The Department of Energy has awarded a contract up to $74.8 million to a women-owned small business in Richland, Wash. to provide professional support services at the DOE’s Oak Ridge, Tenn. nuclear environmental cleanup site.
The DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) announced the contract with the company, Independent Strategic Management Solutions, Inc. (ISMSolutions), in an April 24 press release. The company was selected due to its past performances, personnel, organization and staffing approach and value to taxpayers, DOE said.
ISMSolutions is a management and technical consulting company that specializes in nuclear weapon production, nuclear engineering and operations and environmental cleanup. It was founded by Shirley Olinger, a former manager of the DOE Hanford Office of River Protection.
A consortium of Westinghouse-Bechtel and Polish company PEJ signed an Engineering Development Agreement (EDA) on April 28, which was overseen by Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The EDA sets the framework for preparatory efforts, which include site development and regulatory documentation, and geological studies. The agreement marks the next step in their three-unit AP1000 project in Choczewo, Pomeranian Voivodeship.
“It will truly be a joint endeavor that will include not just the construction of a very large power plant that will power the Polish economy for decades to come, but also marks the start of a long-term nuclear cooperation between the United States and Poland that will result in building future reactors,” Wright said in an April 28 Department of Energy press release.
Louisiana lawmakers have introduced a bill that would create an accelerated permitting process for advanced nuclear reactors, particularly small modular reactors.
Senate Bill 127, introduced by state Sen. Adam Bass (R) on April 4, will amend Louisiana’s existing environmental permitting law to allow the state secretary of environmental services to implement the program.
To qualify for the accelerated process, the electric utility must have submitted an application demonstrating that is consistent with a collaboration letter from a federal agency such as the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition announced April 25 it elected Katherine Peretick as chair of the coalition and Stacey Paradis as vice chair.
The two will lead the commission in its aim to build a nuclear waste management program to dispose of spent nuclear fuel stored at both operating and shutdown nuclear plants nationwide, according to a coalition press release. Peretick is a commissioner for the Michigan Public Service Commission, while Paradis is a commissioner from the Illinois Commerce Commission.
The Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition is an ad hoc organization that says it represents nuclear waste policy interests of member state utility regulators; other state, tribal, and local government officials; electric companies with nuclear reactors either operating or shut down; and others from the private sector.
