Department of Energy

The Department of Energy’s point-person for nuclear waste issues is out of a job this week after being implicated in a pair of brazen luggage thefts at airports in Minnesota and Nevada, according to reports. Sam Brinton, who had been DOE’s deputy assistant secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition since June 19, is no […]

A contractor readiness review at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has concluded the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility is about ready to start operations as a hazard category 3 nuclear facility, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report. The readiness review that occurred in Novemebr is designed to check to […]

The Department of Energy reiterated this week that solicitations for a new occupational healthcare contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state as well as a national small business contract for nuclear cleanup could both drop as early as February. The DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center provided its latest procurement update on Wednesday.   The […]

Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley is ineligible for the $160-million landlord contract awarded at the Paducah Site in Kentucky two years ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Monday, only days after oral arguments in the protracted case.  The “per curiam” or unanimous decision, was issued in a one-page […]

The newly-appointed second-in-command at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, Jeffrey Avery, will formally assume his new job next month, a spokesperson said Monday. Avery, most recently director of regulatory and security affairs with the Office of Naval Reactors, is already listed as principal deputy assistant secretary or EM-2, in the latest org […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last week appointed Nichole Huntington a new resident inspector at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Huntington’s first day on the job was Dec. 5, according to a press release from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) acting executive director of operations Christopher Roscetti. Huntington […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant received 16 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during November, according to DOE. There were 14 shipments recorded on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) public website as of Tuesday Dec. 13. The website runs about two weeks behind active shipments and a site spokesperson said two more […]

The United States Nuclear Industry Council has selected Todd Abrajano, founder of Turning Point Public Affairs, as its new president and chief executive officer effective Jan. 2, the industry advocacy organization announced Wednesday. Abrajano will succeed Clarence (Bud) Albright who has led the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council (USNIC) since December 2019 and previously served as […]

The Senate could vote this week on a short-term federal funding extension and soon after that on the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, leaving a long-term 2023 spending bill as the last domino to fall before the 118th Congress begins in January. In the Department of Energy, both the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) active […]

A contractor readiness review at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has concluded the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility is about ready to start operations as a hazard category 3 nuclear facility, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report. The readiness review that occurred in Novemebr is designed to check to […]

The United States Nuclear Industry Council has selected Todd Abrajano, founder of Turning Point Public Affairs, as its new president and chief executive officer effective Jan. 2, the industry advocacy organization announced Wednesday. Abrajano will succeed Clarence (Bud) Albright who has led the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council (USNIC) since December 2019 and previously served as […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last week appointed Nichole Huntington a new resident inspector at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Huntington’s first day on the job was Dec. 5, according to a press release from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) acting executive director of operations Christopher Roscetti. Huntington […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant received 16 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during November, according to DOE. There were 14 shipments recorded on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) public website as of Tuesday Dec. 13. The website runs about two weeks behind active shipments and a site spokesperson said two more […]

The newly-appointed second-in-command at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, Jeffrey Avery, will formally assume his new job next month, a spokesperson said Monday. Avery, most recently director of regulatory and security affairs with the Office of Naval Reactors, is already listed as principal deputy assistant secretary or EM-2, in the latest org […]

Sam Brinton, hired over the summer to lead the Department of Energy’s efforts to find a disposal solution for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, was fired from the agency following multiple accusations of felony theft, according to reports. Brinton was removed from their post as DOE’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition, […]

Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley is ineligible for the $160-million landlord contract awarded at the Paducah Site in Kentucky two years ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Monday, only days after oral arguments in the protracted case.  The “per curiam” or unanimous decision, was issued in a one-page […]

The incoming Bechtel National prime for the Departments of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico expects to get most of its hiring done by mid-January, according to the new contractor website. “We are working diligently to complete the majority of the hiring activities by mid-January and declare readiness to perform operations by late […]

Former Miamisburg, Ohio mayor and a founding member of the Energy Communities Alliance, Dick Church, has died at age 81, the advocacy group for Department of Energy localities said Friday. Church “was a founding member that led the organization through transition and helped it grow from an idea into an organization that works for and […]

Samuel Brinton, the Department of Energy’s recently-hired head of nuclear waste policy, has been implicated in another alleged theft, this time at a Nevada airport, according to documents obtained by the Exchange Monitor. Brinton, who has served as DOE’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition since June, was accused of grand larceny […]

Washington River Protection Solutions, tank prime at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, has extended its bid deadline until Thursday for subcontractors to assist with quality assurance on the Tank Side Cesium Removal project.  Responses to the request for proposals were originally due on Monday, Dec. 12. But in a Dec. 8 […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch is urging businesses interested in providing worker healthcare services at the Hanford Site in Washington state, to provide feedback on portions of a draft solicitation by Jan. 4. The information will be used by DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in Cincinnati as it prepares a final request […]

In draft permit materials rolled out Thursday, the state of New Mexico said it could potentially seek closure of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad a half-century before the feds might like. The New Mexico Environment Department wants to ensure in-state transuranic waste shipments from DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory are […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch should not see a significant near-term decrease in its budget for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina because control of the federal complex is being transferred to the National Nuclear Security Administration, a budget and planning official said last week. “Most of our funding is for liquid […]

Long-idled design work resumed this summer on the high-level waste portion of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. After August workshops, prime contractor Bechtel National and DOE created what they call the “HLW [High Level Waste] Firm […]

The text of the proposed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released Tuesday approves spending up to $359 million on the High-Level Waste Vitrification Facility portion of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant being built by Bechtel National. The administration of President Joe Biden proposed spending $316 million on the facility — a vital cog in […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch should not see a significant near-term decrease in its budget for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina because control of the federal complex is being transferred to the National Nuclear Security Administration, a budget and planning official said last week. “Most of our funding is for liquid […]

The Department of Energy is planning to open up its second round of bailouts for economically-troubled nuclear power plants in the new year, an agency spokesperson said this week. DOE is preparing its next round of funding under its roughly $6 billion civil nuclear credits program, greenlit in November 2021 under the Infrastructure Investment and […]

Communities interested in receiving federal funding to explore hosting an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel now have through January to apply, the Department of Energy announced this week. The deadline for DOE’s roughly $16 million interim storage funding opportunity is now Jan. 31, the agency announced in a Tweet Wednesday. Dec. 19 had […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch could increase the value of a North Wind Group environmental remediation contract at a naval reactor laboratory site in New York state to $47 million from $22 million, according to a procurement notice published last week. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center published a justification for […]

During fiscal 2022, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board worked on staffing needs and finalized a deal with the Department of Energy spelling out the watchdog’s authority to access people, records and facilities around the weapons complex. Those are a couple of highlights from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) fiscal 2022 Agency Financial […]