Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s latest Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, released Monday, fuzzed up delivery dates for distant, future nuclear weapons that, as recently as a year ago, had at least placeholder dates. Specially, three weapons, ground-, sea- and air-based warheads, now have “To Be Determined” first-production-unit delivery dates instead of the mid- to […]

Three long-tenured officials in the Washington State Ecology Department’s nuclear waste program planned to retire beginning in May, an agency spokesperson said. Starting May 1, Theresa Howell will be the new Tri-Party Agreement Section Manager and Beth Rochette will be the new Cleanup Section Manager at Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program, a spokesperson for the agencies […]

The director of government affairs and community engagement at the National Nuclear Security Administration left the agency this month for a career in industry, according to his LinkedIn profile. Harris Walker now lists himself as director of government affairs and a “lithium policy change agent” for Livent Corp., Philadelphia. That ended a Department of Energy […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Thursday released its draft solicitation for bids on a potentially 25-year standalone contract to manage the Pantex Plant nuclear-weapons service hub in Amarillo, Texas. The cost-plus-fixed-fee contract will have at least a five-year base with one five-year option period and perhaps as many as two more five-year options after […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Friday kicked off a big environmental review of the agency’s plan for expanding the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. over the next 15 years. Among the activities the nuclear-weapons agency plans to review are: Upgrading the lab’s capability to test nuclear weapons and components in radiation-rich environments by […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 24-27: The Nuclear Energy Institute’s Used Fuel Management Conference. Paris Las Vegas 3655 S. Las Vegas Boulevard Las Vegas, Nev. 89109. Register online. 26: Hearing, Senate Armed Services Committee. “To receive testimony on the Department of Energy […]

News about the Department of Energy’s $26-million program to define consent-based siting of nuclear waste could drop next week, the agency’s top nuclear-energy official hinted Wednesday. DOE is putting together what it calls a consent-based siting consortia to help the agency decide not which spots could be suitable for a federally operated interim storage site […]

The Air Force and Navy on Wednesday morning used an airborne control center to test-fire an unarmed Minuteman III missile, the services said. The test gave the services a look at the Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS), an aircraft that can launch intercontinental ballistic missiles if ground-based communication with nuclear silos is disabled.  A joint […]

Moving long-stranded, potentially combustible radioactive waste to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from a commercial site in Texas remains a priority, an agency official, told a National Academies of Sciences panel Tuesday. “We are continuing to work on a path forward for the LANL [Los Alamos National Laboratory in […]

WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has a morale problem and needs to do something about it, a senator representing the state where agency headquarters is located said in a hearing Wednesday. “It needs to be first acknowledged that you have a problem,” Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) told Christopher Hanson, the NRC chair. “You then […]

Cement-like grout might be a viable cleanup alternative for up to 60% of the liquid radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the acting head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office told Senators Tuesday.  The long-delayed Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant being built by Bechtel to solidify radioactive waste into a […]

It will be another year before the National Nuclear Security Administration knows roughly how much it will cost to build the infrastructure to make 80 nuclear-weapon cores annually, the head of the agency told Senators Tuesday. NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby on Tuesday told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces that initial cost estimates […]

The five members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were scheduled to testify in the Senate Wednesday about the agency’s fiscal year 2024 budget request. The testimony, in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, was scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m., according to the committee’s website, where there was to be a video stream of […]

Communities near nuclear sites that generate transuranic waste want the Department of Energy to keep the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant open for a long time, based on comments filed recently with New Mexico regulators. Specifically, the Energy Communities Alliance, which advocates for local governments near DOE facilities, said in comments filed April 11 that it […]

The Los Alamos Fire Department responded to 34 fire false alarms at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2022 and the obsolete alarm system continues to malfunction in 2023, according to reports from the site.  An ongoing effort to replace the existing fire alarm system at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Plutonium Facility at TA-55, also […]

The Department of Energy’s former prime contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and an employee who filed suit in 2021, claiming he was wrongly bypassed for promotion because of his race, have agreed to dismiss the federal court case. As a result, a status conference set for April 12 in the […]

The Department of Energy should within a week brief bidders about the agency’s reasons for awarding a $45-billion Hanford Site liquid waste cleanup contract to a BWX Technologies-led venture, an industry executive said Monday. As a result, any protest by a losing bidder should likely be filed with the Government Accountability Office by May 1 […]

During fiscal 2023, the Department of Energy expects to make 15 shipments of transuranic defense waste from down-blended plutonium stocks to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a contractor executive said last week. Look for the level of such transuranic waste shipments, from the Surplus […]

Los Alamos County, New Mexico, started its annual budgeting process Monday night with a public hearing on the proposed spending plan for fiscal year 2024, which includes a massive more-than-doubling of the fire department outlay to cover a cooperative agreement with the National Nuclear Security Administration.  The Los Alamos Fire Department provides firefighting and emergency […]

Procurement officials with the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch plan to issue a no-bid contract to a Virginia firm to provide training for the agency’s mentor partnerships, according to a Monday public notice. The Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said in a Monday procurement notice it plans to issue a contract to The […]

Robert Bennett has left his post as executive director of the economic development authority for Columbia County, Ga., after being selected as the new CEO for the non-profit promoting economic growth in areas around the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.   The Augusta, Ga., Chronicle reported Saturday that Bennett has been chosen […]

A hefty lineup of officials spanning both the civilian and military sides of the U.S. nuclear enterprise will testify before the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces on Tuesday.  The first panel up at 4:45 p.m. will include National Nuclear Security Administration head Jill Hruby; William (Ike) White, a senior adviser for the Office […]

Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), co-chair of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) have reintroduced the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act to prohibit the U.S. President from launching a nuclear strike without prior authorization from Congress.  The legislation, filed Friday, would also institute safeguards to prevent the […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Friday its team lost the Department of Energy’s Integrated Tank Disposition Contract, potentially worth $45 billion over 10 years at the Hanford Site in Washington state, which went to a joint venture led by BWX Technologies. “Despite the loss of the [Hanford tanks] contract bid, the company expects to continue to […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 36 shipments of transuranic waste during March, according to the latest publicly-available figures. The DOE’s public website for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) shows 25 shipments arriving between March 1 and March 31 from the Idaho National Laboratory; four from the Savannah […]