Vol. 26, No. 07 
Senate Passes Short-term Budget Patch, Needs Biden’s Signature
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Budget & Policy
Deal Makes Clear DOE to ‘Fully Cooperate’ With DNFSB Fact Finding at Nuke Sites
The Department of Energy is required to “fully cooperate” with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and will restrict access in only limited cases such as when a representative of the safety watchdog lacks “an appropriate security clearance,” according to a deal reached this week. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the two parties have […]
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Stockpile Stewardship
Livermore’s Nimble Series of Subcritical Experiments on Deck at NNSS
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Nimble series of subcritical experiments, the next in line at the test site after Los Alamos’ Nightshade Series, was scheduled to run at least through Sept. 30, a lab official said last week. “We’re targeting Nimble to be done by the end of FY22 or the beginning of FY23,” Bradley […]
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Uranium Enrichment & Fuel Cycle
Deadline Looming for Those Interested in New HALEU Contract at Portsmouth
About a week remained as of Friday for interested parties to express interest to the Department of Energy about running a demonstration project in Ohio to produce hundreds of kilograms of high assay low enriched uranium for the department. DOE envisions a contract lasting as long as 10 years. The first year could call for […]
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Contracts & Procurement
NNSA Considering Small Biz for Oversight of Planned DUF4 Line
The National Nuclear Security Administration, which requires a regular supply of depleted uranium tetrafluoride for future nuclear-weapon refurbishments, may let a small business coordinate production and delivery of that material to the agency, according to a request for information released last week. The nuclear-weapons agency plans to acquire the uranium tetrafluoride by converting stocks of […]
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Naval Nuclear Propulsion
Classified Secrets, Cypto, PB Sandwich Get Ex-Naval Reactors Employee 12-Plus Years in Prison
A former Naval Reactors employee from Maryland will spend at least 12-and-a-half years in federal prison after his amateur spycraft got him pinched last year by an undercover FBI agent posing as a foreign buyer of U.S. nuclear-propulsion secrets, the Justice Department said. Jonathan Toebbe, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to communicate […]
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Plutonium Pit Production
Counties Surrounding SRS Would Take Lion’s Share of DOE Plutonium Settlement Money, Under State Senate’s Plan
In the state Senate’s latest plan to split the baby, counties surrounding the Savannah River Site would get about 65% of the mega-settlement South Carolina struck with the Department of Energy in 2020 over plutonium storage. State senators on Tuesday unanimously approved sending some $341 million of the settlement to Allendale, Barnwell and Aiken, the […]
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Budget & Policy
DOE, Other Feds Embrace Pandemic Telecommuting, With Limits
A recent Government Accountability Office report confirms what most observers already assumed — the COVID-19 pandemic prompted much of the federal workforce at the Department of Energy and elsewhere to abandon their cubicles in favor of telecommuting, although the practice has its own hassles. The DOE found there were limits to its work-from-home efforts especially […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Net Earnings Dip at Jacobs But Revenue Remains Flat
Net earnings from continuing operations fell at Jacobs, Dallas, in the first quarter of fiscal 2022, which the global engineering firm and Department of Energy contractor attributed largely to tax-related adjustments, according to financial results reported last week. Net earnings from continuing operations for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021, were $134 million, or $1.03 a share, […]
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Contracts & Procurement
More States, Chamber of Commerce Claim Biden Went Too Far in Contract Vax Orders
Eighteen more states, some with Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, filed legal briefs this week supporting a U.S. District Court judge’s ruling that blocked President Joe Biden from requiring most federal contractor employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Amicus curiae or “friend of the court” briefs were filed Tuesday in […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Amentum Closes on Purchase of Government Contractor PAE
Maryland-based Amentum, one of the power players in the Department of Energy weapons complex, has completed its $1.9-billion purchase of PAE, a Virginia-based defense and government services contractor, the companies said Tuesday. The deal, which PAE characterized as a “merger” was announced by the parties in October. PAE’s “go-shop” period in which it could talk to other potential […]