U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette has started off the new year by giving more authority to DOE Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes, effectively making him acting second in command at the agency until a deputy is in place.
Brouillette said in a Jan. 10 email to Energy Department staff that to “ensure continued operational effectiveness,” Menezes now has authority to make decisions on DOE operations covering all areas save for the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
Energy Department operations, including human capital, cybersecurity, issues concerning property, security, among others, will fall under Menezes. “I have also delegated to him responsibility for exercising emergency authorities as well as rulemaking activities,” Brouillette wrote.
This will all be in addition to Menezes’ current duties as undersecretary of energy, which include being chief adviser on energy policy and technologies.
The onetime lobbyist for Berkshire Hathaway was confirmed by the Senate in November 2017 to serve under then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Deputy Secretary Brouillette. After the Senate last month confirmed Brouillette to succeed Perry, there have been rumors Menezes could ascend to the No. 2 spot at DOE.
However, no one has been formally nominated to fill the deputy position, which would require Senate confirmation. One source speculated Thursday the administration might not be in a hurry on most nominations while the Senate is considering impeachment articles against President Donald Trump.
Brouillette, a Louisiana native, is said to be close to Menezes, who is a graduate of Louisiana State University (LSU).
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November continued to spend just a few hundred dollars per month of its remaining balance from the federal Nuclear Waste Fund.
Spending of $238 for unspecified program planning and support left the agency with an unspent, unobligated balance of $405,977, according to the latest update to Congress regarding the fund intended to pay for the national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
The Department of Energy in 2008 filed its application with the NRC for a license to build and operate the geologic repository in Nye County, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Obama administration defunded the proceeding two years later, but a federal appeals court in August 2013 ordered the NRC to resume work using its carryover balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund.
Since then, the NRC has spent just over $13.1 million of the more than $13.5 million it had on hand at the time of the court ruling. The majority, nearly $8.4 million, was used to complete the safety evaluation report for the license application.
The minimal spending is in line with agency reports each month for the last year of spending less than $1,000 on program planning and support.
The agency’s $431,977 remaining balance covers $26,223 in “unexpended obligations,” according to the new report. Those primarily involve contracts for the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses and contracts for a January 2018 virtual meeting of the Licensing Support Network Advisory Review Panel.
The Nuclear Waste Fund was established by the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which directed the Energy Department to build a permanent repository for the nation’s high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors. Congress amended the law in 1987 to direct that the repository be dug under Yucca Mountain.
Nuclear utilities paid into the fund through 2014, when the Obama administration suspended billing. As of the end of fiscal 2019 on Sept. 30 of last year, the fund had a total balance of $40.9 billion, according to the Energy Department.
Stakeholders have until March 10 to file a petition with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a hearing to raise concerns about SHINE Medical Technologies’ license application to operate a medical isotope production plant in Janesville, Wis.
The federal agency in October began its full technical review of the company’s July 2019 application, according to a Jan. 10 notice in the Federal Register. That includes the opportunity for potentially impacted parties to request to intervene in the proceeding.
The NRC in 2016 authorized SHINE to build its molybdenum-99 production facility. Construction began last spring. With federal approval, management hopes to reach commercial levels of output of the isotope by 2022.
The 43,000-square-foot plant will contain accelerator-based technology for production. Specifically, it will encompass two main components: an irradiation facility with eight operating assemblies for irradiation of low-enriched uranium; and a production facility with hot cells to process the irradiate material and then recover and purify molybdenum-99.
Petitioners must demonstrate standing for intervention and a hearing in the licensing, including citing details of their right to become a party to the proceeding and their “property, financial, or other interest in the proceeding,” according to the Federal Register notice. They must also outline specific contentions that would be raised against the project at a hearing.
“Each contention,” the NRC said, “must consist of a specific statement of the issue of law or fact to be raised or controverted.”
Molybdenum-99 decays into the isotope technetium-99m, which is used widely on a global scale for medical diagnostics and other procedures – including over 40,000 procedures daily in the United States alone. SHINE and other U.S. companies are working to restore a domestic production capacity after decades of reliance on foreign suppliers.
In its 2019 report, SHINE said it raised $150 million last year for its work.
“SHINE expects to continue its strong progress during 2020,” founder and CEO Greg Piefer said in the report. “We will complete the construction of our main production building in Janesville; continue to develop lutetium-177, our first therapeutic product; and work to identify the site of our European facility. These and other 2020 goals support the continued advancement of SHINE’s purpose: to improve the world with nuclear technology with a commercially practical, growth based approach.”
Bud Albright, who chairs the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council, will step in as interim president and CEO of the organization following the Dec. 29 death of David Blee.
The Nuclear Industry Council said on Jan. 6 that its Board of Directors selected Albright, an undersecretary of energy for former President George W. Bush, as interim leader pending a search for a permanent successor to Blee.
Albright, chairman of NIC since last year, was energy undersecretary under the late Samuel Bodman, and also served as staff director for the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee. He is CEO of Albright Strategies, a Washington, D.C.-area consulting firm. Other private industry posts held by Albright include being a principal at Ogilvy Government Relations from 2014 to 2017 and senior vice president of policy and government affairs for Center Point Energy from 2010 to 2014.
Blee, 66, died unexpectedly in a Kentucky hospital following an extreme adverse reaction to medications he was taking for a cold. Blee led the Nuclear Industry Council since its inception in 2004 as the U.S. Transport Council. The nuclear advocacy group has more than 80 members, including utilities, engineering and construction companies, technology firms, and suppliers.
Before NIC, Blee held many positions at the Department of Energy, including principal deputy assistant secretary of energy and director of public affairs, according to an online biography. He was also chief of staff for now-retired U.S. Congressman Connie Mack III (R-Fla.), who served in first the House of Representatives and later the Senate.
The board is starting a search for a new executive leader “to continue building on the legacy of advancing the U.S. nuclear industry through the organization that David Blee created and grew,” NIC said in its press release.
In addition to promoting nuclear energy and advanced reactors, the organization also supports Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing of the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada, and prioritization of cleanup at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management.
Jackie Quintyne, a Chicago native with 19 years of conference planning experience, has been named conference manager for the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix.
The annual WM Symposia in March is the largest international conference for the management of radioactive material and related topics. It provides a forum for discussing cost-effective and environmentally responsible solutions for the safe management and disposal of radioactive waste and materials, WMS said in a press release.
Quintyne has significant experience in planning and managing large conferences and forums. She has worked for WMS in the past as a lead conference planner.
Quintyne has a bachelor of science degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago and later earned a master’s in business administration from DePaul University in Chicago. She replaces Melanie Ravalin, who left to pursue another opportunity, according to WMS.
The 2020 Waste Management Symposia is scheduled for March 8 through 12 at the Phoenix Convention Center.
From The Wires
From Energy Voice: Questions raised about schedule for decommissioning of the former Dounreay fast-breeder reactor site in Scotland.
From The Mainichi: Japanese mixed-oxide nuclear fuel cannot be additionally reprocessed for further use.
From the CBC: Four reactors at the Pickering nuclear power plant in Ontario, Canada, could operation for an additional year past their scheduled 2024 closure date.
From Nuclear Engineering International: Progress reported in decommissioning the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania.
