Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Los Alamos National Laboratory is slowing its hiring and growth with aims to alleviate overcrowding in the community, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration said in answer to a local’s question at a large and vocal town hall Monday. “We’re not going to continue to grow the lab,” Jill Hruby, head of the […]

Top Department of Energy executives for the weapons complex Monday evening got an earful from a large and vocal crowd of New Mexico residents on everything from plutonium pit production to proposed new electric power lines near the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Also at one point during the 90-minute meeting, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

The Joe Biden (D) administration said Monday it would veto the House’s version of the Department of Energy’s 2025 budget, even though the President supports the bill’s added funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration. “The bill provides critical resources reaffirming congressional commitment to a strong national defense and NNSA’s enduring missions,” the statement by […]

The Sentinel modernization program is not only “absolutely necessary” but “might not be sufficient” for Europe’s defense, a Department of Defense official said last week at a virtual discussion after the NATO summit in Washington. “We cannot afford not to proceed with Sentinel,” Vipin Narang, Department of Defense acting assistant secretary of defense for space […]

A joint venture that lost twice in a $45B Department of Energy competition at the Hanford Site in Washington state has presented a federal court with a legal ruling it hopes will disqualify the winner. AtkinsRéalis-led Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance (HTDA) on July 18 told Judge Marian Blank Horn a decision in a similar case […]

Holtec International may not dump wastewater from the decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant into Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts said last week.  The final decision to deny Holtec a state permit modification for the wastewater discharges had been simmering for about a year. In July 2023, Massachusetts made a tentative determination that Holtec’s permit […]

About two months after the U.S. made it illegal in most cases to import Russian uranium, Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., got a waiver to continue imports from the Federation in 2024 and 2025. The waiver, granted by the Department of Energy on July 18, allows the company to continue imports of low-enriched uranium “for […]

House lawmakers were set Tuesday to question the four members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the agency’s latest budget request and about nuclear policy changes enacted this month. The House Energy and Commerce energy, climate and grid security was set to begin the annual NRC budget hearing at 10:00 a.m. in the Rayburn House […]

The House Rules Committee planned to meet Monday on Capitol Hill at 4:00 p.m. to consider amendments and write rules of debate for appropriations bills that include the Department of Energy’s 2025 budget. Of the 122 amendments offered to the Rules Committee, only a few touched on defense or civilian nuclear matters at DOE. Historically, […]

The Department of Energy has implemented all 34 corrective actions required by a June 2021 settlement agreement over mislabeled waste sent to the Nevada National Security Site from the Y-12 National Security Site in Tennessee, officials said last week. Completion of enhanced waste verification at the Nevada Site, before and after waste arrives, was noted […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management lacks consistent policy on allowing staff to work remotely, and efforts to use internship-type programs to recruit younger workers have yet to pay off, according to last week’s congressional watchdog report. Those are a couple of sidenotes inside the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on staffing shortages […]

Here are some events related to civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 22: Town Hall: NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby and DOE Environmental Management Senior Adviser Candice Robertson will hold a town hall-style meeting starting at 6:00 p.m. Mountain Time at the Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder in Santa Fe, NM. […]

Robert (Bob) Wilkinson started his new job this week as president and project manager of the Amentum-led solid-waste prime at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Wilkinson, previously president of Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, is succeeding John Eschenberg atop Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Company, which also includes Fluor and Atkins. Wilkinson’s […]

Editor’s note: the election digest tracks lawmakers whose constituencies include Department of Energy nuclear sites or civilian nuclear reactors that are being decommissioned. Most lawmakers with big nuclear constituencies look, as usual, safe to win reelection this November. However, a few are retiring and some are in tight races. The Exchange Monitor’s election digest is […]

Virginia-based Amentum recently hired Nathan Rutledge for its newly-created position of senior vice president and head of investor relations. Rutledge will lead investor relations activity connected with Amentum’s announced merger with Jacobs’ Critical Mission Solutions and Cyber and Intelligence businesses, according to a July 2  press release. The new blended company will be publicly traded. […]

A half-dozen Department of Energy nuclear sites are being honored by the Global Electronics Council for 2023 purchases that resulted in carbon dioxide emission reductions equal to removing 121,000 cars off the road for a year, according to a DOE press release. The Hanford Site in Washington state, the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action […]

Jennifer Macy took over as the leader of Merrick & Co.’s nuclear services and technology division on April 1, the company announced this week. Macy has 30 years of experience at various Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration sites, Merrick said in a press release. She replaced Scott Gustafson, who had led the […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., is having a second straight week of daytime highs in the triple digits as several weapons complex sites are enduring extreme weather this week. The Hanford high Wednesday was expected to hit 104 degrees Fahrenheit and site highs could stay at 100 degrees or above through […]

The Township of Ignace last week formally told the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization that it is a willing host community for a nuclear waste repository for which the agency planned to select a site this year. The township in Ontario, the province where Canada is considering building the repository, announced the decision in a […]

The United States should get ready to again test nuclear weapons at the Nevada National Security Site if former President Donald Trump (R) wins reelection in November, according to conservative policy document released last week. In a list of “needed reforms,” Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, a conservative policy blueprint written by former Trump administration […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 64 shipments of transuranic waste during June, according to DOE’s public website. The Idaho National Laboratory was as usual the top generator, sending 50 shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Meanwhile eight shipments of defense-related transuranic waste came to WIPP from […]

Two members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on Monday praised Senate confirmation of a third, putting the board back at a quorum but two members short of a full roster. “We look forward to her arrival,” Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chair Joyce Connery and vice chair Thomas Summers said in a […]

Should former President Donald Trump win a second term, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management could speed cleanup through expanded use of both commercial nuclear waste disposal sites and a high-level waste reinterpretation, according to a conservative Republican policy document. The GOP convened its national convention in Milwaukee Monday. Along with Saturday’s unsuccessful […]

An amendment that would prohibit defunding high explosive production at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, would be considered next week by the House Rules Committee as part of the 2025 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), whose district includes the Pantex Plant that services all U.S. nuclear […]

Prime contractor Northrop Grumman will continue its work on the Air Force’s nuclear-tipped, silo-based LGM-35A Sentinel missile as the service and Pentagon acquisition chief William LaPlante consider how to restructure the program, an Air Force official said Monday. “Work can still continue under the contract that exists today,” Lt. Gen. Andrew Gebara, the Air Force’s […]

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) wants to amend the House Appropriations Committee’s 2025 energy and water bill to strip out a GOP provision to zero-fund the Department of Energy’s Justice40 Initiative. Stansbury, whose district includes Albuquerque, filed an amendment with the House Rules Commitment to strike part of the bill that prohibits funds from being used […]