Department of Energy

Sam Brinton is the Department of Energy’s new deputy assistant secretary for spent nuclear fuel and waste disposition, according to an internal DOE email seen by the Exchange Monitor. It is Brinton’s first government job. In the role, Brinton will take the helm of DOE’s frustrated, decades-long effort to find a home for more than […]

House appropriators want to keep the Hanford Site’s budget flat in fiscal year 2023 and nixed the Joe Biden administration’s plan to increase the site’s liquid-waste budget at the expense of solid-waste programs, according to a bill up for debate in committee on Tuesday. Overall, the bill proposes roughly the $7.9 billion requested for DOE’s […]

A House Appropriations subcommittee recommends funding the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board at $41.4 million in fiscal 2023, the amount sought by the President Joe Biden administration and more than $5 million more than the safety watchdog received for fiscal 2022. The funding plan is included in the Energy and Water Development subcommittee’s bill report […]

The White House’s independent nuclear safety and radioactive waste technology organizations would get every dime of the funding they asked for if the House’s version of the 2023 budget became law, according to a report published this week by House appropriators. In its 2023 budget report published Monday, the House Appropriations energy and water development […]

House appropriators on Monday reversed course and agreed to the White House’s request to move interim spent fuel funding out of the Department of Energy’s dedicated Nuclear Waste Disposal account, according to a draft budget report. Interim storage funding proposals in the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s 2023 budget report, published Monday, appeared […]

Blaming the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Energy on Friday asked a federal court to extend by almost two years the deadline for beginning solidification of liquid waste at the Hanford Site. The request, unopposed by Washington state, was part of a motion filed Friday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of […]

The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled Tuesday to vote on the first draft of the 2023 spending bill that funds nuclear weapons and waste programs at the Department of Energy and other agencies.  Defense nuclear weapons and waste programs at DOE would receive roughly the funding requested for 2023, under the bill approved last week […]

Supply chain slowdowns are still gumming up work at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, a federal safety watchdog said recently. “General personal protective equipment such as nitrile gloves, rubber booties, Tyvek suits, respirator cartridges, and airline hoses have extended lead times up to six months,” the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said […]

Completion of the depleted uranium conversion program at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky could take three decades or more, an agency boss told the Paducah Site Citizens Advisory Board in Kentucky last week. Even before the depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) plants in Paducah and the Portsmouth Site in Ohio went offline in […]

A Department of Energy effort to reduce harmful underground emissions at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico will be slowed down pending a fire-hazard analysis of three new lithium-ion-battery-operated haul trucks, a government safety watchdog said in a recent update. Nuclear Waste Partnership, the DOE’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant […]

The Department of Energy says it is conceivable that one company or joint venture could win both multibillion-dollar contracts being sought at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. In an online filing last week, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said such an outcome is not out of the question, provided […]

Members of the public have about a week to submit their input on a proposed change to the Department of Energy’s civil nuclear credits program that would make a California nuclear power plant eligible for part of the federal bailout, the agency said last week. If adopted, the proposed amendment to DOE’s nuclear credits guidance […]

The ranking member of the House’s energy and water appropriations subcommittee said this week he wants more clarity on a White House proposal to move cash for its consent-based interim storage effort out of the Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program. “I don’t know what the reasoning behind it is,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) told RadWaste […]

Proposed funding in the House for the Department of Energy’s nuclear power office was up slightly compared with the White House’s request, according to a draft of the lower chamber’s 2023 energy and water spending bill reported out of an appropriations subcommittee this week. If it became law, the House’s proposed budget would allocate around […]

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thompson Dietz last week released a public copy of an order refusing the government’s request to place a time limit on Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley’s stay as landlord at the Paducah Site in Kentucky The company seeks to reverse the judge’s ruling the company is too […]

While the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously rejected a 2018 workers compensation law affecting nuclear cleanup personnel at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, a state official predicted a revised version of the law approved earlier this year will survive. “Because the legislature already fixed the issues the federal government raised, there is little […]

Michael Nartker, the chief of staff for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, will leave the government to join DOE small-business contractor Longenecker & Associates, someone familiar with the move said Tuesday. Nartker has worked in various communications and external relations roles for DOE’s nuclear-weapons cleanup branch since 2015, capping his seven-year government […]

The National Defense Authorization Act passed early Thursday morning by the House Armed Services Committee roughly matches the White House’s modified request for the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons cleanup in 2023. The bill, an annual must-pass piece of legislation that sets policy and spending limits for military and civilian defense programs, would authorize DOE’s […]

The National Defense Authorization Act passed early Thursday morning by the House Armed Services Committee authorizes nearly $315 million more for the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons cleanup in 2023 than the White House originally requested. The bill, an annual must-pass piece of legislation that sets policy and spending limits for military and civilian defense […]

The Department of Energy says it is conceivable that one company or joint venture could win both multibillion-dollar contracts being sought at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. In an online filing last week, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said such an outcome is not out of the question, provided […]

The Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously struck down a 2018 Washington state law aimed at making it easier for Hanford Site workers to claim compensation for illnesses contracted on the job. The law unconstitutionally discriminated against federal workers and contractors, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in an opinion published Tuesday. Specifically, the court said, the state […]

Michael Nartker, the chief of staff for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, will leave the government to join DOE small-business contractor Longenecker & Associates, someone familiar with the move said Tuesday. Nartker has worked in various communications and external relations roles for DOE’s nuclear-weapons cleanup branch since 2015, capping his seven-year government […]

Proposed funding in the House for the Department of Energy’s nuclear power office was up slightly compared with the White House’s request, according to a draft of the lower chamber’s 2023 energy and water spending bill scheduled for debate Tuesday. If it became law, the House’s proposed budget would allocate around $1.78 billion to DOE’s […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget would increase year-over-year for 2023 but come up short against the Joe Biden administration’s request, under legislation a House subcommittee planned to debate on Tuesday. Meanwhile, under the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s recently unveiled bill, the budget for cleanup of shuttered nuclear-weapons production sites handled […]

Members of the public have about a week to submit their input on a proposed change to the Department of Energy’s civil nuclear credits program that would make a California nuclear power plant eligible for part of the federal bailout, the agency said last week. If adopted, the proposed amendment to DOE’s nuclear credits guidance […]

Completion of the depleted uranium conversion program at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky could take three decades or more, an agency boss told the Paducah Site Citizens Advisory Board in Kentucky last week. Even before the depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) plants in Paducah and the Portsmouth Site in Ohio went offline in […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management had 115 onsite cases of COVID-19 in the seven-days ended Thursday, unchanged from the week before, according to a spokesperson for the nuclear cleanup office. That’s 21 more onsite cases than the 94 the Office of Environmental Management confirmed during the week ended June 2 and about […]

The state of Michigan is still holding out hope that it can secure a federal bailout to breathe some life back into Palisades Nuclear Generating Station despite its closure last month, a spokesperson said this week. “We are working with potential buyers, operators, and stakeholders to keep this vital energy source and the 600 good-paying […]

The American public might be broadly receptive to recycling spent nuclear fuel, the Department of Energy’s recently confirmed assistant secretary for nuclear energy told a professional gathering this week. “I really hope that we can kind of bring some attention to the value in recycling spent nuclear fuel,” Kathryn Huff, the new head of DOE’s […]

It might be years before there is any legal way for the Department of Energy to build a federally operated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel before first building a permanent repository, the agency’s acting head of nuclear waste management said at an industry conference this week. “We recognize that there are a limited […]