Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

The Senate on Tuesday passed a national security appropriations package that would boost the Department of Energy’s radiological safety efforts in Ukraine and seed a new commercial uranium refining industry. The bill includes $2.7 billion for DOE contracts that could help the federal government acquire high assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), plus about $150 million for […]

An Ohio grand jury returned numerous indictments Friday against two former FirstEnergy Corp. executives — including ousted CEO Charles “Chuck” Jones — plus the disgraced former head of the  Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. This is the latest fallout from a scandal dating back to 2019 involving two financially struggling Ohio reactors, $60 million in […]

The Oak Ridge, Tenn., City Airport, to be built on remediated land transferred from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, could still run a deficit in its fifth year of operation, according to a recent analysis from an aviation consulting firm in Kentucky. Financial performance in the fifth year, when the general aviation airport […]

The Department of Energy’s consent-based siting program to find a home for stranded spent nuclear fuel will not include talks with potential host states any time soon, a senior agency official said Wednesday. “At the right time we will start to engage with the states but now is not the right time.” Paul Murray, DOE’s […]

The Oak Ridge, Tenn., City Council is scheduled to vote Monday evening on whether to continue pursuit of a grant worth up to $2 million from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, according to online documents. Should the city win funding from DOE’s Community Capacity Building Grant Program, it plans to establish a […]

Here is an event related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: 14: Meeting: The Oak Ridge Citizens Advisory Board meets at 6 p.m. Eastern Time in a hybrid session taking place at the DOE Information Center, Office of Science and Technical Information, 1 Science.gov Way, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831. […]

Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.) again filed a bill that would require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to certify that storage casks for nuclear waste “can safely operate” for at least 100 years. The bill, filed Jan. 31, is becoming a perennial bloomer in Congress.  Levin, whose southern California district includes the Diablo […]

In roughly a month the Washington state Department of Ecology will take comments on a Department of Energy proposal that could lead to offsite solidification and disposal of 2,000 gallons of less-radioactive tank waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state. The 45-day public comment period, on whether to grant a Research, Development, and Demonstration […]

It is both “premature and improper” to grant employees fired from a Department of Energy contractor at the Oak Ridge Site a break from the normal statute of limitations before they even join a lawsuit, a federal judge ruled in Tennessee last week. “Plaintiffs’ motion for joinder is improper because they have no authority to […]

Football-loving employees could be reporting to work with heavy eyelids this morning at both the Department of Energy’s Kansas City National Security Campus as well as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, about 45 miles outside of San Francisco. The mood at the former, however, could be cheerier than the latter. The National Football League’s Kansas City […]