The Department of Energy nuclear cleanup office has awarded $15-million in financial help to the Georgia-based Southern States Energy Board to provide technical assistance in moving transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
The agreement, announced Thursday by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, starts Nov. 1 and runs five years through Oct. 31, 2030. The Southern States Energy Board formed a panel more than a decade ago to address transuranic waste transportation issues.
Kentucky, the home of DOE’s Paducah Site; South Carolina, the home of DOE’s Savannah River Site and Tennessee, the home of the Oak Ridge Site, are all member states in the Southern States Energy Board.
Orano and Zeno Power have agreed to work together to secure a supply chain of americium-241 from Orano’s spent nuclear fuel recycling operations in France.
Through the agreement, Zeno will make a multi-million-dollar investment to gain priority access to large quantities of americium-241 annually from Orano’s la Hague used fuel treatment and recycling site in Normandy, France, according to Orano’s Wednesday press release.
Zeno is a privately held company, with offices in Washington, D.C. and Seattle, that develops radioisotope power systems (RPS) that convert recycled nuclear materials into batteries. It will use americium-241 secured from Orano’s fuel recycling for its space nuclear batteries, according to the release. Orano and Zeno have been cooperating awhile, Orano said. The two companies explored industrial production of americium-241 powder at the la Hague site in 2022.
Brandon Williams, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the National Nuclear Security Administration, was sworn into his role Thursday morning, according to James McConnell, NNSA’s associate principal deputy administrator.
McConnell announced the news during a panel discussion shortly after 10 a.m. Eastern Time at the Department of Energy’s National Cleanup Workshop in Arlington, Va.
Ted Garrish, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, was to be swron in Friday, according to a DOE Office of Nuclear Energy spokesperson.
Garrish has held the lead role of the Office of Nuclear Energy once before during the Ronald Reagan administration in the late 1980s. Garrish, like Brandon Williams at NNSA, was confirmed by the full Senate on Sept. 18.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Energy nominees for undersecretary of science and general counsel were among those winning confirmation in a 51-to-47 Senate floor vote last week.
Dario Gil, the White House nominee for DOE undersecretary of science, and Jonathan Brightbill, the general council nominee, were both among those winning confirmation Sept. 18.
Gil had been reported out of committee in May as did Brightbill. They were among 48 nominees approved en banc last week.
Savannah River National Laboratory has named Dana Hewit as its deputy laboratory director for operations, effective mid-October.
Hewit formerly led the Office of Integrated Performance Management at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory prior to her recent appointment at SRNL.
“Dana brings deep experience in laboratory operations and a proven record of leadership,” SRNL director Johney Green said in a Sept. 15 press release. “Her expertise will be instrumental in strengthening SRNL’s operational capabilities as we continue to expand our mission impact.”
Deep Isolation has signed a licensing agreement with Navarro Research and Engineering.
The licensing agreement gives Navarro access to Deep Isolation’s patented borehole repository systems and canisters technologies for nuclear and hazardous waste management applications across the states of Idaho and Tennessee, according to Deep Isolation’s Sept. 18 press release.
While Navarro will leverage Deep Isolation’s intellectual property for nuclear solutions, the Berkeley, Calif.-based nuclear waste disposal technology company will still maintain ownership of all of its intellectual property. Navarro, based in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is a small company with several major Department of Energy contracts such as leading a team managing the 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Washington state.