Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Department of Energy Thursday released its draft request for proposals (RFP) for management of the 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash. The period of performance on the potential small business set-aside contract is expected to be up to seven years. That includes a five-year base period, a transition period from the […]

In a week of personnel movement for the Department of Energy, a nuclear legal adviser is leaving the organization while a White House nominee to head international affairs appeared before a Senate panel.  In the exit lane Seth Cohen, DOE’s chief counsel for nuclear law and policy, announced over the weekend that he is leaving […]

The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regional office in Dallas this week took a public stance against New Mexico’s planned permit overhaul for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. The set of changes proposed by the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) for WIPP’s hazardous waste permit […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is making headway on its solicitation for a venture that would demonstrate recycling of defense-related spent fuel to extract high-assay-low-enriched-uranium (HALEU) fuel for advanced reactors. DOE announced the request for applications (RFA) in April for the demo project at the Idaho National Laboratory. An Industry Day […]

Two branches of the Department of Energy have, together with international partners, finished removing all leftover highly enriched uranium from Venezuela’s old RV-1 research reactor. DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Office of Environmental Management (EM) and the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina participated in the U.S. effort, according to a […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said Tuesday crews from an Amentum-led contractor have finished important work to mitigate risk at the highly-contaminated 324 Building at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash. Crews from Central Plateau Cleanup, a partnership that also includes Fluor and AtkinsRéalis,  have finished stabilizing four hot cells at the […]

The fiscal 2027 House Energy and Water Appropriations bill text was released Wednesday and waits to be debated on the House floor. The bill text and any amendments submitted are available online. While the bill was scheduled to be debated on the House floor this week, debate and votes were postponed. Last month, the House […]

The Department of Energy is targeting late July for resumption of transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. In a Wednesday email to Exchange Monitor, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said it intends to start disposing of waste again by the end of July. Although the schedule could […]

Zeno Power, a Seattle-based maker of nuclear batteries, has selected the Vallecitos Nuclear Center in Sunol, Calif. For a manufacturing facility, the company said Thursday. Additionally, Zeno also partnered with nuclear decommissioning company NorthStar to help restore specialized hot cell infrastructure to produce nuclear batteries purposed for commercial, defense and space uses, according to the […]

Centrus Energy and Oklo signed a letter of intent Thursday that would have Centrus supply high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) to fuel up to five of Oklo’s Aurora powerhouse reactors. According to Centrus’ press release, the company would provide HALEU from its American Centrifuge Plant in Pike County, Ohio to Oklo’s planned 1,200-megawatt power campus near […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), the longtime incumbent whose district adjoins the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, used a Sunday opinion column in the Tri-City Herald to defend proposed fiscal 2027 nuclear cleanup funding for Hanford in the bill passed by House Appropriations last month. The comments by Newhouse, a House Appropriations member who is not […]

Eleven candidates, including multiple Republicans, have filed paperwork with Washington state election officials to compete in an Aug. 4 primary to help select a successor to incumbent Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) in the state’s 4th congressional district. The Central Washington district, with a history of supporting Republicans, includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Newhouse, […]

A Department of Energy Savannah River Site contractor and a safety watchdog are looking at an early May mishap where a crane boom struck a powerline along an access road in the saltstone area of the complex. The incident was laid out in two separate Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) staff reports. BWXT-led Savannah […]

Transuranic (TRU) waste shipments to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. were cut short in May, after issues with both of the facility’s hoists led to a temporary shutdown.  Prior to the shutdown, WIPP received 23 TRU waste shipments in May, according to the facility’s receipt database. By comparison, […]

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) expects the full House of Representatives to take up the fiscal 2027 Energy & Water Development appropriations bill next week. “We will go to the floor next week.” Fleischmann told the annual meeting of the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The lawmaker, whose district adjoins the Department […]

The Department of Energy is getting closer to renaming its nuclear cleanup branch, the head of what is currently the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) told a gathering of industry contractors Wednesday in Washington, D.C. EM is “soon to be the Office of Nuclear Restoration and Revitalization.” DOE’s Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Tim […]

Underground operations at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico are being suspended until probably mid-August, DOE told the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) this week. WIPP, the nation’s only deep disposal site for defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste, is pausing underground emplacement while it repairs a pair of hoists. In […]

Another jumbo-sized saltstone disposal unit (SDU) has been completed at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the feds announced this week.  In a June 9 press release, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said construction is complete on SDU-11, which can  hold over 33 million gallons of saltstone — a decontaminated, hardened […]

The state of New Mexico has rejected the latest hazardous waste permit renewal application for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, citing among other things deficiencies related to oversight of PFAS, sometimes called “forever chemicals.”  Concerns over explosive waste treatment operations and legacy waste management, were also cited by the New Mexico Environment […]

An informal online survey indicates gasoline prices through the Department of Energy nuclear cleanup complex range from $3.50 to $5.59 per gallon. Exchange Monitor used tools such as Gas Buddy and AAA (the American Automobile Association) to gauge gasoline prices at DOE cleanup sites run by the Office of Environmental Management as of Thursday afternoon. […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory updated its sitewide seismic hazard analysis and is expected to influence future facility design, safety-basis evaluations and infrastructure projects supporting the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapons mission. According to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) report from May 22, the updated probabilistic seismic hazard analysis was recently approved […]

The Department of Energy is working with the state of Utah on finalizing an agreement to place a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus there, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said during a House hearing Wednesday. Wright provided a brief update on DOE’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus, which the agency has been rather tight-lipped on. He was […]

Tuesday in Arlington, Va., the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) heard from various nations developing repository sites for spent nuclear fuel. During its spring board meeting, the NWTRB listened to presentations featuring technical lessons gleaned from the siting and development of geologic repositories in other countries. This includes speakers from countries such as […]

Starting June 29, the state of Washington’s Department of Ecology kicks off a 120-day comment period on revision of the statewide permit for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Richland, Wash. The state will be taking public comments on Revision 9A between June 29 and Oct. 27, according to a notice on the Ecology […]

The Tri-City Development Council (TRIDEC), based in Kennewick, Wash., said this week it is too early for locals to panic about a proposed fiscal 2027 budget cut for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. The House Appropriations Committee last week passed out of committee its version of the Energy & Water spending plan for the […]

Stevan Pearce, a former Republican congressman who represented the area around the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), was confirmed by the Senate last month to be director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Pearce was among a large bloc of GOP nominees narrowly confirmed by the Senate 46-to-43 on […]

The head of Washington’s state regulatory agency for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site said recently he is not opposed to grout so long as DOE keeps its focus on the ongoing operation to turn liquid waste into glass.  In a May letter to DOE, Washington state Department of Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller urged the […]