Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

WASHINGTON — A tech-industry downturn and a federal permission to boost worker compensation helped with hiring at U.S. nuclear-weapons labs, but hanging on to recruits is still tough, the lab directors said here Wednesday. “We’re actually in quite a good place right now,” Kimberly Budil, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, […]

WASHINGTON — The Los Alamos National Laboratory should be able to produce 30 nuclear weapon cores annually by 2028, the lab’s director said here Wednesday. “At the moment the plan we’re working to is 2028,” Thomas Mason, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, told the Exchange Monitor here on the sidelines of the Monitor’s […]

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) on Wednesday confirmed that the Department of Justice is investigating her congressional campaign for allegedly spending campaign funds on a personal security detail. Bush, a progressive lawmaker who has advocated for cleaning up Manhattan Project-era radioactive contamination near her St. Louis-area district and compensating residents affected by it, confirmed the investigation […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff need until January 2025 to amend Holtec International’s license for the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan, which the company wants to restart that August, commission staff said last week. “With respect to your requested completion schedule of January 31, 2025, the NRC staff believes that it will complete the safety […]

Contractors for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ St. Louis office have made headway in removing contaminated soil from the banks of Coldwater Creek and cleaning up contamination near an elementary school, a Corps spokesperson said by email Tuesday. Contractors for the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) program should finish excavating contaminated soil […]

Departing officers of an advisory board for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said this week they are feeling less anxious about the National Nuclear Security Administration taking over the 310-square-mile property on Oct. 1. That’s when the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) , a semi-autonomous branch of DOE, is scheduled […]

Although the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup wing awarded two multibillion-dollar environmental deals in 2023, work has not started on any of the four contracts it prioritized for the past calendar year. On paper at least, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management awarded the $45-billion Hanford Site Integrated Tanks contract in Washington state along with the […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch thinks it could complete major infrastructure projects in New Mexico and South Carolina during calendar year 2024, the agency said Tuesday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management’s top priorities for 2024 include final testing of a new underground ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in […]

Former Eddy County Commissioner Jack Volpato will attempt to win the Republican nomination for a New Mexico state legislature seat, Volpato announced this month.  Among other places, Volpato announced his candidacy on his Facebook page on Jan. 18. The primary election was scheduled for June 4. The general election will be Nov. 5.  Volpato is […]

Holtec International paid $5 million to avoid criminal prosecution by the state of New Jersey, which said the Jupiter, Fla., company might have acted illegally in 2018 when it sought investment tax credits from the state.  Holtec and an affiliate company, Singh Real Estate Enterprise, have also agreed to give up a combined $1 million […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission found BWX Technologies violated safety protocols in the runup to a fatal 2020 flash fire sparked by exposed wires and alcohol-soaked rags. However, the commission will not fine the company, which has already paid a separate penalty to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an NRC spokesperson […]

While Triad National Security’s program appears adequate to detect potentially combustible chemicals in transuranic waste from National Nuclear Security Administration work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a safety board wants to see improvement. That is the crux of a Jan. 19 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) letter to Secretary of […]

A longtime federal manager, Jimmy “Mac” McMillian, retires Feb. 29 an advisory board for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina heard Monday. McMillian, a member of senior executive service, has been assistant manager for infrastructure and environmental stewardship for Savannah River’s DOE Environmental Management office since February 2019. The “sad news” […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and groups opposed to the licensing of a Holtec International-owned interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico will meet March in court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit scheduled oral arguments in the case for March 5 in Washington at 9:30 a.m. Eastern […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff need until August 2025 to review an application to keep California’s last nuclear power plant online for five more years according to a letter published online this week. That is according to a letter, dated Jan. 26, to Paula Gerfen, senior vice president of Generation  and chief nuclear officer for Diablo […]

A member of Hawaii’s House of Representatives last week introduced a bill that would create a state Nuclear Energy Commission, to include three experts on nuclear waste disposal who would be appointed by the governor. The bill, HB1516, was referred last week to the House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee and the Consumer Protection and […]

Transmutex, Vernier, Switzerland, on Monday said it received $23 million in venture capital funding to help develop the company’s thorium-burning nuclear energy system. Transmutex announced the milestone in a press release. New York-based investment companies Union Square Ventures and Steel Atlas led this round, along with other investors including: At One Ventures, San Francisco. HCVC, […]

The annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, hosted by the Exchange Monitor, kicks off in Washington on Wednesday with more than 60 speakers from the top ranks of the U.S.  nuclear security enterprise. Expect much discussion of the National Nuclear Security Administration striving to produce at least 80 plutonium pits for use in modernizing nuclear weapons as close […]

The prime contractor of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is being investigated for an April incident in which radioactive contamination from the nuclear weapons lab was found on and off-site.  The NNSA’s Office of Enterprise Assessments announced its intent to investigate Lawrence Livermore National Security on Jan. 26. Anthony Pierpoint, director of the Office of […]

As the annual Academy Awards prepares to honor a movie on the life of physicist Robert Oppenheimer, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) hopes people who run the Hollywood movie business might also focus some attention on radiation victims from the Manhattan Project’s nuclear testing program. “The Oppenheimer film tells a compelling story of these test programs,” […]

Before unsealing their case in January, federal prosecutors had for two years investigated whistleblower claims that the landlord contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state fraudulently inflated its labor bills while leaving key fire systems tests undone. U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian, appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama, granted a motion […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: January 29: Meeting: The Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board kicks off a two-day meeting starting at 1 p.m. Eastern Time at the Doubletree Hotel, 2651 Perimeter Parkway Augusta, GA. The meetings stream live on YouTube.  […]

Media reported this week that the White House did not plan to renominate Jeffrey Baran for another term as a commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Baran’s nomination was returned Jan. 3 to the White House, like all nominations that did not get a floor vote during the first of two year-long sessions of the […]

The federal prosecutor for Eastern Washington state has filed a complaint in federal district court accusing the Department of Energy’s landlord contractor for the Hanford Site of fraudulently padding labor charges for fire safety by millions of dollars. The case against Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS), a joint venture made up of Leidos, Centerra and […]

The annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, hosted by the Exchange Monitor, kicks off in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday with more than 60 speakers from the top ranks of the U.S.  nuclear security enterprise.  Expect much discussion of the National Nuclear Security Administration striving to produce at least 80 plutonium pits for use in modernizing nuclear weapons […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is looking for a contractor to do cleanup at the former DuPont Chambers Works site in Deepwater, N.J., according to a pre-solicitation notice published Tuesday. The Corps plans a single award task order contract for cleanup of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) site at Deepwater, according […]