Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The lame duck cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the provider of depleted uranium hexafluoride services there and at the Paducah Site in Kentucky each collected most of the available fee for the opening four months of fiscal 2024, DOE said Tuesday. In a press release, DOE’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project […]

Keeping close to, but not crossing, the threshold of building nuclear weapons gives Iran another way of threatening adversaries, including Israel, a Middle East scholar said Monday at an anti-nuclear event. Iran “is getting advantages from having this program that everyone is very afraid of,” Barbara Slavin, distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center think tank […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group last week elected Honeywell International vice president David (DJ) Johnson chair of the group’s board of directors, according to a press release. Johnson will succeed Michael Lempke of Huntington Ingalls. The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) also elected Mark Whitney, the president of Amentum’s national security group, its vice chair […]

A BWX Technologies-led joint venture that twice won a $45-billion liquid waste contract at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, Friday withdrew its 2023 case with a federal appeals court, seemingly clearing the way for a U.S. Federal Claims Court to again rule on a contract challenge by the losing bidder. According to online court […]

Pacific Gas & Electric would get $400 million more to help keep California’s last nuclear power plant open for another five years, if a state budget bill unveiled over the weekend becomes law. In a reversal for legislative leaders who opposed the funding as recently as June, the compromise spending bill would allow California to […]

Congressional check-writers should direct the Environmental Protection Agency to use its 2025 budget to update its generic standards for a nuclear waste repository, interest groups said recently. The ask came in the form of a letter signed by twelve organizations and sent to the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations interior and environment subcommittees […]

The head of an Amentum-led cleanup prime at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site is leaving and will be replaced by the top executive of the Leidos-led landlord contractor at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state. In a Monday press release, Central Plateau Cleanup President John Eschenberg said he was leaving the remediation […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on July 17 will hold a virtual public meeting about a California-based environmental group’s request to shut down the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, the commission said Friday. The comment-gathering meeting was scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. The public may join via Microsoft Teams to observe interactions between […]

The Exchange Monitor planned to hold its second annual Nuclear Energy Security Summit this week in Washington on June 26-27. The event focuses on domestic and international deployment of U.S. nuclear technology, including power plants and fuel. There is no virtual attendance. Among the scheduled speakers were Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), chair of the House Appropriations […]

Here are some events related to civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. June 26-27: Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Energy Security Summit, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C. 28: Subcommittee Markup, Fiscal Year 2025 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Act, Rayburn 2358-C, 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.  

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration should update its racial diversity guides for prime contractors to ensure leading practices are being used, the Government Accountability Office said in a report out Friday. Also, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) May 2023 diversity report for management contractors generally […]

Immigration reform is needed to expand the defense and shipbuilding industrial bases and workforces build submarines faster, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services seapower committee said Friday. “The U.S. birth rate is not growing, and even if it started growing tomorrow, we wouldn’t see it for 20 years,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said during […]

The Department of Energy Knolls Laboratory Site will take part in a project to remove and replace several underground utility sections, some of which are over 70 years old, to include construction of a monument to the Navy and the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, according to a summary from the Office of NEPA Policy and […]

After nearly a year of bicameral debate and dealing, the Senate on Tuesday passed a bill designed to ease exports of U.S. nuclear technology and reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It was an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, opposed only by two of the voting senators. The heavily amended Fire Grants and Safety Act of 2023, which […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 51 shipments of transuranic waste during May, according to the facility’s public website. The majority, 36, of the May shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) came from the Idaho National Laboratory.  Eight originated from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, […]

ARLINGTON, VA – The Department of Energy could soon announce a developer for a carbon-free electricity project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the new head of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said here Tuesday. New DOE Office of Environmental Management senior adviser Candice Robertson alluded to the award during her address to […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Candice Robertson, the new senior adviser in charge of the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management, said here Tuesday she first became acquainted with nuclear cleanup issues by growing up around Nye County, Nev., the home of DOE’s Nevada National Security Site. Robertson would subsequently win a “landslide” election by […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Contractor and federal managers from across the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex are using technology to help predict issues from workplace accidents to infrastructure failure, these people said at a meeting here Tuesday. Using technology to help school new hires on potential hazards in a nuclear workplace is important amid the […]

Here are some events related to civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. June 17-18: Meeting: The Energy Facilities Contractors Group two-day annual meeting is set for the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va. The general session starts at 8 a.m. on the second day. 18: Senate vote: S.870 – Fire Grants […]

Senators planned to vote Tuesday evening on a bill to reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, create new federal waste-reporting requirements and ease adoption of U.S. nuclear power technology. The heavily amended Fire Grants and Safety Act of 2023, which includes a compromise version of the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) […]

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge held a closed-door hearing Friday but had yet to issue a decision in a legal fight over a potential $45-billion Department of Energy contract for emptying liquid waste tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state. In a Washington, D.C. courtroom, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Marian […]

Candice Robertson, the new acting head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, lauded both her predecessor, William (Ike) White, and the employees of the $8-billion nuclear cleanup office in a Monday email to staff. “I am deeply honored and privileged to lead the DOE Office of Environmental Management as we mark our […]

Global spending on nuclear weapons increased by 13% in 2023, according to the latest annual report by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons group, reaching $91.4 billion that year with a world-leading $51.5 billion spent in the U.S.  This 2023 total is $10.7 billion higher than the previous year, with all nine nuclear-armed states […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has awarded an $8.3 million contract to California-based Innovative Claim Solutions to run the workers compensation processing program at the nuclear cleanup site. DOE procurement managers at Hanford said in a Monday press release that Innovative Claims has won a potential five-year contract to be the […]

Jessica Kunkle, a longtime hand around the Department of Energy’s weapons complex, started her new assignment overseeing the Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. Kunkle, a 15-year-veteran of DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), officially started as Environmental Management field boss in Los Alamos on Monday, […]