Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Donald Trump administration is replacing most members of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, sources told Exchange Monitor late last week. Two sources within the Department of Energy weapons complex told the Monitor the White House asked for the resignation of nearly all members of the 11-member board charged with independent scientific peer reviews […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Small Disadvantaged Business Utilization appointed by former President Joe Biden has departed the post. “Today marks my last day at the Dept of Energy as director,” Ron Pierce, announced on his LinkedIn page Jan. 16. “It was an honor to be appointed and serve in the […]

Thom Mason, director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, said Tuesday that the lab cannot rely on wind and solar power for its capabilities or to power its supercomputers. “That was part of a pretty extensive analysis on how to get more power on site,” Mason said in response to a question about the Electric Power […]

The Department of Energy has posted the times and coordinates for a pair of February public scoping meetings on soil cleanup plans at the Energy Technology Engineering Center section of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Site in Simi Valley, California. An online or virtual meeting regarding a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on cleanup of contaminated […]

Joyce Connery, who is departing as a nuclear safety watchdog after nearly a decade, would not be shocked to see the President Donald Trump (R) administration revive then-President Joe Biden’s (D) nomination of a former Department of Energy cleanup boss to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board —only this time paired with one or more […]

Among the flurry of executive orders President Donald Trump signed Monday after being sworn in are measures to implement a federal hiring freeze and telling government staff to return to in-person work. “Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate […]

The Department of Energy is putting the brakes on most contract solicitations, reports and personnel moves, Acting Secretary of Energy Ingrid Kolb said this week. In a Monday memo, viewed by Exchange Monitor, Kolb said most contract procurements of $100,000 or more were to be put on hold as were most loan guarantees, hirings, promotions […]

The Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday endorsed the nomination of Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright to be secretary of energy by 15-to-5, with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) being one of the five Democrats to vote against the executive. The nominations of both Wright and former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) to […]

The Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday endorsed the nomination of Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright to be secretary of energy by 15-to-5, with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) being one of the five Democrats to vote against the executive. The nominations of both Wright and former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) to […]

After a delay, the subcontractor that built a new ventilation system at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant site in New Mexico is expected to soon turn over the keys to the project to the prime contractor, according to a federal update. A Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNESB) staff report on Waste […]

James Danly, who served on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission during Donald Trump’s first administration, is the Republican president-elect’s pick to be deputy secretary of energy the second time around, various news outlets reported last week. A military veteran, Danly currently heads the energy regulatory branch of the Skadden Arps law firm and briefly chaired […]

Chris Wright, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of energy, pledged Wednesday to support ample Department of Energy funding “to clean up the mess” left at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “I cannot overstate how critical I think it is to finish the job to finish the cleanup at Hanford,” a fracking company chief […]

The Energy Communities Alliance said Monday it has hired Laura Hermann, founder of her own energy-related consulting firm, to the newly-recreated job of deputy executive director. Hermann, who will be the No. 2 person to executive director Seth Kirshenberg, started with Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) last week, Kirshenberg said in a brief phone conversation with […]

Citizen groups were largely unimpressed by a Department of Energy plan to define and give priority to what the agency calls “legacy” transuranic waste sent to a deep underground disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M., but the mayor of the city endorsed the approach. That is according to a review of public comments, due Jan. 3, […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received fewer shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during 2024 than in 2023, a decline that bosses at the underground disposal site hinted at during the fall. With annual results counted, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) finished 2024 with 470 shipments down from 489 […]

Leaders of the House Appropriations Committee announced subcommittee rosters for the 119th Congress this week, revealing more continuity than change on subcommittees affecting the Department of Energy. There are some additions and departures, but leadership remains the same for the subcommittee that writes the first draft of DOE’s annual spending bill, according to Wednesday press […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., has commenced its annual maintenance outage and won’t be receiving more shipments of transuranic waste until mid-March, the Department of Energy said Tuesday. Two of the bigger work chores scheduled for the outage include installation of final duct work for the new Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System […]

After about four years of talks and 185 public comments, two federal agencies and Washington state have blessed an amended 15-year plan for treating radioactive waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. In a press release, the agencies reiterated they are sticking with the August 2025 deadline for starting to solidify some of the […]

Jennifer Granholm, the 16th U.S. secretary of energy, formally said goodbye to DOE staff Thursday and the Joe Biden White House announced Ingrid Kolb, the head of the agency’s management office, will become acting secretary effective at noon Monday. In addition, Teresa Robbins will step in as acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, […]

President-elect Donald Trump this week announced Darío Gil, a senior vice president at IBM, is his pick to be Department of Energy undersecretary of science in the incoming administration. The Office of Science, which supports DOE’s national laboratories, was the administrative stovepipe for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management during the first Trump term. Science, like […]

WASHINGTON — Brandon Williams, a former one-term congressman from New York’s 22nd district, is President Donald Trump’s (R) pick to head the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Chris Wright, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Energy, told the Exchange Monitor here Wednesday after his confirmation hearing that he picked Williams personally for the […]

Herman Potter, president of United Steelworkers Local 689 at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, is retiring from both his job with the government’s landlord contractor and his leadership post with the union. “I plan to retire from North Wind Dynamics” on Feb. 2, Potter said in a Jan. 2 letter distributed to […]

The 118th Congress ended Friday Jan. 3 without the Senate voting to confirm President Joe Biden’s nomination of William (Ike) White, to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. So the nomination of White, a longtime fed and former acting head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch, was returned to the president that day […]

The Department of Energy is keeping a watchful eye on the  devastating wildfires sweeping through Southern California, but as of Thursday evening, the blazes had not  reached the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Simi Valley. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, Energy Technology and Engineering Center (ETEC) site at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory “is closely […]

A new report calls for continued pump-and-treat operations, better technology and more cooperation between feds and New Mexico officials to combat a chromium plume at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. That is from the executive summary of the 980-page Independent Review by a panel of 15 experts into the DOE Interim Measures […]

The Department of Energy sees “many challenges” to identifying and developing a second deep-underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste, not the least of which is Congressional authorization, according to a report to New Mexico officials. Before Congress agrees to funding, it will likely want assurance a second transuranic waste repository is needed, and that’s […]

After getting a couple of snow days, employees for Fluor-BWXT, the Department of Energy cleanup contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, were urged to be cautious in returning to work Wednesday, according to a Facebook post. In the Tuesday post, Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth said the DOE site was providing help to move employees from the […]