The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has removed all high-risk cesium-137 from Vermont, making it the 15th U.S. state or territory declared free of high-risk quantities of the radioactive material.
This follows a July operation in which a team from Idaho National Laboratory removed a self-shielded cesium irradiator from the University of Vermont in Burlington as part of NNSA’s Cesium Irradiator Replacement Project (CIRP). Cesium-137 is used in medical and industrial applications, including blood irradiation, but can be used to create a radiological dispersal device, or “dirty bomb,” if obtained by malicious actors.
“The safe removal of high-risk cesium from Vermont marks another milestone in safeguarding the United States under the leadership of President Trump,” Matthew Napoli, NNSA deputy administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, said in an agency press release last week. Vermont is the third state to complete a high-risk radioactive material cleanout through NNSA programs in 2026, following North Dakota and South Carolina. Other states and territories declared free of high-risk cesium include Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Wyoming.
Huntington Ingalls Industries has received a $336 million undefinitized contract award from the U.S. Navy to begin procuring long-lead materials for the planned CVN 82 aircraft carrier, the company announced Sept. 11.
The award, through HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division, will support advanced procurement of propulsion plant materials needed for future construction of the nuclear-powered carrier. HII said the contract will also provide a demand signal to suppliers supporting the nation’s aircraft carrier industrial base.
Newport News Shipbuilding Vice President of Program Management Bryan Caccavale said procuring the materials is a “critical first step” in planning for CVN 82. Newport News is the Navy’s sole designer and builder of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., will spend about half of 2027 down for maintenance, DOE and contractor officials told the National Cleanup Workshop here Tuesday.
WIPP will be essentially offline and not receiving waste for two three-month cycles during 2027, said Ken Harrawood, president and general manager of Bechtel-led Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, which manages WIPP for DOE. Three months offline will be followed by three months online to catch up on transuranic waste shipments. This sequence will happen twice in 2027, Harrawood said.
The outages are being used for needed underground hoist upgrades at the salt mine site, Harrawood said. Even when WIPP is not receiving waste in 2027 it can still excavate salt mine panels to make space for the transuranic waste disposal, Harrawood said.
The New Mexico State Land Office issued an executive order Sept. 4 that would ban any new uranium mining activities in the state.
The order, issued by New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, pushes for the state agency to prioritize nuclear cleanup at legacy uranium sites, according to a press statement. It will also push for the uranium industry and federal government to address the state’s legacy complications caused by uranium production.
New Mexico is home to over 1,000 past uranium mining, milling and drilling sites, and the state agency said around 250 of the sites are considered abandoned. The state has had a storied history with nuclear energy, playing a role with its large uranium ore reserves and serving as a prominent headquarters and testing ground at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Manhattan Project during World War II.
Obituary
Former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who served in Congress for 26 years and frequently spoke on issues of nuclear deterrence and the national laboratories on the floor, died at 84 Thursday.
Kyl was a member of the House of Representatives from 1987 to 1995, before serving as a Senator from 1995 to 2013. He briefly returned to the Senate in the final months of 2018 following the death of John McCain, but then resigned to make way for the appointment of Martha McSally.
“I was saddened to learn of Senator Jon Kyl’s passing yesterday,” a post on LinkedIn by the ANWA Deterrence Center said. Not long after he retired from the U.S. Senate, Jeff Crater and I found ourselves asking a difficult question: who would now champion our nation’s strategic nuclear deterrent—especially the vital work carried out by the NNSA and its national laboratories and weapons plants… His retirement marked the end of an era.”