The House of Representatives passed all six nuclear energy-related bills this week that address varying facets of the nuclear fuel cycle in an effort to streamline licensing and construct more nuclear capacity.
On the first day back following the midterm election, six nuclear energy bills hit the House floor after advancing out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in September. The legislation will move to the Senate for committee review.
On Monday, the Nuclear REFUEL (Recycling Efficient Fuels Utilizing Expedited Licensing) Act, which would make it easier to license certain spent fuel reprocessing facilities, passed out of the House in a resounding 397 – 2 vote. The American Enrichment Deployment Act, that seeks to accelerate licensing for uranium enrichment facilities, also sailed through a 394 – 3 vote.
Baton Rouge, La.-based APTIM said Nov. 3 that it has selected Chuck Prow as its new chairman and CEO effective Monday Nov. 9.
Prow succeeds Mark Fallon, who has headed APTIM since April 2020. Fallon is stepping down “to pursue other ventures,” APTIM said in last week’s announcement. Prow most recently served as CEO of V2X, a leading defense infrastructure management and technology firm, and has more than 30 years of experience in critical infrastructure and growth strategy, APTIM said in the release.
“Prow led the formation of V2X following the merger of The Vertex Company with Vectrus, where he served as CEO since 2017,” according to the APTIM release. Prow will work closely with Chief Financial Officer Jon Grant to further solidify APTIM’s “position as a premier government services provider,” according to the release.
Reaching agreement on when land at Department of Energy nuclear sites is clean enough to be transferred back to local control, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a blog this week, which is an outgrowth of an October GAO report.
“What happens to land when it is finally cleaned up? DOE has been working with local communities since the 1990s on just that,” according to the blog by Nathan Anderson, GAO’s director of natural resources and environment. “ This too is a negotiation of sorts. “
Four of six DOE nuclear sites studied by GAO are being remediated with industrial use in mind, while two others are looking at residential development.
Westinghouse has hired Dayan Abeyaratne to become the company’s chief commercial officer, succeeding Jacques Besnainou.
Besnainou will move to an executive advisor role in a corresponding move. In Abeyaratne’s new position of chief commercial officer, he will lead Westinghouse’s “global new plant dealmaking and strategic external affairs,” according to the company’s Monday press release. Abeyaratne will manage the company’s global corporate affairs sector.
Westinghouse said Abeyaratne brings over 25 years of experience to his new position.
The National Nuclear Security Administration has removed a high-risk cesium-137 source from a hospital in Manaus, Brazil, in a U.S.-led operation aimed at reducing radiological security risks.
NNSA’s Y-12 National Security Complex worked with Brazilian officials in September to safely disassemble, package and transport the source, which had been used in a blood irradiator at the Amazonas Hematology and Hemotherapy Hospital Foundation.
Earlier this year, NNSA provided the hospital with an X-ray blood irradiator as a replacement, allowing it to continue treating blood products without relying on radioactive material. The Brazil operation marks NNSA’s eighth international radioactive-source removal in the past three years.
