While many companies--foreign and domestic--are engaged in advancing the nuclear renaissaance, one company stands out for its reputation and deep involvement in the evolution of commercial nuclear power over a period of decades. In this week’s episode, host Michael Butler takes a look at what Bechtel is doing today to further advanced nuclear technology in the U.S. and abroad. Our guest is Ahmet Tokpinar, Principal Vice President and General Manager of Bechtel’s nuclear power business iine.&n...
The 2025 Nuclear Opportunities Workshop sponsored by the East Tennessee Economic Council in Knoxville continues to yield newsworthy stories for the Gone Fission podcast. This week, host Michael Butler talks with Tennessee Valley Authority Vice President Greg Borschieg about TVA's plans to build a small modular reactor on the Clinch River site in Oak Ridge. In May, TVA became the first American utility to apply for a construction permit to build an SMR. Learn more about this ...
In this week’s episode of the Gone Fission podcast, Host Michael Butler reports on major news developments in the nuclear renaissance and the Department of Energy’s enviromental cleanup program. Oklo is building a new spent fuel recycling facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. TVA is partnering with Kairos to purchase power from a new Kairos reactor. The Savannah River National Laboratory’s Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative is open for business at USC-Aiken. And we’ll meet Mike Deane, host of t...
Charles Oppenheimer, the grandson of atomic pioneer Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, is Michael Butler’s guest on this week’s episode of the Gone Fission podcast. Ironically, this episode drops two days before August 6 which will be the 80th anniversary of America's use of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, a pivotal event that launched the end of World War II--and one in which Charles Oppenheimer's grandfather, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, played a major role. Charles and Michael sat down a...
In this week’s episode, Host Michael Butler discusses plans to expand the Gone Fission podcast’s coverage to include the emerging nuclear renaissance. The expanded coverage begins later this month at the Nuclear Opportunities Workshop in Knoxville, Tennessee. Sponsored by the East Tennessee Economic Council (ETEC), the Workshop is expected to attract more than 800 attendees representing major companies in the nuclear industry. Topics will include small modular reactors, advanced r...
The Gone Fission Nuclear Report launches Season 5 with a new episode featuring a discussion with Amir Vexler, President and CEO of Centrus Energy Group. Centrus is playing a vital role in nuclear renaissance with its manufacturing of uranium enrichment centrifuges in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and operation of the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. The size of the Pentagon, the plant is pioneering the development of High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU), expected to be a cru...
It’s being called the largest investment in the history of the State of Tennessee. Orano USA has announced plans to build a new multi-billion dollar, state-of-the-art centrifuge uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge. The facility will provide fuel for America’s nuclear power plants and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign sources, including Russia. In this week’s episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report, host Michael Butler discusses this exciting project with Orano USA President Jean-Luc Pala...
Most of us have probably dealt with landlords at one time or another in our personal or business lives. But did you know that Department of Energy sites around the country also have landlords--DOE offices that are responsible for operation and maintenance of the site as a whole?This week’s episode covers the recent change of DOE landlord at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. After nearly three decades, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is taking over land...
Community input is essential to the success of the Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup program. Much of the most essential feedback comes from the Site Specific Advisory Boards (SSAB) composed of local community volunteers. These local members take their own time to become educated about local cleanup issues and make recommendations to DOE about cleanup priorities and approaches. In this week's episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report, host Michael Butler talks with Kel...
With a new Administration taking office in January, the Energy Communities Alliance has released a detailed report calling for a top-to-bottom review of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management program. In this week’s episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report podcast, ECA Executive Director Seth Kirshenberg shares with Host Michael Butler the eight recommendations his organization believes can help the cleanup program better accomplish its formidable mission. Visit the Gone Fissio...
This week, the Gone Fission Nuclear Report features an interview with Candice Robertson, the Department of Energy’s recently appointed Senior Advisor to the Office of Environmental Management (EM-1). Host Michael Butler caught up with her at the 10th Annual National Cleanup Workshop in Washington, D.C. The occasion also marked the 35th anniversary of creation of the Office of Environmental Management. Ms. Robertson gives her assessment of the current state of DOE’s environmental cleanup...
Each year, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management publishes a list of cleanup priorities for its sites around the country. Progress in the cleanup program is measured by how well these milestones are met. This week, the Gone Fission Nuclear Report joins in celebrating completion a major cleanup goal on DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. It’s a comprehensive soil remediation project that DOE calls “Vision 2024.” Our guest is Joanna Hardin, DOE Federal Potfol...
The Gone Fission Nuclear Report travels to the nation’s capital this week to join a national conversation on next steps for identifying a community to host interim spent fuel storage from America’s nuclear power plants. Our podcast sponsor, the Energy Communities Alliance, convened a meeting of elected officials, community leaders, economic developers and Department of Energy officials to discuss what kind of incentives a community will need--and what kind of economic benefits can accrue--fro...
Our guest on this week’s episode is John Eschenberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of Central Plateau Cleanup Company in Hanford Washington. An Amentum-led partnership with Fluor and Atkins, CPCCO is responsible for managing site operations, facility deactivation, decommissioning, decontamination and demolition, waste-site remediation, and transuranic waste management on Hanford’s central plateau and along the Columbia River corridor. It is a challenging and hazardous assignment and a...
This is the time of year when hundreds of interns descend on DOE sites around the country. They are eager and enthusiastic, ready to soak up new information gleaned from being out of the classroom and on the job. They are a critical part of the essential pipeline that will ensure the Department of Energy's Environmental Management program will have enough qualified workers to fulfill its cleanup mission in the decades ahead. In this week's episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report podc...
DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month. Called the “Swiss army knife of Environmental Management”, the EMCBC is a multi-faceted organization, serving as the centralized hub for procurement, financial management, and technical support for DOE’s environmental management program. The EMCBC oversees the cleanup of smaller contaminated sites, including former nuclear production facilities, research laboratories, and uraniu...
The Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup program is more than tearing down aging, contaminated buildings. In this week’s episode of the Gone Fission Nuclear Report, we’ll take a look at another dimension of cleanup--the conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride—or UF6--at Paducah, Kentucky, and Portsmouth, Ohio. A by-product of the conversion process is hydrofluoric acid which has wide applications in industry--from pharmaceuticals and refrigerants to aluminum, plastics,...
On April 27, 2024, more than 650 former workers at the historic K-25 gaseous diffusion plant in Oak Ridge, TN, came together for their first-ever reunion. As Daniel Dassow wrote in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, it was the first time many had driven their private cars into the complex, the first time they weren’t required to show a badge and perhaps the first time they had seen K-25 as a field site with no large buildings left. In this week’s Gone Fission Nuclear Report podcast, Host Michael Bu...
Thousands of workers show up each day to advance the environmental cleanup mission at DOE sites around the country. They are talented and dedicated but for the most part their work goes unheralded without awards or accolades. In this week’s Gone Fission Nuclear Report host Michael Butler talks with a DOE official who has been singled out by the Secretary of Energy for a major performance award. Jud Lilly, a DOE executive at the Portsmouth OH site, has been named Federal Project Director of th...
The Department of Energy’s 17 national laboratories conduct research and development on some of the world’s most vexing challenges—from climate change to the origins of the universe. Most recently, six labs have turned their attention to speeding cleanup of underground tank waste at DOE’s Hanford site in Washington State. The labs are using $27 million in DOE funding to research everything from tank integrity and the impact of corrosion to robotic handling of tank waste. Estimates...