Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

A group of 20 people fired by a Department of Energy cleanup contractor at the Oak Ridge Site filed a motion last week urging a federal district judge in Eastern Tennessee to reconsider his earlier ruling rejecting their request to join an ongoing lawsuit by three similar plaintiffs. The former employees of Amentum-led UCOR filed […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration is shopping around for a new Nevada Field Office headquarters in greater Las Vegas, a federal advisory board heard Wednesday evening. Jill Hruby, who heads DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, is slated to meet with Las Vegas officials next week in Washington, D.C., to discuss a […]

The partial evacuation Tuesday afternoon at the 222-S Laboratory at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state was done as a precaution after “about a thimble full” of a legacy chemical was discovered prior to disposal, an agency spokesperson said in Wednesday emails. The evacuation of 50 to 60 people, initially reported by […]

The Amentum-led environmental prime at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee this week told a federal appeals court it should have sovereign immunity, as a federal contractor, from a lawsuit by a radiation technician who was fired after refusing COVID- 19 vaccination. In its 36-page filing Tuesday, UCOR LLC told the U.S. […]

A private equity firm that acquired and merged several businesses that work for the Department of Energy sold the rolled-up companies to Cadre Holdings, a Jacksonville, Fla., maker of law-enforcement equipment. Cadre acquired Alpha Safety Group, created by Benford Capital Partners of Chicago in 2021 from the former Nuclear Filter Technologies, for a little more […]

Several recent tests of the Air Force’s land-based, LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif., reflect “significant progress” in the weapon’s engineering, manufacturing and development phase, missile prime Northrop Grumman said Tuesday. “Forward and aft sections of a Sentinel ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile ] missile were evaluated through a […]

The 222-S Laboratory at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state was evacuated Tuesday afternoon due to concerns over chemical exposure, the Tri-City Herald reported. The evacuation occurred around 2:20 p.m. Pacific Time after an employee at the 222-S Laboratory, managed by Navarro-led Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration, handled a vial of the […]

Proposals are due by the end of February from subcontractors interested in overhauling the electric power infrastructure within Area 100 of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to an updated procurement notice. Proposals in response to the solicitation launched by Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, which acts as city manager for […]

The cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is on track to resume treating sodium-bearing liquid waste in March, but some fixes are still needed, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board update. Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition finished a maintenance outage at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) in mid-January after […]

Holtec International has filed for federal relief from what the Jupiter, Fla., company says is the biggest regulatory hurdle to restarting the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan. Pending a big federal loan and the replacement of some major hardware including a new steam generator, Holtec plans to be ready to restart Palisades “in the third […]

A small bipartisan group in the House released a foreign aid bill with new border security policies and war aid for Ukraine, but no stimulus funds for domestic uranium enrichment. The roughly $66-billion bill sponsored by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) is a counterproposal to the roughly $95-billion foreign aid bill the Senate passed on Thursday, […]

Fluor Chairman and CEO David Constable expects the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration to decide on a new management contractor for the Pantex Plant in Texas in the second or third quarter of this calendar year. Constable made the comment during a Tuesday earnings call with Wall Street analysts. The Fluor chief is […]

A bipartisan bill introduced late last week in the South Carolina legislature would add promotion of small modular reactors to the responsibilities of the Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Committee. House Bill 5118 would also restructure the Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council by requiring that the director of the council be a full-time employee of the governor’s office, […]

Earnings fell at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the fourth quarter, which the engineering and construction company, active in the Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex, attributed Tuesday to a legal settlement and the sale of a business. Net earnings for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2023, reflected a net loss of $21 million or […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week:. 20: Earnings call: Fluor will report on its quarterly financial perforamcne in a conference call with financial analysts at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time.  21: Meeting: The Department of Energy’s Nevada Site-Specific Advisory Board holds a hybrid […]

A group of 21 plaintiffs who claim they were fired after seeking a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccinations have filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The former employees of Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) filed suit against the contractor Feb. […]

The Department of Energy said Wednesday evening it will promote Mark Brown to become the new cleanup project manager at the Idaho National Laboratory where he will replace Connie Flohr who plans to retire from the agency in April and take a job in industry. Brown is deputy manager of the Idaho Cleanup Project and […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee who champions increased cleanup funding for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, will have a primary challenger again this cycle for his fourth district congressional seat.   So far, there are only two announced candidates for a nonpartisan primary scheduled for Aug. 6: Newhouse and […]

“Downwind” producers said this week their 2023 documentary about the aftermath of decades of nuclear testing at the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site, can be seen on Peacock, the same platform where the Oscar-nominated blockbuster “Oppenheimer” is available for streaming this weekend. According to a press release, “Downwind” can help the public understand […]

The Unit 1 reactor vessel in California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant should not be too brittle to operate for the five-year life extension the state has proposed for the plant, a consultant reported to a state agency. The Diablo Canyon Independent Safety Committee commissioned the report by former NRC engineer and current consultant Mark Kirk […]

A bill that would have let New Mexico and Los Alamos County tax production of plutonium pits died quietly in the New Mexico legislature after a committee of jurisdiction declined to take up the measure. On Wednesday, with only one more scheduled day in the state’s legislative session, the bill was still waiting for action […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority extended a contract for defense uranium processing with BWX Technologies subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services, the company announced Wednesday. Under the two year, $122-million extension, Nuclear Fuel Services, Erwin, Tenn., will continue converting highly enriched uranium into low-enriched uranium for use in National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) nuclear weapons programs until June […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday workers have installed startup heaters to warm up the second 300-ton melter for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The 18 temporary startup heaters are meant to raise the operating temperature of the second melter to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit, DOE said in […]

During fiscal 2023 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released three reports from “extensive sampling and testing” around the closed Jana Elementary School near St. Louis and the Coldwater Creek Superfund area and “no known data exists that indicates any radiological concern,” at the school, according to a recent report. During the fiscal year ended […]

A New Mexico legislative committee this month passed a bill to stop the prime contractor of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from claiming state tax credits for making nuclear-weapon cores. If signed into law the bill would go into effect on July 1 and exclude Los Alamos National Laboratory prime contractor Triad National Security from […]