Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Department of Energy nuclear cleanup office placed orders for 219 zero-emissions vehicles in fiscal 2024, which accounts for 89% of the total throughout the department, the Office of Environmental Management at the agency said last week. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management has to date also installed a total of 120 charging ports, the department […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 22-3 Friday to advance the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act to the Senate floor with provisions that would authorize $25 billion to the National Nuclear Security Administration and $150 million to the Department of Energy’s nuclear energy activities. The Senate committee’s version of the national defense policy bill would […]

After spending five years as acting boss of the Department of Energy’s $8-billion Office of Environmental Management, William (Ike) White has passed the keys to another longtime fed, Candice Robertson. The previously-announced transition is officially reflected in a new organizational chart posted Friday by DOE’s nuclear cleanup office. The chart shows Robertson as senior adviser […]

Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California developed an algorithm to simulate nuclear reaction rates, which are tough to make in a lab, to collect data to maintain the nuclear weapons stockpile, according to a press release. The hybrid computing scheme “successfully” simulated the scattering of two neutrons, which can […]

The House Rules Committee voted Wednesday to consider a version of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act that includes a provision to restore nuclear capabilities to the B-52 bomber, but not an amendment restoring the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), on behalf of Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), proposed an amendment to […]

Jack Anderson and Sandra Fairchild, two experienced hands around the Department of Energy’s weapons complex, have joined the advisory board for Las Vegas-based contractor Longenecker & Associates, the company said this week. Anderson logged more than 30 years with DOE and its national laboratories, including tours with Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and the […]

Shalanda Baker, who heads the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Justice and Equity, will leave DOE at the end of June, a DOE spokesperson said Wednesday. Baker joined DOE in January 2021, first as the deputy director of Energy Justice and adviser to the secretary on equity, the DOE spokesperson said in an email […]

The Idaho National Laboratory has accounted for about 71% of shipments to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., over three years, the manager of DOE’s Idaho Cleanup Project told an advisory board Wednesday. Under Idaho’s updated spent fuel settlement agreement with DOE and the U.S. Navy, the lab is supposed […]

The Department of Energy and its Nevada National Security Administration Wednesday announced the selection of a solar developer to pursue a carbon-free electric project at the Nevada National Security Site. Under the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, DOE and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have selected Estuary Power LLC & NV Energy as the […]

Paul Murray, the Department of Energy’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and high-level waste, will address a community panel on the decommissioning of a retired Southern California Edison nuclear plant on Thursday, according to the electric utility. Murray will discuss the federal spent fuel management program during a quarterly meeting of the San Onofre […]

Environmental crews at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory have discovered three broken ceramic filter elements are to blame for stalling operations at a plant built to solidify liquid sodium-bearing radioactive waste. In March, DOE and its Jacobs-led contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition, decided to suspend restart of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU). While […]

Lawmakers will debate a version of the National Defense Authorization Act that allocates $25 billion in funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration as both the House and the Senate look at the bill this week in closed markups. The House Rules Committee debated H.R. 8070, the House version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization […]

President Joe Biden’s administration objected Tuesday to a provision in the  House Committee on Armed Services version of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act that would ban Chinese or Russian nationals entry into nuclear weapons facilities and national security laboratories. The statement cites Section 3111 of the H.R. 8070 version of the National Defense […]

An executive at American Demolition and Nuclear Decommissioning, John (Rick) Dearholt has died, the head of a Knoxville-based nuclear trade organization confirmed by phone Tuesday morning. A memorial service for Dearholt, a longtime board member for the Energy, Technology & Environmental Business Association, is set for Friday June 21, said the executive director of the […]

Although 11 months have elapsed since the Department of Energy awarded a new $5.9-billion environmental cleanup contract at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, DOE’s cleanup office still isn’t saying when the new contractor will take over from Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth. In an email reply Monday to Exchange Monitor, a DOE spokesperson declined to say when Southern […]

A baker’s dozen of contractors joined Department of Energy representatives May 29 to learn more about the draft solicitation for a new small business landlord contractor at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The DOE Office of Environmental Management issued a draft request for proposals (RFP) last month for a small business to act as a […]

Leaders from the United States and the Republic of Korea convened in Seoul on Monday with aims to strengthen nuclear deterrence and relations between the two nations, according to a press release from the Department of Defense. The two nations met with intentions of information sharing, consulting, and joint planning and execution to extend deterrence […]

A spokesperson from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico confirmed in an email Monday to the Exchange Monitor that an incident involving skin contamination due to a glovebox failure resulted in no significant health issues.  During the week of May 10, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) wrote a staff report on […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is commencing market research for its cyber security needs in Cincinnati and Washington, D.C. In a May 30 notice, DOE issued a request for information for technology and cyber security needs at the cleanup office’s Washington, D.C., headquarters and the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in Ohio. […]

The Department of Energy nuclear cleanup branch has issued its final solicitation for a five-year, potential $90-million Consolidated Technical Support Services contract for field offices and sub- offices. The final request for proposals (RFP) for the small business set-aside contract was published Thursday June 6 in the government’s online System for Award Management (SAM.gov), by […]

The story “Consent-based interim storage facility remains years away” [Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, June, 4, 2024] should have said DOE plans to open the consolidated interim storage site by 2040 and a deep underground disposal site might not open until decades later. 

A top National Security Council official said Friday at an Arms Control Association conference  the United States will need to employ a more assertive nuclear strategy in light of the posture being taken by Russia and China. In a separate speech at the same event, House Armed Services Committee member, Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), said […]

Here are some events related to civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. June 12: Hybrid public meeting, Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Idaho Cleanup Project. Shoshone-Bannock Hotel and Events Center, 777 Bannock Avenue, Fort Hall, Idaho. Streaming on Zoom. 11:00 a.m. Eastern time to 6:45 p.m.  Eastern time.  12: Hybrid […]

LOUISVILLE, KY— In a five-year span, prospects for the U.S. commercial nuclear power sector have gone from gloomy to upbeat, an executive with the industry group, Nuclear Energy Institute, said here last week. As recently as 2019, up to 20 U.S. reactors, or more than one-fifth of the fleet, were expected to shut down under […]

Harry Boston, founder of Boston Government Services, is stepping down as CEO and being succeeded by chief operating officer Doug Freund, the Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Department of Energy contractor said May 31. Boston, who started Boston Government Services (BGS) in 2007, sold his ownership stake to Louisiana-based Bernhard Capital Partners in 2022, according to the […]