Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

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 […]

The Washington, D.C.-based Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) said this week there is no need for New Mexico to revamp the latest state permit for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., only two years after it was issued. “It is important to continue and accelerate shipping TRU ]transuranic] waste from […]

The version of the  fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed 44-12 by the House Armed Services Committee Thursday night would endorse the Department of Energy’s nuclear remediation branch to spend up to about $7.2 billion on Defense Environmental Cleanup.  Last month the House Appropriations Committee advanced a proposed Energy & Water Development budget […]

The version of the fiscal 2027 Energy & Water Development bill recently voted out of the House Appropriations Committee endorses key Department of Energy projects getting underway at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash and the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. At Savannah River Site (SRS) DOE is directed to brief the House Appropriations […]

Four years after an agreement apparently resolved a federal safety watchdog’s access to staff and records at Department of Energy nuclear sites, the dispute appears to be back. In an April 29 letter to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s (DNFSB) lone member said DOE is not complying with its […]

The Department of Energy’s liquid waste contractor at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., is inviting expressions of interest (EOI) for vendors interested in the West Area Tank Farms Risk Management (WARM) construction services work. “WARM is being constructed to supply material for off-site treatment and disposal, supporting compliance with regulatory milestones,” according to the […]

The Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology will hold a public meeting June 17 on a proposed modular system at the Hanford Site’s 200 West Area to remove cesium from tank waste prior to grouting. The hybrid meeting is set for June 17 at 5:30 p.m. PT in the Gallery Room […]

In procurement news you might have missed, the Department of Energy has issued a request for information (RFi) for potential providers of on-site shoeshine services at DOE’s Forrestal Building headquarters in Washington, D.C. Any resulting agreement would be a “no-cost contract” for DOE, according to the procurement notice published online this month. The DOE contact listed […]

A key environmental document and Record of Decision (ROD) issued Thursday by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) clears the way for expanding operations for Sandia National Laboratories over the next 15 years. The “expanded operations alternative” endorsed the NNSA’s final Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement and ROD should allow Sandia to build […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory may require significant electrical infrastructure upgrades within several years as artificial intelligence programs, supercomputing systems and weapons modernization activities sharply increase power demand, the lab’s Deputy Director for Mission Operations Mark Davis said this month. Speaking before the Los Alamos County Council, Davis said the laboratory is pursuing plans for a […]