Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Until last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had a full slate of five commissioners for the first time since 2019. Now, the civilian nuclear power regulator is down to four after the Senate left town without voting on whether to give Jeffrey Baran, the longest-serving NRC commission, another five years at the agency. The realm […]

The No. 2 Department of Energy manager at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York, Craig Rieman, has left to take another job within the agency, members of a local task force heard last Wednesday. Bryan Bower, DOE’s manager of the West Valley cleanup, announced the move last Wednesday, June 28, during a […]

An article in the June 27 edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [Acting boss Ike White hits work anniversary at EM] should have said that William (Ike) White has now been at the helm of the Office of Environmental Management for four years. 

The Department of Energy and its Amentum-led contractor have suspended work stabilizing the 324 Building within the Hanford Site in Washington state after discovering far more radiologically-contaminated soil underneath than previously thought. Scientists from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have confirmed that “a much larger volume of highly contaminated soil will need to be remediated […]

After a legal battle concluded the December 2020 winner of the Infrastructure Support Services business for the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky too large for the small business set-aside award, the agency is doing fresh market research for a new landlord contractor. The DOE Office of Environmental Management on Friday June 30 published […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, which manages and operates portions of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site wants to hire a company for an undisclosed “large capital project,” according to a notice on the federal government contracting website.  Located about 15 miles south of Aiken, South Carolina, the Savannah River Site (SRS) comprises 310 contiguous […]

United Steelworkers Local 1-689 President Herman Potter fears the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio could have a tough time filling vacancies in the near future due to a combination of factors. With the existing workforce at or approaching retirement age, looming brownfield projects driving a need to hire fresh hands and an impending […]

The story “Los Alamos wants to speed glovebox buying, widen supplier base” [Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, June 28, 2023] should have said NNSA plans to hire Merrick Strategic Management Solutions, with an anticipated contract award date of August 28.

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to perform two subcritical explosive experiments at the Nevada National Security Site in the fiscal year that ends Oct. 1, 2024, according to Deputy Administrator for Defense Nonproliferation Corey Hinderstein. Since the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CBTB) took effect in 1992, NNSA has performed 33 subcritical experiments at the […]

Publicly traded stock of advanced nuclear reactor developer NuScale, which is majority-owned by Fluor Corp., hit an all-time low this week. The company’s stock, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, plunged to $6.42 a share on Tuesday, down by about 40% compared with the Oregon-based company’s first day of trading on May 2 […]

Antinuclear activists on Wednesday sent a letter to the Michigan legislature urging state lawmakers not to approve a $300 million grant to help Holtec International restart the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station. In a letter dated Wednesday and mailed to all 148 michigan lawmakers — 110 representatives and 38 senators — 79 people and 43 organizations […]

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wants an oversight hearing on “misleading” statements Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm made to the panel in April about her stock ownership. “During the hearing, Secretary Granholm claimed she did not own any personal financial stocks, when in fact, she held […]

A leading Ohio politician faces sentencing Thursday afternoon in Columbus following a March conviction on a $60 million bribery scheme involving two financially struggling nuclear power plants. Larry Householder, 64, the former speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, and former Ohio Republican Party chairman Mathew Borges, 50, face sentences of up to 20 years […]

The Department of Energy has extended the deadline until Oct. 9 for companies interested in recycling about 6,400 tons of radiologically surface-contaminated nickel from the gaseous diffusion plant at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the new deadline in a June 22 notice on a federal procurement website. DOE […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration wants to expand its supplier base for the highly engineered glove boxes needed to speed up production of new plutonium pits for nuclear weapons.  The airtight, pressurized containers, are in high demand at NNSA facilities such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is gearing up to produce at least 30 […]

Stakeholders have agreed to a deal for a new 10-year draft permit for the Department of Energy’s underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste near Carlsbad, N.M., the New Mexico Environment Department said late Tuesday  Various stakeholders had requested a hearing on the new Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) permit, but the deal announced Tuesday […]

The Department of Energy’s solicitation for completion of deactivation and demolition work at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state should hit the streets by the end of December, the agency said Tuesday. But the West Valley Demonstration Project Phase 1B cleanup is the only major request for proposals expected from the DOE […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel should decide this summer whether to force Pacific Gas and Electric to formally defend its request to relicense the Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s spent fuel storage facility. The environmental group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace has mounted a multipronged legal attack on Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) effort to […]

The Department of Energy intends to award a sole-source contract to a firm with experience working with both college swim teams as well as businesses, to provide “coaching” services to managers at the agency’s Carlsbad, N.M., field office. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said in an online procurement notice, it intends to […]

Workers at a commercially-owned waste disposal facility in West Texas and the Department of Energy’s disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste near Carlsbad, N.M., should be mindful of dangerous heat wave warnings issued by the National Weather Service today in their localities. In Andrews County, Texas where Waste Control Specialists (WCS) is located, the forecast […]

The Department of Energy resumed heating the first melter at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a process on hold since fall, the agency said Monday. Resumption of the heatup was signaled last month by the acting head of the DOE Office of Environmental Management, William (Ike) White […]

The story “With Los Alamos contract extension, N3B management team overhauled, Lebak returns to HII” [Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, June 21, 2023] should have said Jerry O’Leary’s new role as senior technical adviser planning Technical Area-21 cleanup includes characterization and remediation of legacy waste. 

There should be no shortage of naval nuclear reactors when the U.S. shipbuilding industry begins churning out historic numbers of submarines before the end of the decade, the Navy’s senior submarine procurement official said Monday. Rear Adm. Scott Pappano, the Navy’s program executive officer for strategic submarines, said there are no signs that reactor demand […]

Steven Birchfield will replace Greg Wood as the chief financial officer of EnergySolutions in June, the Salt Lake City-based radioactive waste disposal company announced Monday. Wood was to retire in June, EnergySolutions wrote in a press release announcing the personnel change in the C-suite.  Birchfield was most recently executive vice president and chief financial officer […]

Effective this month, William (Ike) White has been the acting chief of the Department of Energy’s multibillion-dollar nuclear cleanup branch for four years, placing him among the longest-serving leaders of the office. In mid-June 2019, White became a senior adviser and highest- ranking executive at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. A career fed who has […]

Anyone who wants to argue that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should unconditionally allow power plants to use their decommissioning funds to replace major equipment has until August to refute the agency’s new draft guidance that says otherwise. “The disposal of the MRC [major radioactive components] when performed during the operational phase of the reactor facility […]