Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Department of Energy and New Mexico should work with a third-party mediator “to build trust” on legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a Congressional watchdog reported Wednesday. Without “clearer communication that leads to smoother relationships with the regulators and the public,” DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department could risk, “further delaying […]

The recent unprecedented expansion of the Los Alamos National Laboratory workforce will continue for at least another year before leveling out at around 2,0000 employees, a senior lab official told the Los Alamos County Council on Tuesday. All told, there are 17,244 people employed at Los Alamos in various capacities from professional National Nuclear Security […]

The Senate’s 2024 National Defense Authorization Act includes the text of a bill that would extend nuclear-industry indemnity for catastrophic accidents and begin reforms at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A spokesperson for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where the nuclear-reform bill originated, said in a statement Wednesday morning that the measure would be […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday the legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico started cutting recently dug-up corrugated metal pipes into sections small enough for shipment to the agency’s underground disposal site for transuranic waste. Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) workers are using hydraulic shears to cut […]

The story “Amentum selects Johnson as new CFO” [ July, 17, 2023] should have reported that Travis Johnson recently joined the company.

The Department of Energy first discovered more contaminated soil under Building 324 at the Hanford Site in Washington state last August and suspended work on stabilizing the structure in April, DOE said this month in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency. The timeline was laid out in a July 5 letter to David Einan, […]

Over the next decade, the U.S. will spend an estimated $756 billion on modernizing and maintaining its current and future nuclear forces, or about $75 billion per year, a new report from the Congressional Budget Office found.  Looking at the 10 years from 2023 to 2032, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), found that U.S. spending […]

The Department of Energy is still considering how and whether it will help bail out a shuttered power plant in Michigan, a senior agency official testified Tuesday in Congress. Plant owner Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., seeks a roughly $1 billion loan for DOE and said this spring that the federal agency could conditionally approve the […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management intends to issue no-bid business to Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas to relocate containers of long-stranded transuranic waste to a new above-ground storage area at the commercial waste site. “The estimated value of the resulting order is not expected to exceed $16,500,000 ($16.5 million),” DOE’s […]

The House version of the 2024 defense authorization act includes funding to develop a nuclear-tipped seal-launched cruise missile, and the program will make it into law despite the White House’s desire to kill it, according to Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.). Wittman, who is vice chair of the House Armed Services Committee, chair of the tactical […]

With last week’s award of the Department of Energy’s $5.87-billion environmental remediation contract for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio to an Amentum-led team, two industry sources expect a companion contract is imminent for operations of that property as well as the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The sources, executives who work for different government contractors, also […]

Responses to the Department of Energy’s request for information on technical support services for former gaseous diffusion plants in Kentucky and Ohio are due by Aug. 3, the agency said last Thursday. DOE formally issued the request for information notice online July 13 for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky and […]

Sixty four lawmakers called out what they said were six problems with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s draft rule for licensing advanced reactors and, in a July 14 letter, asked for a fix. Safety requirements in the NRC’s proposed rule are so strict that they will prevent commission staff from licensing new reactor designs quickly, said […]

The Department of Energy invited the public to attend the kickoff of the agency’s Consent Based Siting Consortia, the group among which the agency split $26 million in federal funding to help define what it means to consent to the storage of spent nuclear fuel. The 13 consortia members were set to be online for […]

Whoever next manages the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, could hold the job for 20 years under a contract worth up to $30 billion now that a final pair of five-year options periods have been approved by senior officials.  A final request for proposals (RFP) for a new management contract at […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va., and U.K.-based defense contractor Babcock International signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on civilian- and naval-nuclear decommissioning, the companies announced Monday. “That’s everything from power plant design and construction on a global basis to component design and fabrication and construction, principally in North America and the U.K., to […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 17: Advanced Nuclear Weapons Alliance Deterrence Center Virtual Forum. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and chair of tactical air-land forces and seapower subcommittees, discusses nuclear deterrence modernization. Streamed live […]

Amentum Services, Chantilly, Va., has chosen Travis Johnson, who recently joined the company, to be its new chief financial officer, according to a July 10 press release. Before joining Amentum, Johnson was a senior vice president, corporate controller and chief accounting officer of defense contractor  CACI, Amentum said in its July 10 press release. Johnson […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 56 shipments of transuranic waste in June, according to the federal agency’s public website for the site. There were 45 during June from the Idaho National Laboratory; four from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, three from the Oak Ridge Site in […]

If confirmed as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. C. Q. Brown vows support for nuclear weapons modernization efforts underway at the U.S. National Laboratories and will undertake a review of the nuclear arsenal to identify capability “gaps,” he said in recent written testimony.  Brown testified before the Senate […]

President Joe Biden’s nomination of Patricia Lee of South Carolina to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has been submitted to the Senate, the White House said late Wednesday. Lee, who has worked in radiation protection for decades and is currently portfolio manager for the digital enterprise at the Department of Energy’s Savannah […]

In the face of a legal battle over a contract award at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Department of Energy said Wednesday it will extend incumbent tank contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions, for up to two more years. The DOE Office of Environmental Management said in an online procurement notice it plans to […]

Entergy Nuclear this week said it promoted several executives to new roles at reactors in Arkansas and Louisiana and at corporate headquarters in Jackson, Miss. Joe Sullivan was appointed site vice president at Waterford 3 Steam Electric Station in Killona, La., replacing John Ferrick who will become fleet vice president of outage services at headquarters. […]

Aspen Environmental Group, Agoura Hills, Calif., on Tuesday got a one-year contract extension, worth a little under half a million dollars, to continue work on an environmental impact report about decommissioning the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in southern California. Though owner Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is trying to keep Diablo Canyon online in Avila […]

A transuranic waste container potentially too contaminated to be disposed of, yet already shipped to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, will be sent back to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina in August, the prime contractor for disposal site said Tuesday. The standard waste box, now located in […]