Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The bipartisan debt ceiling bill, which President Joe Biden (D) signed into law on Saturday, passed the Senate Thursday with 63 affirmative votes, but it drew a lot of Republican opposition, including from members representing Department of Energy weapons complex states. Senators who voted no included Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Sen. […]

Las Vegas-based subcontractor Longenecker & Associates has selected Jason Hatfield, a 20-year manager of Department of Energy contractor Bechtel National, to become its senior vice president for operations. Hatfield was most recently Bechtel’s mission assurance manager at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, Longenecker said in a Thursday June 1 press release. He officially starts […]

The chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission paid a visit to the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in Avila Beach, Calif., last week, local media reported. Chair Christopher Hanson toured the facility, located about 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles, while commission staff are working with plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric to keep the plant […]

The Department of Energy is getting the ball rolling on an environmental review of its big drive to drum up a domestic industry for energy-dense uranium fuel by hosting public webcasts about the effort this month. The agency announced the opening of a public comment period on a draft environmental impact statement for its High […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 06: Conference: Exchange Monitors Radwaste Summit 2.0 kicks off at 1 p.m. Pacific Time at the J.W. Marriott Resort & Spa, 221 N Rampart Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89145. 06: Hybrid meeting: The National Academies host meeting on […]

The House on Wednesday evening easily passed legislation that would cut much non-defense federal spending over the next two years in exchange for extending U.S. money-borrowing authority. For fiscal year 2024, the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023,” would cap defense discretionary spending roughly at President Joe Biden’s (D) requested level of about $886 billion. That […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Secure Transport, which is responsible for moving nuclear material and weapons between secure sites around the country, is buying two new logistics support trailers to aid federal agents in that mission. Trailer Technologies Holdings, based in Albuquerque, N.M., received a sole-source, firm-fixed-price contract to build the two trailers […]

The Department of Energy and its prime contractor for radioactive liquid waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state are in the market for technology to better identify and evaluate leaks from single-shell underground tanks, according to a notice Wednesday on a federal procurement website. DOE and Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions are seeking expressions […]

The Jacobs-led cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, along with a subcontractor, are being investigated for a January incident where a worker was exposed to “potentially dangerous levels of carbon monoxide,” according to DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments. The exposure happened Jan. 10 during testing of a gasoline-powered welder generator inside […]

Robert Moriarty, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force for Installations, authorized the support construction phase for the Northrop Grumman’s LGM-35A Sentinel missile. The Department of the Air Force’s 450 missile silos, launch facilities and 45 missile alert facilities “would be updated extensively to completely refurbished condition to meet the requirements of the […]

A bill that would force reviews of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s efficiency and extend caps on industry liability for catastrophic nuclear accidents cleared a Senate committee Wednesday on a 16-3 bipartisan vote. Only three Democrats opposed the bill, the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act of 2023. Sens. Bernard Sanders […]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was supposed to vote Wednesday on whether to give Jeffrey Baran another five years on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but the vote never happened. “Why did we not vote Baran?” someone in the committee room said near a hot microphone after the body wrapped up its other business […]

A federal judge on Tuesday did not throw out on technical grounds a $45-billion liquid waste cleanup contract the Department of Energy issued in April, but the BWX Technologies-led joint venture that won the business still must explain its legal eligibility for the award. The team, Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure, wants until June […]

Employees suing Consolidated Nuclear Security over allegedly withheld wages are again without lawyers and have only two weeks to explain why the case should not be dismissed.  After the first set of lawyers for the three named plaintiffs, all employees of the manager of the Y-12 site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., bowed out of the […]

The Department of Energy’s defense nuclear programs would be largely untouched if the bipartisan deal to cut federal spending and extend the U.S. borrowing limit becomes law. The deal cleared a major hurdle Tuesday evening when the House Rules Committee voted 7-4 to allow the bill, the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023,” to advance to […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory management has been put on notice after a series of safety violations two years ago sent red flags all the way up to National Nuclear Security Administration leadership. Triad National Security, led by Battelle Memorial Institute, The Texas A&M University System and the University of California, violated Department of Energy safety […]

A company seeking to build a small modular demonstration reactor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site has received a qualified endorsement from a Nuclear Regulatory Commission advisory panel. Kairos Power said Thursday via Twitter the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards has recommended issuance of the construction permit for the […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. May: 31: Business meeting, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. 9:30 a.m. Eastern time, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington. The committee will consider: whether to recommend Jeffrey Baran for another five years as a commission on […]

It is time for the Department of Energy to arrange an outside review of its potential alternatives for treating the most highly-radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Government Accountability Office said in a report issued Thursday. “DOE has not committed to obtaining an independent review to validate the portions of the […]

Mark Menezes, who was deputy secretary of energy under President Donald Trump, will become the United States Energy Association’s new president and chief executive officer, the organization said Friday. Menezes will become the top boss at the U.S. Energy Association (USEA) June 15, replacing acting executive director Sheila Hollis, who has led the group since […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security recently laid the final roof beam of what will become the new High Explosives Science and Engineering facility at the Pantex Plant in Panhandle, Texas.  During the topping out of the facility, the construction crew placed the final steel beam on the Technology Development and Deployment Lab last week, the Pantex site […]

Senators from four states have joined forces to form a caucus dedicated to advocating for U.S. national laboratories, including those overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), James Risch (R-Idaho.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) announced the creation of a new Senate National Labs Caucus on May 25. […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would ban imports of Russian uranium by 2028, sending the measure to the House floor.  Most Democrats on the committee opposed H.R. 1042, which passed by a vote of 29-21. In testimony to the committee this month, Jennifer Granholm, the secretary of energy, […]

Crews at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state are doing electrical testing, setting the stage to again start heating up the first melter at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, the agency’s acting nuclear cleanup boss said Monday. “At Hanford we resumed our electrical testing for the vitrification plant,” William (Ike) White, […]

Production of tritium and plutonium pits could prove a significant limiting factor in the introduction of a new nuclear weapons delivery method like a sea-launched cruise missile and other attempts by the U.S. to beef up its nuclear arsenal to counter Russia and China, according to an official at the National Strategic Research Institute.  Christopher […]

In the Justice Department’s first significant filing to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on a challenge to a $45-billion Department of Energy contract award, the agency said the winner’s failure to ensure continuous registration in a procurement tracking system is significant. U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Marian Horn ordered the government and the […]