Oklo, a California-based developer of small modular reactors, announced plans to build two new nuclear units near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, according to a May 18 press release.
Oklo’s commercial power plants will provide up to 30 megawatts of non-carbon emitting electric power, and more than 50 megawatts of heating, with opportunities to expand, the company said of its agreement with the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative.
The project would benefit from a DOE Office of Nuclear Energy grant to support the advanced reactor technology development and the use of former nuclear sites, Oklo said. The company must still secure a combined construction and operations license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In January 2022, the commission rejected such a license for a similar reactor in Idaho, saying there were too many information gaps, but added Oklo can submit a complete application in the future.
Monica Regalbuto, a Department of Energy executive at the Idaho National Laboratory, received the 2023 University of Notre Dame Graduate School Distinguished Alumni Award, the College of Engineering announced in a May 16 press release. Notre Dame issues the award annually to a grad “who has contributed significantly to scholarship, research or society.”
“I am humbled and honored,” Regalbuto posted May 21 on her LinkedIn page, adding some photos from the May 20 graduation ceremony. Regalbuto holds both a masters and a doctorate from the university in South Bend, Ind.
Regalbuto leads the integrated fuel cycle strategic initiative, which includes the high assay low enrich uranium (HALEU) program at the Idaho lab. In 2015, she was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate as DOE assistant secretary for the multi-billion-dollar Office of Environmental Management. Regalbuto led the nuclear cleanup program for about two years, until August 2017.
Virginia-based Department of Energy weapons complex contractor Amentum selected a longtime information technology manager, Luis German, as its new chief information officer, the company said in a Monday press release.
German, who holds a doctorate in science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has served as chief information officer at Visteon, which provides automotive cockpit electronics, according to the press release. German helped his prior company deal with an international computer chip shortage. Before Visteon, he spent almost 20 years at Tenaris, a manufacturer of pipes and services for energy and industrial purposes.
A formal groundbreaking ceremony was held May 11 at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee to kick off site work for K-25 Viewing Platform that will be built by Geiger Brothers, DOE said in a press release May 16.
Geiger Brothers won a $9.9 million contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in March. Smee + Busby Architects designed the K-25 Viewing Platform at the site of the one-time uranium enrichment complex at the federal site; DOE remediation contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge will provide engineering support to the Corps, according to the release.
Demolition of all the K-25 enrichment-related buildings was completed in 2020. The K-25 Viewing Platform, which should be built and open to the public next year, will be next to the recently opened K-25 History Center.