Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is asking the New Mexico Environment Department for certain permit modifications, including approval of four new shielded containers suitable for carrying remote-handled transuranic waste. DOE and Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors filed the Hazardous Waste Facility Permit modification document with the state March […]

A federal district judge in Washington state has set a May 16 scheduling conference to start addressing pre-trial issues in a False Claims Act complaint against the Department of Energy’s Leidos-led landlord contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state. U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian scheduled the video conference to start determining issues where the […]

Drones on Saturday attacked parts of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday in a statement. The U.N. nuclear-power agency did not say who was responsible for the attacks on the facility, which is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and has been under Russia’s control since the […]

Current and former nuclear weapons workers can learn about federal occupational illness compensation during a Department of Labor information meeting Wednesday in Portsmouth, Ohio. The meeting at the Morris University Center is designed to inform nuclear workers and their families about the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, according to an April 4 press […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. April 10: Hearing, House Energy and Commerce climate and grid security subcommittee. “American Nuclear Energy Expansion: Spent Fuel Policy and Innovation.” Rayburn House Office Building Room, Room 2322,  Washington. Streaming online at the committee’s website. 10: Meeting: […]

Site prime Consolidated Nuclear Security planned a fundraiser Thursday to help cover some of the damages caused by recent wildfires near the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, the joint venture said in a press release. The fires, which drew the attention of major news outlets, forced Pantex, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear-weapons service center, to briefly shut […]

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee plans a hearing next week on spent fuel management for the U.S. nuclear power plants. The hearing, dubbed “American Nuclear Energy Expansion: Spent Fuel Policy and Innovation,” is set for Wednesday April 10 at 10:30 a.m. at the Rayburn House Office Building, according to a press release. The session […]

The cleanup prime at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee should not be forced to hand over COVID-19 vaccination data for 100 people uninvolved with litigation filed by three fired employees, the company said this week in legal papers. Plaintiffs Carlton Speer, Melana Dennis and Zachariah Duncan, terminated by Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) […]

The separation of the Pantex Plant in Texas and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee took a baby step forward this week with the opening of separate federal field offices for the nuclear-weapons production sites. Consolidated Nuclear Security, still the joint operations contractor for the two sites, announced the split on Tuesday in a […]

It is up to a federal district judge in Washington, D.C., to decide what comes next in an advocacy group’s lawsuit to force an additional environmental review for a hiking trail near what used to be the Department of Energy’s Rocky Flats plant in Colorado. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly heard oral arguments last month […]

Thom Mason, the directory of the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, is scheduled to answer questions about laboratory operations this evening. Lab employees, family members and New Mexico residents are invited to ask questions of Mason between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Mountain Time, Wednesday, April 3, according to a […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District is extending by a week, to April 11, its deadline for responses to its request for information for a small business to perform environmental remediation at the Deepwater site in New Jersey. The original response deadline was April 4 for parties interested in doing cleanup at the […]

A couple of Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites could experience the total or near-total eclipse of the sun this coming Monday, April 8. Paducah, Ky., home to DOE’s Paducah Site, is the only weapons complex cleanup site in the “totality” path, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Buffalo, N.Y., which is […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday officially announced Michael Mikolanis as its new top federal official at the agency’s Savannah River Site field office near Aiken, S.C. The Exchange Monitor reported in December that Mikolanis would make the move to the Savannah River Site from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The […]

Piketon, Ohio, the community adjacent to the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site is under a flood watch through 8 p.m. Eastern tonight, according to the National Weather Service. According to the forecast, Piketon is likely to experience showers and thunderstorms into the night, resulting in more than an inch of rain on Monday and Tuesday. […]

During 2023, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board advised the Department of Energy on issues ranging from on-site transportation at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to overseeing aging nuclear infrastructure across the weapons complex. Those are some highlights of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB)’s 34th Annual Report to Congress published […]

A federal court late last week vacated Holtec International’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to store spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico. Holtec’s license, granted in May 2023, got caught up in a decision by the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission may not license storage of commercial spent […]

Environmentalists suing the federal government got two more weeks to file briefs in their case about a planned South Carolina plutonium pit factory, according to an order filed late last week. The case, involving the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plans to make nuclear weapon first-stage cores in South Carolina and New Mexico, has been […]

Here are some events related to civilian- and defense-nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 2024 April 03: Virtual question and answer. Thomas Mason, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Members of the public may participate on Zoom. 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. 04: Public Meeting, Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “Discussion between the […]

The lone remaining plaintiff in a COVID-19 vaccination lawsuit was set to go to trial this month with the prime contractor for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. In filings during March, the U.S. District Court for Eastern Tennessee confirmed an April 23 trial date for Jessica Bilyeu, after ruling her […]

Claudia Jaramillo, Jacobs Solutions’ chief financial officer, will leave the Dallas-based company effective April 15 after less than a year in the job, the company announced Monday in a regulatory filing. Jaramillo “is departing the Company to pursue other opportunities,” Jacobs wrote in a press release distributed Monday. She became Jacobs’ chief financial officer on […]

With new litigation brewing over the Department of Energy’s re-award of a $45-billion contract for liquid waste management at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a federal appeals court has given the BWX Technologies-led winning team until April 22 to respond to briefs filed by the losing bidder.  The original deadline was April 8. BWXT-led […]

A high-ranking Ohio official already indicted for corruption related to struggling nuclear reactors was involved in similar schemes in the Buckeye State, according to court documents filed Friday by the offices of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Summit County Prosecutor Elliot Kolkovich. Sam Randazzo, the already-indicted former head of the  Public Utilities Commission of […]

On Earth Day, three weeks from now, the Department of Energy will announce which of its federal installations scored best on the agency’s 2023 Sustainable Climate-Ready Sites program. Twelve DOE properties, mostly weapons complex sites, signed up for the program  put together by DOE’s Office of Sustainable Environmental Stewardship, according to a Friday press release.  […]

April 15 is the new deadline for potential developers of carbon-free energy projects to respond to a request for qualifications at the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site. Sunday March 31 was the prior deadline for responses to the request for qualifications (RFQ) announced March 1 for clean power projects of 200 MW or […]