (SRPPF) main processing building, with completion now estimated for December 2038, the agency told Exchange Monitor Monday. The estimate covers the main processing building at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, where NNSA plans […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced last week that after three decades of work, most radioactive soil cleanup at a Superfund site 12 miles west of New York City has been completed. A ceremony was held Oct. 5 to mark major soil cleanup of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) site in […]

Westinghouse plans to put $1 billion into building an advanced nuclear fuel factory at its Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, the company said in a Wednesday press release.  Westinghouse said the proposed fuel factory will produce low enriched uranium plus (LEU+) fuel to support its AP1000 reactor fleet. The company hopes to have […]

AIKEN, S.C. – The Department of Energy wants to see eight large-scale nuclear reactors operating in South Carolina by 2036, and an advanced small modular reactor at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in the foreseeable future, Tim Walsh, DOE’s Assistant Secretary of Environmental Management, said here Thursday.  Nationwide, Walsh wants to see 10 big new […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is recommending Congress consider clarifying the roles of the Department of Energy and its regulators when remediated lands from Cold War and Manhattan Project sites are transferred to local communities. In a report released this month, GAO also urged DOE to “direct cleanup sites to evaluate cleanup costs and schedule […]

The Department of Energy’s disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste narrowly avoided two accidents in August, according to a September staff report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). There were two separate “near miss” episodes, one on Aug. 3 and one on Aug. 6, at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), according to […]

Years after the Department of Energy canceled the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, a company based in France is making ambitious plans for MOX at the nuclear complex. The original multi-billion-dollar MOX project, meant to convert weapons grade plutonium into mixed-oxide fuel that could be […]

Centrus Energy acquired one of its manufacturing suppliers, Westernman Holdings, in a transaction for nearly $116 million, Centrus said Monday. The near-$116 million acquisition was made up of a combination of $95 million cash that was on hand and $21 million of equity, Centrus said in its press release. Additionally, Westernman and all its business […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology is extending the public comment period on the sitewide Dangerous Waste Permit for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site until Jan. 15, 2027, the state announced this week. The prior comment deadline was Oct. 27. The draft renewal document is known as Revision 9A. The last big revision occurred […]

With less than three weeks to go before the Nov. 3 general election, here is a look at some of the key House of Representatives and Senate races around Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites. The sites and races are listed alphabetically.  Energy Technology Engineering Center in California: Rep. Brad Sherman (D) is running for […]

Exchange Monitor is modernizing its web footprint and rebranding some newsletters to better reflect the markets we serve and the beats we cover. ExchangeMonitor.com is still the online home for the news and analysis you have come to rely upon over the years. Only now it has a dramatically better search ability and functionality. Exchange […]

The Department of Energy Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., has now converted 250,000 gallons of less radioactive tank waste into solid glass form. In September, over 39,000 gallons were vitrified into glass form at the WTP’s Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) Facility, Bechtel National, which built the plant, […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch said Tuesday it has now reduced its inventory of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) cylinders at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio by 20%. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management announced Tuesday its AtkinsRéalis-led contractor Mission Conversion Services Alliance (MCSA) has converted DUF6 from 4,500 cylinders at Portsmouth, into a safe […]

Seattle-based Avalanche Energy Designs, a fusion energy developer, signed an agreement last week with the Tri-City Development Council to cooperate on building a plant capable of manufacturing fusion power devices in Richland, Wash.  Richland is nestled next to the Department of Energy’s sprawling Hanford Site.  A big hurdle with fusion is that the power produced […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 53 shipments of transuranic (TRU) waste in September, marking its highest total since April and putting a strong end to a challenging fiscal year.  The September total is significantly more than the 29 shipments of TRU waste sent in August, and the […]

With dignitaries such as U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) on hand, Amentum Thursday formally opened what it calls its Global Nuclear headquarters in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The offices at 151 Lafayette Drive will house more than 150 staff and serve as a hub for Amentum’s international nuclear operations as well as providing the company a […]

The Department of Energy has removed “acting” from the title of Idaho Cleanup Project Manager Nick Balsmeier at the Idaho National Laboratory. “17 years ago today, I started my career at the Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) as a United Steelworker (Local 652),” Balsmeier said in an Oct. 5 post on LinkedIn. “Today, I started my […]

Early delivery of equipment for a Savannah River Site (SRS) training facility is helping accelerate preparations for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plutonium pit production mission, the agency said in a press release. NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator Scott Pappano visited SRS in September to review construction of the High-Fidelity Training and Operations Center (HFTOC), […]

Members of the New Mexico Congressional delegation serving the area around the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) have lined up $10 million for upkeep of the haul road leading to the nation’s only disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste. The federal money will help shore up the U.S. 285 Relief Route, a […]

Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy, a Department of Energy employee at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., was to appear in federal court Thursday in connection with Justice Department allegations that he aided a foreign terror group, according to news first reported in the Tri-City Herald. Ellaboudy is in the Benton County jail after being arrested on […]

If you are in the mood to travel back in time more than a half century and watch government-made black-and-white films designed to make the public feel better about nuclear technology, the Department of Energy can fill that need online. DOE’s Office of Legacy Management recently announced it is offering films from the Atomic Energy […]

The Department of Energy’s final request for proposals (RFP) for operation of the 70,000-square-foot 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., could be out this month, DOE said in a recent procurement update. That projection, shared Sept. 29 on the online procurement site, SAM.gov, is consistent with the timeline posted by the DOE […]

The United States Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) appointed Michael Janicke to be its executive director effective Monday, the independent federal agency said. Janicke takes over as the official head of the NWTRB almost a year after the former executive director Daniel Ogg retired from the position in December 2025. Neysa Slater-Chandler was the […]

The head of the environmental contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site told a South Carolina nuclear advisory board last week production accelerated at the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), a vital cog in cleaning up the site’s radioactive waste tanks. “When we took over the job, SWPF was processing at a rate […]

The Department of Energy and its Hanford tank waste contractor are preparing to begin retrieving radioactive and chemical waste from the site’s 25th single-shell tank, marking another milestone in the decades-long cleanup effort. DOE’s Hanford Field Office and Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure are preparing to retrieve waste from Tank A-103 in the 200 […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) found multiple problems with how Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has implemented nuclear safety controls, including deficiencies involving transuranic waste containers, and said the laboratory’s process for verifying safety-basis implementation needs improvement. The findings come from a DNFSB staff review of Revision 3 of SRNL’s documented safety analysis […]