Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

There will be no slowdown in nuclear cleanup next autumn when the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management gives up its landlord role at the Savannah River Site, a citizens group heard Tuesday. “What we are not transferring are any of the EM [environmental management] missions,” Michael Budney, operations manager for DOE’s Office of […]

North Wind Group has appointed Shayne Naugle as the new North Wind Services president, although there is no word yet on a successor to the parent company’s CEO Christopher Leichtweis, who announced plans to step down this year. North Wind announced the promotion of Naugle, who previously led the company’s Northeast operations, to president of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Enterprise Assessments is investigating an incident at the Y-12 National Security Complex in which a machine used to shape uranium was dismantled without proper criticality controls in place. In a letter dated Aug. 3, Anthony Pierpoint, director of the NNSA’s office of enforcement, notified Consolidated Nuclear Security’s (CNS) […]

New Mexicans who took part in a hybrid public meeting Friday, largely expressed support for a new state permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant while urging the New Mexico Environment Department to be vigilant in monitoring Department of Energy compliance. Too often from 2011 through 2018, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) managers under […]

Antinuclear activists suing the U.S. government to stop a life extension for the Diablo Canyon Power Plant could present oral arguments to a federal court in Pasadena, Calif., in early 2024, a recent court filing shows. In an order last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said it might order the parties to court […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. September 25-29: International Atomic Energy Agency General Conference. Vienna International Centre, Vienna, Austria. Conference agenda and streaming information online. 26: Meeting: The Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board meets at 9 a.m. Eastern Time at the Aiken Senior […]

Naval nuclear reactor manufacturer BWX Technologies has teamed with shipping company Crowley to develop a nuclear-powered concept ship for defense and disaster relief the company announced Sept. 20 on its website. Crowley signed a memorandum of understanding with BWX’s Advanced Technologies subsidiary that will allow both companies to jointly develop new shallow-draft-hull ships that can […]

Department of Energy contractor Bechtel National plans to open a new office in Knoxville, Tenn., next week for engineers and other staff, the company announced this month. The new Engineering Executive Center was set to open Oct. 2 in the Cedar Bluff neighborhood in Knoxville, Bechtel said in a press release. The company said it […]

To ensure transfer of landlord responsibility for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina goes smoothly, the Department of Energy is already planning to request a funding deviation from a continuing budget resolution — a  year from now. That is one of the nuggets included in a transition plan, cleared for public release Sept. 13, […]

The Department of Energy wants to convert 30 square miles of southeastern Hanford into a clean technology park. Led by Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk, DOE officials talked about the concept, called Cleanup to Clean, on Friday with about 75 people, including developers, in Richland, Wash., near Hanford. The agency wants to combine its […]

After weeks of inspections, it appears Area 25 of the Nevada Nuclear Security Site avoided significant damage due to August’s tropical rains from Hurricane Hilary, a Department of Energy citizens advisory board heard Wednesday. Area 25, which includes Jackass Flats, is a 250-mile chunk of the Nevada Nuclear Security Site, and it largely avoided the […]

The Air Force expects to certify the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to carry nuclear weapons in January, once sufficient numbers of pilots and ground crew are trained to carry out the mission. But it may not have the jets, equipped with the proper avionics and mission systems, needed to perform the nuclear mission until several […]

The Defense Department extended an existing contract with X-energy Reactor Company under the military’s Project Pele initiative to develop a transportable, cost-effective advanced nuclear microreactor prototype for use in remote military locations.  X-energy expects to advance the design of its prototype – which could ultimately be used for commercial or industrial use in civilian applications […]

A citizens group involved with talks that led to a new draft operating permit for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., plans to keep an eye on how the New Mexico Environment Department enforces the deal. Announced in August, the new 10-year hazardous waste permit for the deep geologic repository […]

The annual must-pass defense policy bill that sets spending limits for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs is headed for its final debate in Congress after the House on Tuesday voted for a conference with the Senate. At a high level, the Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate this year crafted wildly different versions of […]

The Department of Energy has so far delivered 12 shipments of down blended plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a public waste database. The most recent shipment that DOE has made public arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near […]

The Department of Energy has $19 million in grant funding available for disadvantaged communities affected by decades of nuclear work, the agency said in a Tuesday press release. Comments are due within three weeks on the draft funding opportunity announcement for DOE’s Community Capacity Building Grant Program, the agency said in the press release. The […]

The Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board was to meet Thursday for the first time since New York outlawed the discharge of irradiated water from the shuttered plant. The board was scheduled to meet at the Cortlandt Town Hall in Cortland, N.Y. at 6:00 p.m. Eastern on Thursday evening. The board planned to stream the meeting […]

The Department of Energy’s enforcement arm has told two contractors it will investigate a fatal tree clearing accident in August near the Central Training Facility at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. In a pair of Sept. 8 letters, the Office of Enforcement within DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments informed East Tennessee Mechanical Contractors and […]

Deputy EnergySec among headline speakers for Hanford clean industry day Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk is among the federal bigwigs on the agenda for Friday’s  ‘Cleanup to Clean Energy’ informational meeting for the Hanford Site in Washington state, according to the Department of Energy. In addition to Turk, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management senior […]

Jacobs Solutions, Huntington Ingalls, BWX Technologies and others are among those seeking the National Nuclear Security Administration’s decade-spanning, $30-billion contract to manage the agency’s nuclear-weapons service center in Texas. Pantex and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., are currently managed for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) by Consolidated Nuclear Security, a […]

EnergySolutions, Salt Lake City, completed its acquisition of Williams Industrial Services Group, the company announced Monday in a press release. EnergySolutions operates a low-level waste facility in Clive, Utah, and is decommissioning the partially melted-down Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor in Pennsylvania. The company said in July it was buying Williams out of chapter […]

A Hanford contractor is trying to avoid a repeat of a July incident where overdue inspections for equipment resulted in a stop-work order at the site’s fire department, a federal safety board said. Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, the site’s Leidos-led landlord contractor that oversees firefighting and other services at the shuttered DOE nuclear-weapons site, restored […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 19: National Academies. Public meeting. Independent Study on Potential Environmental Effects of Nuclear War. This fourth meeting about the study focuses on climate modeling done by Department of Energy national laboratories. 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Eastern […]