Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The U.S. Department of Labor invited both current and former nuclear-weapons workers to Richland, Wash., near the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, to discuss eligibility for occupational illness benefits. The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act outreach session will be held at 9 a.m. Pacific Time at the Holiday Inn Richland, according to a […]

In a Tuesday hearing about his nomination to a third term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Republican Senators painted Commissioner Jeffrey Baran as an impediment to nuclear progress. However, none of the Republicans who questioned Baran in his Wednesday nomination hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said they would oppose his nomination.  […]

The House Armed Services Committee postponed its markup of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act with no rain-check date given, the panel’s chairman said Tuesday.  Without giving a reason for the delay, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) just five days after announcing the markup schedule for the various subcommittees, said the entire process would be pushed […]

The Government Accountability Office Tuesday denied a bid protest challenging the Department of Energy’s award of a new security contract to Centerra at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. While a redacted version of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) opinion likely won’t be available for several days, the federal watchdog posted a notice on […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday licensed Holtec International to operate a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico, agency documents show. The proposed facility, which Jupiter, Fla.-based Holtec calls HI-STORE, may receive 8,680 metric tons of uranium, the equivalent of 500 canisters, “in the form of undamaged fuel assemblies, damaged […]

An Atkins-led group that bid and lost on the Department of Energy’s $45-billion Integrated Tank Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state bypassed the usual channels of protest and sued DOE over the award. Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance, a team with Atkins Nuclear Secured, Jacobs Technology, and Westinghouse Government Services, filed suit under seal […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the first quarter, which the nuclear services and manufacturing company attributed largely to its government operations. Net earnings for the first quarter ended March 31 were $61 million or $0.67 per share up from $59.1 million, or $0.64 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue was […]

Jacobs Solutions, Dallas, announced Tuesday it will spin off its Critical Mission Solutions business, which coordinates business with the Department of Energy, late next year. The DOE business, accounted by the parent company as an equity share from the joint venture companies that manage DOE sites, is only a small part of Critical Mission Solutions […]

Employees of Consolidated Nuclear Security could see their years-long attempt to organize a class-action suit over lost wages dismissed on a technicality by Tuesday.  The employees of the manager of the Y-12 site in Oak Ridge Tenn., have until midnight Tuesday to identify their new lawyers after the attorneys who organized the suit dropped the […]

Holtec International’s cost estimate for decommissioning a Michigan nuclear power plant is justifiable, Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff said recently in a review that did not touch on the state’s biggest gripes about the plan. Excluding unforeseen increases, Holtec, Jupiter, Fla., estimates it will cost about $644 million in 2020 dollars to safely bring down Palisades, […]

A contractor for the Department of Energy has removed 13.4 million tons at the Moab uranium tailings site in Utah and transported the debris to a disposal facility near Crescent Junction, a local advisory panel heard recently. “Approximately 96,991 tons of tailings and mill debris were moved in March 2023,” Jessica Thacker, a liaison for […]

A man who threatened to sue the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over the failure of a neutron imaging business can have his day in court if he wants it, the commission said late last week. “Your claim did not reveal that you suffered any damage to or loss of property or personal injury or death caused […]

A subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee plans a hearing this week to question White House priorities on the Department of Energy’s budget request for fiscal 2024. The energy, climate, & grid security subcommittee will hear testimony from Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on May 11, according to […]

New security access facilities have arrived at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina as the complex prepares for increased construction activity in K Area including installation of new Surplus Plutonium Disposition project gloveboxes. A new four-lane facility, with glass panels used across the DOE complex, will replace a much smaller, single-lane […]

BWX Technologies CEO Rex Geveden could share new details today on a 10-year, $45-billion Department of Energy contract recently awarded to a joint venture the company is leading at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Lynchburg, Va.,-based BWXT will discuss the company’s first quarter 2023 financial earnings today at 5 p.m. Eastern time during a […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 08: Earnings call: BWX Technologies will discuss its first quarter 2023 financial results in a conference call with Wall Street analysts at 5 p.m. Eastern Time.  09: Quarterly earnings call. Centrus Corp. The company, working on […]

While happy to see Washington state and federal agencies cut a new deal on cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Wednesday DOE’s fiscal 2024 budget request is “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” Hanford’s Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office would […]

Over the past year, the Department of Energy decided to change the location of a planned fire station at the Hanford Site in Washington state because similar facilities are being developed in nearby Richland, Wash., an agency spokesperson said. Rather than building in Hanford’s 400 area as initially planned, managers at the 580-square-mile Hanford Site […]

The Maritime Administration planned to welcome visitors for an open house visit to the Nuclear Ship Savannah, which is still docked in Baltimore Harbor and had its reactor removed and shipped to Utah for disposal last year. The open house was planned for Sunday, May 21, as part of the Port of Baltimore’s observance of […]

WASHINGTON — The secretary of energy must approve the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to let one company manage the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, for up to 20 years, the head of the nuclear-weapons agency said here Wednesday. Details of the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract were published on April 28. The draft solicitation included a five-year […]

The flood of employees leaving National Nuclear Security Administration sites that peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic has ebbed and the workforce needed to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons complex is short-staffed but holding, the head of the agency said Wednesday.  “The overall attrition is close to normal now at both Los Alamos and Sandia and […]

With the White House ending mandatory COVID-19 vaccination rules for most federal workers, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has postponed oral arguments on a case involving the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The San Francisco-based court Tuesday told the parties, including DOE and hundreds of plaintiff government and contractor employees, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration, in cooperation with U.S. partner nations, plans to establish an integrated global system to detect smuggled nuclear material before it can be used in acts of terrorism.  The NNSA’s Office of Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence (NSDD) announced deployment of a Counter Nuclear Smuggling System on the federal government’s contracting […]

United Steelworkers Local 1-689 members are still doing nuclear remediation at the Department of Energy Portsmouth Site in Ohio more than a month after their labor deal with Fluor BWXT Portsmouth expired, their union representative said Tuesday. Negotiations have not gone well so far, United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1-689 President Herman Potter said during a […]

One of the nuclear industry’s main trade groups planned to host a new conference for nuclear power plant decommissioning companies, an executive with the group told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Tuesday in a public meeting. “We’re targeting January, February 2024 to have a conference,” Bruce Montgomery, director of decommissioning and used fuel at the Washington-based […]