Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

An annual environmental report released last month on the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico shows the facility is complying with key regulatory standards for air and water, DOE said. The 2024 Annual Site Environmental Report (ASER) for Los Alamos was released in December. The 300-page report shows the lab’s air […]

Standard Nuclear, which bills itself as a “reactor-agnostic” maker of advanced nuclear fuel, has received a shipment of High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) feedstock at its facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn, the company said last week. This makes Standard Nuclear the first company to get both Department of Energy authorization as well as physically receive HALEU […]

A Professional Project Services (Pro2Serve) subsidiary said Tuesday it has hired Steven Downing to be program director overseeing the company’s Technical Support Services contract at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office (PPPO). Pro2Serve subsidiary Enterprise Technical Assistance Services (E-TAS) said in the release the company hired Downing, who was formerly with Battelle.  Downing, who […]

Reinhard Knerr, acting manager of the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Paducah Project Office (PPPO) in Lexington, Ky., is retiring from federal service, he told co-workers in a Tuesday email. Knerr is apparently leaving DOE to pursue another professional opportunity, which he did not reveal in an email to colleagues. ` “It is with bittersweet excitement […]

A three-bill minibus appropriations bill with fiscal 2026 funds for Energy and Water development, including $8.5 billion for nuclear cleanup and $25.4 billion to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), passed the House floor 397-28 Thursday. The bill was released by top appropriators in the Senate and House Monday on both sides of the aisle. […]

Two senior Democrats in the House of Representatives, one in Maryland and one in California, have announced plans to retire once their current term is up. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the member of House Democratic leadership who has served in Congress for 45 years, announced this week he would not seek re-election. Meanwhile, Rep. Julia […]

A maintenance outage last year at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina helped improve operations at the site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), DOE said recently.  The DOE Office of Environmental Management contractor installed larger, higher-capacity cross flow filters at the SWPF during a planned system-wide operational outage in 2025 to […]

The state of Washington and the federal government have agreed to give the Department of Energy another six months to decide where to grout millions of gallons of less-radioactive tank waste from the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash. DOE, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Washington state Department of Ecology have agreed the new […]

While old, an underground hoist at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico is not unsafe, according to managers of the transuranic waste disposal site. “While all the WIPP hoists are experiencing reliability issues due to age and obsolescence, these reliability issues do not present safety risks to employees,” DOE’s […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is setting terms on how it can start using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance nuclear safeguards “without undue risks.” The policy is laid out in a Dec. 29 directive that will apply “to all DNFSB personnel, it full-time employees, contractors, consultants, interns, and any individuals granted access […]

As of Dec. 31, 2025, the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site had filled 26 containers with glass converted from some of the site’s less-radioactive tank waste. “DOE’s Hanford Site “has processed/poured 113 metric tons of glass,” a spokesperson for the Washington Department of Ecology, the state regulator, […]

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) said this week  it has submitted the Initial Project Description for the Deep Geological Repository for Canada’s Used Nuclear Fuel Project. The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission are now seeking public comment from Indigenous Peoples and other community members on the project by Feb. […]

  The Department of Energy said Monday it was awarding $2.7 billion total in task orders to three companies with the goal of strengthening domestic uranium enrichment over the next ten years. American Centrifuge Operating, a Centrus company, and General Matter are both receiving $900 million to create a domestic high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enrichment […]

After decades of work, the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site at Richland, Wash., finally converted some liquid radioactive waste into glass – and some of the most senior people in DOE’s weapons complex left government service this year. These are a couple of the big stories of 2025 affecting DOE’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management […]

Los Alamos Technical Associates (LATA), a New Mexico-based Department of Energy contractor, turns 50 on Jan. 1, the woman-owned small business announced this week. Founded in 1976, the company headquartered in Albuquerque now provides services to not only DOE and the Department of Defense but to other agencies including Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of […]

Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Company won 96% of its potential overall fee, $18.6 million out of a potential $19.3 million, for its remediation at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. All five Hanford contractors that had fee scorecards released Tuesday have cost-plus contracts that allows them to make a profit on top […]

The Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management has agreed to allow Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions to dispose of Class A low-level radioactive waste from Ontario, Canada to the company’s Clive, Utah disposal facility. EnergySolutions got an affirmative vote Friday for its proposal to import the Canadian waste at the Clive facility located in […]

In observance of Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, Weapons Complex Monitor will not publish again until Friday Jan. 9. Exchange Monitor staffers are off Dec. 25-26 as well as Jan. 1-2. The Monitor wishes you a happy and safe holiday season!

Centrus Energy has started manufacturing centrifuges in Tennessee for the company’s advanced uranium enrichment plant at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio. New enrichment capacity is expected to come online in 2029, according to Centrus’ Dec. 19 press release. The centrifuges are being made at the company’s manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge, […]

EnergySolutions and another Utah-based company, Creekstone Energy, have teamed up to explore nuclear power options for data centers, the companies said last week. Creekstone and EnergySolutions said in a Dec. 11 press release they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore advanced nuclear options at the Utah Creekstone Gigasite in Delta, Utah and […]

President Donald Trump Thursday signed the $901 billion 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law that would allow nearly $26 billion in funding to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). That is the highest authorization limit yet for the agency in charge of maintaining the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, and $100 million more than […]

A coalition of 88 citizen groups critical of nuclear energy are asking a regional authority for the Northwest to reject a plan by EnergySolutions to import up to 1.3 million cubic yards of low-level radioactive waste from Ontario, Canada to the company’s disposal site in Clive, Utah. The groups, including Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah […]

A recent report by the United Coalition for Advanced Nuclear Power (UCAN Power) says America’s commercial power industry will benefit from the Pentagon’s growing role in nuclear technology. The report drafted in November outlines “34 tangible recommendations” that the Department of Defense (DoD), or as the White House calls it the Department of War (DOW), […]

Facilities in Pennsylvania once used to help develop U.S. Navy nuclear propulsion systems will be torn down by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, DOE announced last week. The Environmental Management office recently issued an Action Memorandum, drafted by RSI, for demolishing old C-Area buildings at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West […]

The BWX Technologies-led joint venture in charge of liquid waste cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is seeking subcontractors to solidify much of the less-radioactive waste into a concrete-like grout.  In a Dec. 9 solicitation, Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure LLC (H2C) sought proposals for grouting and disposal of […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 25 shipments of transuranic (TRU) waste in November. Through the first 11 months of the calendar year 2025, WIPP has received 408 shipments. That is down from 441 in the same period last year.  The 25 shipments last month is less than […]

A longtime Amentum executive, Jim Blankenhorn has been selected as the new president and chief executive officer of United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR), the environmental prime at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. Blankenhorn assumes the top job at UCOR effective April 1, 2026. UCOR said in a Dec. 16 press release […]