Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The House Armed Services Committee will mark up the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday, the same day the Senate Armed Services Committee plans a late hearing on the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget. The full-committee markup was scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Eastern time in the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2118. The Senate […]

A Department of Energy contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York could send another shipment of legacy waste containers to Waste Control Specialists in Texas this summer, a DOE spokesperson said Monday. DOE announced in a press release last week that eight legacy waste containers, each weighing about 94,000 pounds, were […]

On Friday, the Missouri House passed a bill offering tax breaks to expand the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear-weapons-parts plant in Kansas City. “This is a huge economic benefit for Kansas City,” Rep. Chris Brown (R-Kansas City), who sponsored the bill alongside then-state-Sen. Greg Razer (D-Jackson County), told the Kansas City Star on Friday. The […]

The Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility in South Carolina is still falling short of Department of Energy production goals but that’s partly due to downtime at another waste facility, an advisory board heard Monday. The Salt Waste Processing Facility has processed 1.3 million gallons so far in 2024 and a total of 8.7 […]

The Department of Energy in June plans to solicit bids on a decade-long contract for acquiring domestic low-enriched uranium, the agency said recently in a procurement note. There would be multiple awards for the 10-year, $3.4 billion, indefinitely-quantity, indefinite-delivery deal, the agency wrote last week in a synopsis of its proposed solicitation. The agency did […]

After President Biden’s national security adviser met with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this weekend, the Saudi foreign ministry said Sunday the Kingdom was close to finalizing a security deal with the U.S.  Official statements by the White House and the Kingdom did not say what the two sides discussed, but media, citing […]

Dallas-based Jacobs is hiring Venk Nathamuni, to be its new chief financial officer starting June 3, the international engineering and services company said in a press release. Nathamuni, who has more than 15 years of senior financial and management experience, will replace interim chief financial officer (CFO) Kevin Berryman. Berryman, a special adviser to Jacobs […]

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian on Sunday died in a helicopter crash in northwest Iran, Iranian state media reported. The fatal crash happened about a month after Iran’s drone-and-missile attack against Israel and only weeks after the head of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy visited Iran in an attempt […]

A federal judge in eastern Washington has scheduled a September 2025 jury trial in the Department of Justice’s case accusing a Leidos-led joint venture of false billing for fire prevention work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Barring settlement or good cause for delay, U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian plans to commence the trial […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. May 20-21: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Savannah River Site.  DeSoto Savannah, 15 E Liberty, Savannah, Ga., 31401. Monday, 1:00 p.m. Eastern time to 4:15 p.m. Eastern time; Tuesday 9:00 a.m. Eastern time to 3:30 p.m. […]

On May 14, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory completed the first in the Nimble series of underground subcritical experiments at the Nevada National Security Site, according to a press release. The subcritical experiment was conducted at the Principal Underground Laboratory for Subcritical Experimentation, also known as the U1a Complex.  In June 2023, a senior Livermore […]

A husband and wife employed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has turned to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit after failing to convince a federal judge in Tennessee they suffered discrimination from their refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Jessica Bilyeu last month settled her remaining claim over […]

Jessica Kunkle. a Los Alamos, N.M., native and longtime National Nuclear Security Administration executive, will lead the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management field operation at the Los Alamos National Laboratory starting in June. Kunkle has been with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) about 15 years and is a deputy administrator with NNSA’s […]

WASHINGTON — The National Nuclear Security Administration still plans to announce the new manager of Pantex Plant in June, the head of the agency said here Wednesday. Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), reiterated the timeline during an evening Capitol Hill panel discussion and reception hosted by the nongovernmental Advanced Nuclear […]

A project to design a federally owned and operated interim storage facility for radioactive waste reached the milestone that marks the start of conceptual design work, the Department of Energy said Wednesday.  The Federal Consolidated Interim Storage Facility project “recently” reached the critical decision-0, or CD-0, milestone, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy wrote Wednesday in […]

Jessica Kunkle. a Los Alamos, N.M., native and longtime National Nuclear Security Administration executive, will lead the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management field operation at the Los Alamos National Laboratory starting in June. Kunkle has been with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) about 15 years and is a deputy administrator with NNSA’s […]

Earnings rose at AtkinsRéalis, Montreal, Canada, in the first quarter, which the company attributed in part Wednesday to surging international interest in new nuclear power. Net earnings for the first quarter ended were C$45.5 million (US$33.45 million) or C$0.26 (US$0.19) a share, up from C$28.4 million (US$20.88 million) or or C$0.16 a share (U.S. 0.12 […]

Senators in a hearing Wednesday pressed Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins about what the State Department is doing to deter Russia and China’s nuclear capabilities. Jenkins was the sole witness in the hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which met less than a year before the February 2026 expiration of the New START nuclear arms control […]

The Department of Energy today canceled its Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board that was scheduled for Wednesday at 1 p.m. Mountain Time. The next board meeting, for the panel which offers advice on DOE Office of Environmental Management issues affecting the Los Alamos National Laboratory, will be July 17, according to a staff email […]

Amid her campaign for a second term, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) on Tuesday filed a bill that would if enacted remove Yucca Mountain’s designation as a nuclear waste repository. The bill would also terminate the not-quite-dead Yucca Mountain licensing proceeding that the George W. Bush (R) administration started with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the […]

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee planned Wednesday to hold a hearing on arms control with the state department official in charge of the portfolio. The hearing was scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Eastern time in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 419. The Honorable Bonnie D. Jenkins, the undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security at […]

The Department of Energy Tuesday rolled out its second market information request for carbon-free electricity at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, with an eye toward bigger projects that might generate power for locals near the nuclear complex. A top DOE nuclear cleanup manager at Savannah River said recently the agency is evaluating solar […]

The Department of Energy said it is still reviewing the latest small business proposals it got to manage the National Training Center in New Mexico and planned an award no sooner than August. In 2023, three small businesses protested the Department of Energy’s (DOE) 2022 award to Eagle Harbor to manage the National Training Center […]

With a June 7 deadline looming, supporters of reauthorizing the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act planned to gather at the U.S. Capitol grounds Thursday and urge House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to hold a vote on the measure. By May 16, the scheduled day of the rally and press conference, the House of Representatives will have […]

President Biden (D) on Monday signed into law a ban on importing Russian uranium beginning in 2028, the White House announced. Under the bill, companies may no longer import unirradiated low-enriched uranium produced in Russia or by a Russian entity unless the importer gets a waiver from the Department of Energy. Waivers are only good […]