Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Employees of federal agencies, including the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, were racing home early ahead of a big storm front that threatened the Washington, D.C. region with wind, rain, hail and perhaps even tornadoes. The Office of Personnel Management on Monday announced that federal offices would close at 3 p.m. That […]

International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have gained access to the rooftops of two reactors of concern at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant and found no mines or explosives, the agency said Aug. 4.  Inspectors had asked for access to the roof area of reactors three and four repeatedly but were denied entry to inspect for […]

The Department of Energy said Friday it cleared a paperwork hurdle for a planned five-year extension of California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant by adopting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s environmental reviews of the plant. DOE had a duty under federal law to do environmental diligence on Diablo Canyon after the department in 2022 agreed to provide […]

The Department of Energy on Friday released a little more than $3.5 million in funding for Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership to demolish facilities at the shuttered Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky.  The task order calls for demolition of the C-727 and C-146-A facilities. Parts of each formerly housed hazardous waste, so the Kentucky Energy […]

Two congressmen recently reintroduced a bipartisan bill to require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep a federal inspector at shuttered nuclear power plants until all fuel at the plants is in dry storage. Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.) reintroduced their bill, the Increasing Nuclear Safety Protocols for Extended Canister Transfers (INSPECT) Act […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 06-09: Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo, American Nuclear Society. JW Marriott, Marco Island, Marco Island, Fla. Participants include Petro Kotin, president of Ukraine’s State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company, or “Energoatom,” who will […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity seeks an external consultant to assess how the Joe Biden administration’s Justice40 program has affected economically underserved communities, according to recently published procurement documents. The small business contract has a one-year base period and a one-year option period. The base period will stretch well into […]

A federal judge will rule on a request from Consolidated Nuclear Security to throw out a suit brought by employees who allege, in a suit that has ground on for three years amid the plaintiffs’ failure to retain a lawyer, that the contractor improperly withheld wages from workers in Tennessee. Judge Katherine Crytzer did not […]

Construction continues around the clock on the High Explosives Science and Engineering facility at the Pantex Plant in Texas, where the first of three massive concrete slabs were recently poured during an all-night construction binge. Crews recently placed the first of three 2-foot-thick concrete mat slabs at the High Explosives Science and Engineering (HESE) project’s […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va., reported lower earnings in the quarter ended June 30 but called out revenue growth in shipbuilding and the Mission Technologies segment, which handles business with the Department of Energy. Net earnings for the quarter ended June 30 were $130 million, or $3.27 a share, down from $178 million or […]

Stephen Streiffer, who is currently the interim director of a national laboratory in California, will become the new director of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee in October, Battelle announced last week. Streiffer is currently the interim head of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, formerly known as the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, […]

A three-person military bomb squad blew up a segment of an anti-aircraft shell after midnight Tuesday at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, a U.S. Army spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. The artillery fuse did appear to pose an explosion risk, but was blown up as a precautionary move in keeping with standard procedures […]

News of a Department of Energy plan to use weapons complex land to host carbon-free electricity projects is being met with a mix of excitement, skepticism and curiosity about how the process might work. A smattering of stakeholders contacted by Exchange Monitor Tuesday said they have many questions about the initiative announced last Friday in […]

Workers have completed construction of a new emergency operations center at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky, the agency said Tuesday. Built with steel-reinforced concrete walls, the new 3,500-square-foot emergency building should withstand tornado-scale winds, according to a press release from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. It replaces the old center located inside […]

Shine Technologies, Janesville, Wis., plans to start talking to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission soon about building a used nuclear-fuel recycling facility, the company said in a recent regulatory filing. “SHINE intends to begin regulatory engagement with the NRC in the 4th Quarter 2023,” reads a letter to the commission from Jim Costedio, the company’s vice […]

The Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, has a new Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board resident inspector as of Monday. Austin Holloway, a former explosives engineer at the Naval Air Warfare (NAVAIR) Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif., took over the position with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on July 31.  As a […]

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) on Monday signed into law a state budget that would conditionally provide $150 million to restart the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Covert county. The funding, about half of what plant owner Holtec International says it needs from the state, is contingent on the federal Department of Energy providing a […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security, which operates the Y-12 National Security Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is seeking contractors to undertake a sweeping utilities upgrade at the site. For the Utility Upgrades and Equipment Project (UUEP), Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) wants a contractor to perform site demolition and preparation and installation of new utilities. CNS wants a […]

While the Department of Energy and the occupational medical services provider for the Hanford Site in Washington state are at odds over how much data should be shared during an audit, DOE’s refusal to mediate the dispute is no sign of bad faith, a federal contracting board ruled. A DOE contracting officer told HPM Corp. […]

After acting as the lone deputy manager for 17 months at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, Brian Stickney is now officially the agency’s sitewide second-in-command, DOE said Monday. In 2019, DOE made Brian Vance the sole site manager for the former plutonium production complex, overseeing both Hanford’s Richland Operations Office and […]

The Massachusetts legislature stripped a proposal to create a radioactive wastewater commission from the final version of the state budget sent to the governor on Monday.  Lawmakers sent a compromise version of the state’s $56-billion budget proposal to Gov. Maura Healey (D) on Monday after a six-person conference committee of the state’s bicameral legislature hammered […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which already has two vacant seats on the five-member panel, said recently it is happy the White House this month formally nominated Patricia Lee to serve. Lee is currently a manager at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory.  “Her expertise with defense nuclear facilities will be a […]

The Fluor-led operations contractor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina promoted Dennis Carr to CEO following Stuart MacVean’s retirement on Thursday, a company spokesperson said via email Friday. Carr becomes president and CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions after serving as an executive vice president and chief operating officer for […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. August 01: Earnings call: FirstEnergy will report on second quarter financial results in an earnings call set for 10 a.m. Eastern Time 03: Earnings Call: BWX Technologies plans to discuss quarterly financial results with Wall Street […]

The story “NNSA will acquire SRNS, Centerra contracts” [Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, July 26, 2023] should have reported that the National Nuclear Security Administration will take over the Savannah River Site Oct. 1, 2024.