Wrap up: Cortez Masto meets Chris Wright; IAEA reports explosions this week at Zaporizhzhya; Pantex’s high explosives facility ribbon cutting; nominations open for Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board; more

Sen. Catherine Cotez Masto (D-Nev.) said on the website X Thursday that she met with Chris Wright, president-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Energy.

“I sat down yesterday with Chris Wright to discuss his nomination to the Department of Energy,” Cortez Masto, whose district abuts the Nevada National Security Site, said on the site. “As we prepare to hear from him before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I will continue to review his qualifications and reiterate Nevada’s priorities.”

Wright will be considered for nomination by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Wednesday, Jan. 15.

Staff from the International Atomic Energy Agency reported hearing loud blasts, coinciding with what the agency said was a drone attack on the plant’s training center, near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant on Sunday.

The team stationed at Zaporizhzhya reported hearing two loud explosions at 12:45 and 15:45, according to a press release on IAEA’s website. The team also reported hearing machine gun fire at the site on multiple occasions.

The IAEA said there were no casualties, and no impact on equipment at the plant. However, the team said there was an increase in intensity of military activities surrounding the site on Sunday.

The Pantex Plant’s Advanced Fabrication Facility is ready for use, replacing 80-year-old buildings at the site, according to a press release by the plant about the facility’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The AFF is 20,000 square feet and cost approximately $21 million to build. According to the press release, Pantex would aim to provide a “more efficient and cleaner workspace” for developing and testing high explosives.

“The AFF will enable Pantex to support Weapon Modernization Program production, which directly impacts deliverables to our Department of Defense customer and global security for the nation,” Jason Armstrong, Pantex’s field office manager, said in the release. Pantex broke ground on the facility in 2022.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine seeks submissions for experts to serve on its Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board, the body said Monday.

The deadline to submit a nomination is Feb. 2, according to a press release. The Board is seeking four new members with expertise in nuclear engineering and fuel cycle, nuclear waste management, national security and terrorism, nuclear safety, epidemiology and radiation statistics, radiation research and health effects, or radiation protection.

If elected as a board member, an expert would be expected to serve a term of three years and to attend two annual meetings.

The National Nuclear Security Administration agreed in late November to have the Office of Naval Reactors conduct an independent analysis on cost and schedule inefficiencies in the Spent Fuel Handling Facility project, according to its response to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

The Office of Naval Reactors, jointly managed by NNSA and the U.S. Navy, is constructing a new facility to upgrade its handling of spent fuel for naval reactors. The GAO found that scheduling delays and cost increases — which NNSA administrator Jill Hruby attributed in her response to COVID-19, a volatile market and poor subcontractor performance — amounted to around $2 million.

The GAO conducted this report under the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which included a provision from Senate Report 118-58 accompanying the Act for GAO to review the status for naval spent fuel and its related facilities.