The Idaho congressional delegation last week urged Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to prioritize preparation of spent nuclear fuel at the Idaho National Laboratory for shipment out of state by the end of 2034.
The Energy Department should follow the U.S. Navy’s lead in getting spent fuel at INL “road ready,” according to an April 8 letter from Sens. Mike Crapo and James Risch, along with Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher, all Republicans
The lawmakers said they want DOE “to begin loading of spent nuclear fuel into a multi-purpose canister (MPC) at the Idaho National Laboratory using existing facilities.”
Roughly 300 pounds of special nuclear material, such as plutonium and uranium-233, came to INL from out-of-state nuclear sites.
A 1995 agreement between Idaho, DOE, and the Navy allowed the federal entities to ship a certain amount of spent fuel into the state in phases for nuclear energy research. The agreement also bound them to remove all pre-existing spent fuel from INL by Jan. 1, 2035.
Last November, Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Attorney General Lawrence Wasden reached a deal with the federal government to supplement the 1995 agreement to allow research quantities of commercial spent nuclear fuel to enter the site. The agreement is contingent upon DOE reaching certain cleanup milestones at the lab, including shipment of transuranic waste out of state and startup of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit.
Environmental and construction services provider APTIM on April 10 announced its second new chief executive officer in a year.
Mark Fallon will assume the CEO position on April 20, according to an APTIM press release. He succeeds Michael Donnelly, who was appointed chief executive officer in April 2019 and is retiring.
“We are pleased to welcome Mark to APTIM as CEO,” Ramzi Musallam, CEO and managing partner of APTIM owner Veritas Capital, said in a press release. “Mark brings over twenty-five years of experience across both the government and the commercial markets that APTIM serves and is an ideal fit to lead APTIM going forward. We are confident that Mark’s strategic leadership will help us position APTIM for long-term success.”
APTIM has more than 4,000 ongoing projects globally in spheres including engineering, program management, disaster recovery, and facility maintenance.
The company is also in a partnership with North Wind to build a mercury treatment facility for $92 million near the Y-12 National Security Complex at the Oak Ridge site in Tennessee.
Among other work, it decommissioned the nuclear power reactor on the STURGIS barge for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It also provides maintenance and other services for nuclear power plants owned by Exelon.
Fallon since August 2018 had served as president and CEO for both Envirocon and Modern Machinery, two subsidiaries of the Washington Cos., according to his LinkedIn profile. He had held that role at Envirocon from October 2016, after more than six years with CH2M. He did an earlier stint as a CH2M vice president from 1998 to 2004.
Fallon is a member of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Advisory Board, which provides independent guidance on cleanup of 16 nuclear-weapon sites dating to the Manhattan Project and Cold War.
Donnelly had been with APTIM since 2018, and was promoted to CEO last April. His over 35-year career included stops at AECOM, Raytheon, URS, and other companies.
