Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

In a deal rumored for weeks, two of the largest players in the Department of Energy’s weapons complex will merge into a public company majority-owned by Jacobs shareholders. Virginia-based government contractor Amentum said late Monday it reached a deal to combine with the government operations business of Dallas-based Jacobs Solutions and create a new $13-billion, […]

France successfully test-fired an M51.3 long-range submarine-launched ballistic missile, without a nuclear warhead aboard, over the Atlantic Ocean on Nov. 18. The test firing was conducted by the General Directorate of Armaments (DGA) from the Ballistic Launch Site (BLB) in Biscarrosse in southwest France. The flight comes just seven months after the successful acceptance test […]

One of the six reactors at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant lost power for about an hour and a half last week, causing an emergency diesel generator to kick in to provide electricity for cooling and other functions, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.  Plant personnel are investigating what caused the 90-minute power outage to […]

Based on a survey taken mid-year, 72% of the staff at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board have a “high level of respect” for senior leaders, which is the best score on this question in about four years at the independent federal watchdog for Department of Energy nuclear weapon sites.  The figure reached 69% of […]

Jean-Luc Palayer will be Orano USA’s chief executive officer effective immediately, the U.S. arm of the French nuclear-fuel-cycle and services company announced Monday. Palayer, most recently Orano USA’s vice president of business operations, took over the top spot after Amir Vexler left the company to become chief executive officer of Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md. […]

The comment period for the Los Alamos National Laboratory Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project Draft Environmental Assessment opens Dec. 19 and runs through Jan. 17.    The draft assessment analyzes the construction and operation of a new 115 kilovolt power transmission line and upgrades to the lab’s existing electrical infrastructure.  “Los Alamos requires a reliable and […]

Centrus Energy on Monday announced that Chief Executive Daniel Poneman will step down from leadership of the uranium broker and enrichment technology developer at the first of the year.  He will be succeeded by Orano USA President and Chief Executive Amir Vexler on January 1.   Poneman joined Centrus in March 2015 and over eight […]

This week Here is an event related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: 21: Earnings Call: Jacobs will hold its fourth quarter earnings call starting at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. 

With federal records increasingly available electronically, the Department of Energy is closing a Richland, Wash., repository for Hanford Site paper records, federal and state agencies announced last week. In August 2022, the Tri-Party Agreement agencies that govern cleanup of the former plutonium production complex, DOE, the Washington state Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental […]

The Mercury Treatment Facility at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, which is about to become the responsibility of the site’s Amentum-led prime, is 50% complete, a DOE spokesperson said Friday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management spokesperson replied to an Exchange Monitor inquiry on the current status of the project. The […]