Zeno Power, a Seattle-based maker of nuclear batteries, has selected the Vallecitos Nuclear Center in Sunol, Calif. For a manufacturing facility, the company said Thursday.
Additionally, Zeno also partnered with nuclear decommissioning company NorthStar to help restore specialized hot cell infrastructure to produce nuclear batteries purposed for commercial, defense and space uses, according to the company’s press release.
In March 2025, GE Hitachi Vernova closed on a deal to transfer its ownership of the shuttered plant to NorthStar to complete nuclear decommissioning and eventual site restoration at Vallecitos. Zeno said NorthStar’s decommissioning work will take place in parallel with its manufacturing activities. The Vallecitos complex, a 1,600-acre nuclear research facility located 40 miles east of San Francisco, housed the country’s first privately owned nuclear power plant in the 1950s. The Vallecitos power plant, licensed by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), operated from 1957 to 1963.
Veolia Nuclear Solutions – Federal Services (VNSFS) has appointed Jennie Stults as its vice president of Strategy & Growth, the company announced this week.
Stults, who has about 30 years of experience in environmental remediation and business development, was most recently vice president of business development for Amentum’s North American energy and environmental business, according to the Veolia Nuclear Solutions press release.
Stults, who joined VNSFS on June 8, has also worked as deputy manager for Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co. at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
Earlier in her career, Stults worked for organizations such as CH2M Hill, the Washington state Department of Ecology and DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Navarro Research and Engineering has entered into a strategic partnership with New York-based Quadrant Nuclear Industries to support the growing demands of the advanced nuclear industry, Navarro said this week.
According to Navarro’s press release, through the agreement Quadrant Nuclear plans to combine its experience in advanced nuclear technology development and project execution Navarro’s expertise in regulatory compliance, engineering, environmental services and waste management.
Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Navarro does a lot of Department of Energy nuclear contract work in locations such as the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the Idaho National Laboratory and the Nevada National Security Site. Quadrant is a nuclear solutions company with a focus on nuclear fuel production and fuel recycling. According to the release, the company has been doing work at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory focused on solutions for reprocessing used fuel.
A construction company has broken ground on an $11 million procurement warehouse for the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Program (SRPPF).
Hensel Phelps, the general contractor for the facility, said in its June 12 news release that the warehouse will be 22,000 square feet and is slated for completion in March 2027. The warehouse will provide procurement and logistics for SRPPF, with a long-term goal of supporting plutonium pit production at the 310-square-mile Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
“Hensel Phelps is constructing the SRPPF warehouse as a non-radiological procurement support facility that provides critical procurement and logistics functions for plutonium processing and the production of plutonium pits at the site,” the contractor said in the release. This facility supports a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plan to produce at least 80 plutonium pits per year, the company said. The warehouse is a collaborative effort between Hensel Phelps, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and NNSA, a semiautonomous branch of the Department of Energy.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was hospitalized Sunday according to reports from national news organizations.
“Senator McConnell was admitted to the hospital this morning,” spokesperson David Popp said in a statement,” quoted by NBC News and other major outlets. “He is receiving excellent care.” Popp did not share additional details, according to the NBC report.
McConnell, 84, the former longtime Senate GOP leader is not seeking re-election. He is currently a member of the Senate Appropriations and Senate Rules Committees.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who has sued the Department of Energy while in his current post, will face Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in a primary runoff on June 23 to determine who will be the Republican nominee for governor in the November election.
President Donald Trump has endorsed Evette while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has endorsed Wilson. Before becoming lieutenant governor, Evette was CEO of a payroll and human resources company, according to her bio. Wilson is the adopted son of Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.). Wilson is a colonel in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps for the South Carolina Army National Guard and was previously deployed to Iraq. As attorney general, Wilson was part of a legal settlement with DOE over the cancelled mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility at the Savannah River Site.
In a six-candidate primary field, Evette claimed 29% of the vote to Wilson’s 26%, according to South Carolina election results. Because neither candidate won 50%, the top two vote getters advance to the June 23 runoff. The winner will face Jermaine Johnson, who won the Democratic Primary with nearly 60% of the vote in a three-way primary race. Johnson is a former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives who played basketball professionally in Mexico and Europe.
Exchange Monitor will be closed on Friday June 19 in observance of the Juneteenth holiday.