Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

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 […]

State and federal agencies are incrementally addressing some of the many issues required for the Department of Energy to start grouting some of its less radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash. The DOE issued a final greenlight to the final waste incidental to reprocessing (WIR) finding for the contents of underground storage […]

BWXT Technologies (BWXT) sees a potential multibillion-dollar opportunity as the U.S. government rebuilds domestic nuclear-fuel capabilities for national security, including enrichment capacity and production of unobligated uranium, company executives said during a Sept. 29 investor day. The company is currently working under a roughly $1.5 billion National Nuclear Security Administration contract to develop capabilities for […]

The Department of Energy is preparing a Manhattan Project-era facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex for demolition while recovering equipment that can be reused across dozens of National Nuclear Security Administration facilities. The department’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) and NNSA are working with their respective contractors, United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) […]

Amentum’s joint venture was selected by United Kingdom-based Sellafield for a contract worth up to $2.78 billion (£2.1 billion) to be a “preferred supplier” for an asset care program. A preferred supplier agreement is a legal contract between a vendor and company that essentially selects the vendor as the company’s primary choice for a selected […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has removed 17 million tons of uranium mill tailings from the banks of the Colorado River near Moab, Utah, the agency said in a newsletter this week. Since 2009, crews have transported the tailings by rail to an engineered disposal cell about 30 miles away in Crescent […]

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — The U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) says it is continuing technical work on the site’s hexavalent chromium plume despite a state directive to shut down its interim measure, while discussions with regulators and the Pueblo of San Ildefonso continue. At a Sept. 30 community forum, […]

The Department of Energy’s environmental contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has started building its final supersized Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) at the nuclear property near Aiken, S.C. Like its half-dozen jumbo-sized SDU predecessors, SDU-12 will be 43 feet high, 375 feet in diameter, and have a total capacity of 34.5 million […]

The Department of Energy is planning to renew another multiple year funding agreement with the Nye County, Nev. Sheriff’s office to help protect the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), located 65 miles outside of Las Vegas. The department will conclude its current two-year agreement with Nye County on Dec. 31. The existing cooperative agreement provides […]