DOE Rumored to Elevate New EM Leader ECA Staff June 7,
2017 POLITICO Pro reported Friday, June 2, that Jim Owendoff, a long-time DOE employee and one-time
Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Environmental Management (EM), has again been tapped as EM's new acting head. Owendoff would be replacing current Acting Assistant Secretary Susan
Cange.
ECA has not independently confirmed this news, and no clear timeline has been issued for when this change may occur. ECA remains supportive of securing a permanent nomination of the position as quickly as
possible.
DOE Nominee Clears Senate Committee; NRC Nomination Hearing Postponed ECA
Staff June 7,
2017 The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the nomination of Dan Brouillette as deputy Energy secretary 17-6.
Senators Al Franken (D-MN), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) voted against the nomination. Brouillette's nomination now awaits confirmation from the full Senate. Many expect a vote to take place before the July 4 congressional recess at the end of the
month.
The Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works has postponed its hearing on the nominations of Annie Caputo and David Wright and reappointment of Kristine Svinicki to the NRC as the White House has not yet submitted the necessary paperwork on the nominations. The hearing has been rescheduled for next Tuesday, June
13 at 10:00 am in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, details HERE. CONTRACTING & ACQUISITION DOE Awards Contract for WIPP Transportation Services Procurement DOE June 1, 2017 Cincinnati – The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center today announced the award of a contract to CAST Specialty Transportation, Inc. (CAST) of Henderson, Colorado for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) transportation services. The Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity contract will use firm-fixed price task orders, with some cost reimbursement (no fee) items, with an estimated value up to $112 million. There is a
five-year performance period, which includes a 60-day transition. >>Continue reading Contractor picked to guard Nevada National Security Site Washington Times June 1, 2017 LAS VEGAS (AP) - A subsidiary of a Virginia defense contractor has been awarded a contract paying up to $203 million over five years to guard a vast former nuclear proving ground outside Las Vegas, a spokesman for the agency overseeing the Nevada National Security Site said
Thursday.
The announcement that SOC LLC will take over security at the former Nevada Test Site comes after Mission Support and Test Services was awarded a $5
billion contract May 12 to manage and operate the 1,360-square-mile federal reservation and its related Nevada Field Office in North Las Vegas.
Mission Support and Test Services, based in Kansas, is a division of New Jersey-based Honeywell. >>Continue readingFERC Seeks Comments on Market Design Issues Affecting Nuclear Power Plants The National Law Review May 30, 2017 The agency requests comments on policies regarding state support for zero-carbon-emitting power plants.
On May 23, the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a notice inviting comments on the interplay between state policy goals and organized wholesale electricity markets. The referenced state policy goals involve state support for zero-carbon-emitting power plants, including nuclear power plants, generally in the form of tax
credits. >>Continue readingExelon: Still Time for Pennsylvania to Help Three Mile Island Bloomberg BNA May 26, 2017 Pennsylvania’s legislature still has time to help keep
Exelon Corp.'s financially struggling Three Mile Island nuclear plant operating, Exelon’s Joseph Dominguez told Bloomberg BNA.
“We’re continuing the discussion with policymakers that we really began six or seven months
ago: talking about the value proposition of nuclear, both from an environmental standpoint, as well as from fuel diversity and grid resilience standpoint,” Dominguez, Exelon’s vice president of governmental and regulatory affairs and public policy, told Bloomberg BNA May
31.
Exelon announced May 30 that it plans to prematurely close Three Mile Island by Sept. 30, 2019, due to financial losses at the plant from low wholesale power prices tied to the natural gas shale boom. In a statement
announcing those plans, the company identified some potential policies that could keep the plant viable, including amendments to the state’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard and the creation of a zero-emissions credit program. >>Continue readingARPA-E Tees Up First Advanced Nuclear Program ARPA-E May 26, 2017 The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA–E) intends to issue a new Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to support R&D on advanced
nuclear reactor technologies that enable safe, secure, and flexible energy production by nuclear fission with dramatically lower capital and operating costs. These technologies are expected to be deployed for electricity production and/or uses such as production of industrial process heat or
desalination.
ARPA-E is planning a new R&D program seeking
innovative designs of advanced nuclear power plants and computational validations of these designs that can achieve safe, secure, and economical power production. The envisioned program seeks transformative designs and manufacturing technologies to achieve semi-autonomous “walk-away safe” and secure operation; extremely low construction capital costs; and dramatically faster construction and commissioning times based on technologies such as modular assemblies and factory manufacturing.
>>Continue readingThomas Zacharia named as next director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory Knoxville News
Sentinel June 1, 2017 Veteran computer science researcher Thomas Zacharia has been named as the next director of Oak Ridge National
Laboratory.
Zacharia, who is credited with building ORNL into a global supercomputing power, most recently served as ORNL's deputy for science and technology, according to a news release Thursday from UT-Battelle, the partnership that operates ORNL for the U.S. Department of
Energy.
"Thomas has a compelling vision for the future of ORNL that is directly aligned with the U.S. Department of Energy's strategic priorities," said Joe DiPietro, chair of the UT-Battelle Board of Governors and president of the University of Tennessee.
>>Continue reading |
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| June 2017 | | 7 | Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Public Hearing on the Plutonium Facility at LANL |
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| June 2017 | | 7 | House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus
Event |
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| June 2017 | | 7-8 | EM SSAB Meeting, Hanford |
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| June
2017 | | 13 | Senate Hearing on NRC Nominations |
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| June 2017 | | 14 | INVITATION
ONLY
ECA High-Level Waste Committee Strategic Session |
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| June 2017 | | 14 | EM SSAB Meeting, Oak Ridge Reservation |
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| June 2017 | | 21 | EM SSAB Meeting, Nevada |
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| June 2017 | | 22 | EM SSAB Meeting, Idaho National
Laboratory |
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| August 2017 | | 8-9 | Intermountain Energy Summitt |
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| August
2017 | | 16-17 | INVITATION ONLY ECA Peer Exchange: Implementation of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Richland, WA |
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| September 2017 | | 5-7 | Radwaste Summitt 2017 Summerlin, NV |
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| September 2017 | | 12-14 | 2017 National Cleanup
Workshop Alexandria,
VA |
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| September 2017 | | 13 | House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus
Event Washington,
DC
|
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Find the most recent ECA Bulletin here |
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