Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Holtec International on Monday announced it plans to file construction permits in 2026 to build a pair of small modular reactors at the site of the shuttered Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, which the company hopes to restart in 2025. Notionally to be commissioned as soon as 2030, the two SMR-300 reactors are “likely to be […]

An Iranian-born ex-professor, fired from the University of Toledo in Ohio for allegedly allowing an Iranian citizen to access software owned by the National Nuclear Security Administration, sued the school for wrongful termination, alleging multiple counts of discrimination. E. Ishmael Parsai, a 69 year-old, nationalized U.S. citizen born in Iran, sued the university in November […]

The Navy plans to conduct its first submarine maintenance work in Australia using a U.S. submarine tender ship in summer of 2024, when dozens of Australian sailors aboard will learn to repair U.S. nuclear-powered submarines. Under Secretary of the Navy Erik Raven on Thursday said the trilateral AUKUS partners of Australia, U.K. and the U.S. […]

When the House of Representatives voted Friday to expel Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who has not been convicted of any crime, some prominent GOP members of the House representing Department of Energy weapons complex sites came down on opposite sides. The 311-to-114 vote to kick out Santos, the subject of a scathing House Ethic Committee […]

The U.S. and 21 other countries at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai on Saturday agreed to work together on “tripling nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050,” according to a Department of Energy press release. Among other things, including the continued development of new nuclear reactors and encouraging financial organizations to invest in […]

Westinghouse Electric said Nov. 29 it has acquired the remaining 50% of Tecnatom, a Spanish nuclear services business, from Endesa, Madrid, for an undisclosed amount. Westinghouse bought a 50% interest in Tecnatom in 2021 and ran the company jointly with Endesa, an electric company serving Spain and Portugal. Tecnatom is a Spanish engineering and digital […]

This week. Here is an event related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: 05: Meeting: The Hanford Advisory Board holds a hybrid meeting starting at 9 a.m. Pacific Time from the Red Lion Pasco, Wash., 2525 N 20th Avenue, Pasco, WA 99301. To receive virtual access information contact the […]

Don’t look for the Department of Energy to issue its final solicitation for a potential $3-billion cleanup project at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state prior to January, DOE said this week. In a special notice dated Tuesday, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said the final request for proposals (RFP) for […]

The U.S. Air Force is prepared to put multiple nuclear warheads atop its new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missiles if called to do so, according to the officer in charge of fielding the new missile.  Brig. Gen. Colin Connor, the Air Force’s director of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) modernization, said on Wednesday that the new LGM-35 […]

A federal judge in Tennessee refused to throw out a lawsuit by a former employee for the Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup contractor at the Oak Ridge Site who was fired after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Plaintiff Yolonda Riggs, a former lead radiation technician for United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR), was fired by […]

The three finalists for the Los Alamos County, N.M., manager post, including the current deputy manager, will take part in a public “meet-and-greet” Dec.7, the county announced last week. The three finalists to succeed Los Alamos County Manager Steven Lynne are the current deputy, Anne Laurent; Gretchen Cassini, transportation surtax administrator for Broward County, Fla.; […]

Delaying the partial release of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station by four years will not increase the cost of decommissioning the shuttered plant, a representative of Holtec International said this week. Holtec in October disclosed that Pilgrim’s partial release date will slip to Sept. 24, 2035 from Sept. 24, 2031. The company, which bought the […]

EPA begins public input process that could clear way for DOE’s Hanford Test Bed Initiative The Environmental Protection Agency is considering a variance to allow the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington to ship 2,000 gallons of radioactive tank waste to commercial disposal sites for solidification. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposes to […]

The Department of Energy on Tuesday solicited bids for a potentially decade-long contract to convert high assay low-enriched uranium into forms suitable for powering new nuclear reactors. The High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) Deconversion Acquisition will be an indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery contract with a one-year ordering period, according to the solicitation posted online.  Work will […]

Members of the House and Senate were set to formally kick off final negotiations for the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee announced. The leaders of the two chambers’ Armed Services Committees were set to appear briefly in public in the Senate Dirksen Office Building on Wednesday before moving […]

Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, the Department of Energy prime that acts as city manager of the Hanford Site in Washington state, is shopping for a subcontractor to overhaul aging power distribution lines and related infrastructure. The work, in the 100 Area near the Columbia River, involves tearing down or refurbishing old infrastructure and installing […]

A trilateral partnership to give Australia nuclear powered attack submarines is “an enduring commitment,” a “generational opportunity” and a major investment in the economy, a senior state department official said in prepared remarks Monday. The AUKUS partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. is “is an opportunity for us not only to strengthen […]

The Department of Energy has successfully gotten bidders on the uranium hexafluoride conversion work and other services at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky will keep their offers open through Dec. 20, two industry sources said Monday. Teams vying for the decade-long Portsmouth / Paducah Project Office (PPPO) Operations and […]

Bosses at some weapons complex contractors expect the proposed merger of Amentum and the government contracting wing of Jacobs Solutions will hurt competition on federal nuclear cleanup jobs — and cite a $45-billion liquid waste contract at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site as an example. Exchange Monitor discussed the announced merger by phone Monday […]

Substandard contractor performance delayed the launch of a new Uranium Processing Facility at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee until 2029, according to the agency’s latest annual progress report.  The start of operations at the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF), a milestone known as CD-4, has now slid four years out […]

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant lost its main power connection on Sunday, forcing it to rely on backup electricity for reactor cooling, the U.N.’s nuclear power agency said Sunday. There was no reported timeline for repairing the line. It is the latest in a string of power disruptions to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which […]

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) vowed to vote against the must-pass defense policy bill when it comes before the Senate unless it includes compensation for Missourians potentially exposed to radiation from nuclear weapons work dating back to the Manhattan Project. The fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is set for Senate consideration in the […]

Should the proposed merger announced last week between Amentum and Jacobs Solutions’s government contracting business become reality, most Department of Energy nuclear cleanup contracts will be held by teams where the lead partner has a publicly-traded corporate parent. That is based on a cursory review of contracts, valued at nearly $1 billion or more, which […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week 27: Meeting. Massachusetts Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel. Agenda and webcast link to be posted online at the panel’s website. 28: Meeting. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation to meet with the Nuclear Energy […]

Three more plaintiffs have pulled out of the COVID-19-related lawsuit brought by some employees of the prime contractor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, leaving only two. Plaintiffs Stephanie Bruffey, Gregory Sheets and William Webb have agreed to drop their legal claims against UT-Battelle, the joint venture between the University […]