Officials in Grand County, Utah joined Department of Energy representatives April 9 to celebrate removal of 16 million tons of tailings from a site next to the Colorado River as part of the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project. DOE said.
Commemorative plaques now honor the Moab Project that started in 2009, according to the news release. In September 2025, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said crews had removed the final 1 million tons from the old uranium mill site. The material has been relocated to an engineered landfill 30 miles away in Crescent Junction, Utah.
Work left to be done between now and 2029 includes digging up the remaining contaminated soil, completing an evaporation cover at the disposal cell site and drawing up a groundwater action plan, according to DOE.
Charles Nakhleh became the new deputy director for weapons at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico effective April 1, lab management announced recently.
Nakhleh assumes the post following the March 31 retirement of Robert Webster, who finished up a 40-year career with the nuclear security enterprise, according to a recent press release.
Nakhleh, who joined the lab 30 years ago, now assumes the helm of sections and program efforts linked with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) weapons programs, according to the press release. This includes roughly 6,000 employees and about $6 billion worth of infrastructure associated with NNSA weapons. This includes four lab directorates: weapons physics, weapons engineering, weapons production and plutonium infrastructure, Before being appointed deputy director, Nakhleh was most recently associate laboratory director for weapons physics, where he oversaw the lab’s weapons physics and design portfolio, according to the release. He also has spent six years at Sandia National Laboratories.
The former deputy manager of the Department of Energy’s field office in Carlsbad, N.M.,, now with Navarro Research & Engineering, encouraged qualified supervisors to apply for her old job.
“I can vouch for the job, the mission, the people, the community<’ Besty Forinash said in a recent LinkedIn post. “This is an amazing opportunity to do something meaningful, with full support across the organization and region. Forinash held the job until July 2025. The next month she joined Navarro as director of its transuranic waste program.
DOE recently advertised for the vacancy and was to quit taking applications April 15.
Japan has approved a study to survey the feasibility of one of its Ogasawara Islands to serve as a permanent repository for high-level radioactive waste, according to a Monday Japan Times article.
The selected island of Minamitorishima, which houses several government facilities, is Japan’s easternmost island and is 1,250 miles from Tokyo. The island also has no permanent residents and is closed off to the public. Ogasawara Mayor Masaki Shibuya approved the Japanese government’s literature study for Minamitorishima in a Monday meeting.
According to the article, the survey will include a review of available scientific data about the island’s geology, but will not conduct a field survey. A field survey will be conducted during the next phase of the process.
Cruise lines are considering nuclear power in an effort to reach net-zero carbon emissions, according to an article in the April edition of Lloyd’s Register.
According to the article, cruise lines are looking at methanol, natural gas, hydrogen and now advanced nuclear for baseload energy to power its many operations on a cruise ship. Lloyd’s Register, an United Kingdom-based technical and professional services company in the maritime sector, said that nuclear power offers high energy density and can generate continuous years without refueling.
“With nuclear, a ship effectively becomes its own self-contained microgrid,” Jez Sims, Lloyd’s Register director of nuclear technologies, said in the article. “You can remain alongside with zero emissions, keep hotel services running without interruption, and access ports or regions that are currently constrained by local power availability or environmental limits.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), whose district abuts Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said this week he plans to resign from Congress and withdraw from the California governor’s race following a series of sexual misconduct allegations.
At this point at least four women, including a former staffer, accused Swalwell, with one saying he drugged her before assaulting her, according to BBC.
Swalwell’s lawyer says Swalwell denies “each and every” allegation, calling them “false, fabricated, and deeply offensive,” according to the statement on Swalwell’s Facebook page.