Publications: Morning Briefing

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — With delays piling up for its two planned plutonium pit factories, the National Nuclear Security Administration already believes it will have to exceed the military’s minimum annual order for the nuclear weapon cores, the head of the agency said here Tuesday. “We anticipate that due to all the different things going on […]

Following requests from citizen groups last month, the New Mexico Environment Department agreed to extend the comment period by 60 days for a 10-year permit renewal for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Interested parties now have until 5 p.m. Mountain Time on April 19 to weigh in on the permit renewal for […]

The Department of Energy and its environmental contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory could start operating the Integrated Waste Treatment United any time now, a state spokesperson said Monday. “They are planning to start simulant feed today,” a spokesperson with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, said Monday in response to an email inquiry from […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will serve as a test-bed for some of the changes the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to make to the big site-management contracts of the future, an agency official said here. At “the Livermore Field Office … we are actually right now executing what’s called a model […]

The Department of Energy says contractor North Wind Portage should be assessed more than a quarter-million-dollars’ worth of violations due to a December 2021 accident that crushed the left hand of a worker at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings cleanup in Utah. In a press release and preliminary notice of violation last week, DOE’s Office […]

A Seattle-based advocacy group and a labor union at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state have agreed to revise a legal settlement and give the feds more time to implement engineering controls to protect workers from harmful vapors at the former plutonium production facility. The controls, initially expected in 2021, should now […]

The Exchange Monitor was set to kick off its 15th annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit this week in Crystal City, Va., where senior leaders in government and industry were scheduled to speak about major nuclear modernization programs. Following an afternoon professional workshop on Monday, Jill Hruby, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), was […]

In yet another setback for opponents of two proposed private interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel, a second federal court has dismissed the state of New Mexico’s lawsuit over the projects, court filings show. In a ruling published Friday, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that state Attorney General Hector Balderas’s suit against […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. February 13-15: Exchange Monitor Publications & Forums’ 15th Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit. Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, Va.  14: Earnings call: Leidos will host a fourth quarter earnings call at 8 a.m. Eastern Time.  15: Earnings […]

The vice president of business development for Amentum’s national security group, Mark Morgan, said last week via social media he is resigning to “step back, take a break and explore new challenges.” “This was not an easy decision,” Morgan said in a Thursday post on LinkedIn, adding he would update his online profile “when I […]

The New Mexico Environment Department wants the Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to suspend part of its chromium plume mitigation program over concerns it might force contamination deeper underground, a federal official said Thursday. In December, the state sent a letter to Michael Mikolanis, DOE’s field boss for the […]

Atlanta-based Perma-Fix Environmental Services anticipates playing a larger role in tank waste cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state, thanks to a decision last week by the Department of Energy. DOE’s amendment of a 2013 environmental decision clears the way for the agency to treat and dispose of certain secondary wastes from the agency’s […]

Feb. 15 is the new deadline for interested small businesses to bid on a construction contract for a viewing platform at the K-25 area of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a Tuesday procurement notice. The previous due date for bid packages was Jan. […]

A recent inspection at a shuttered Massachusetts nuclear power plant revealed that multiple contract workers at the site were inadvertently exposed to radiation during decommissioning work, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a letter to the company in charge of the facility. Holtec International, which is currently decommissioning Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, failed to “perform […]

The company in charge of California’s last operating nuclear power plant is seeking new members for a stakeholders’ group focused on plant decommissioning activities. According to an application released by Diablo Canyon Power Plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), March 7 is the deadline for interested individuals living in the vicinity of the Avila […]

Sens. Angus King (I-Maine) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) will continue as the chair and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee in the 118th Congress, the committee announced Tuesday. Among the subcommittee rank-and-file, there were only two changes. Democrats effectively expanded their Senate majority by one after November’s midterm elections, so the […]

The Department of Energy is looking for someone to directly oversee the agency’s efforts to find a willing host for a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, according to a press release Tuesday. DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy is seeking “highly qualified candidates” to become director of the agency’s Office of Integrated Waste […]

Two long standing government bosses, Jeffrey Allison and Randall Hendrickson, lead a joint team working out details of transferring responsibility for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to the agency’s nuclear weapons branch from the nuclear cleanup office, feds said Thursday in Aiken, S.C. The group led by Allison, deputy manager […]

Editor’s Note: A full interview with NRC Commissioner Bradley Crowell will be published in the Friday, February 7 issue of RadWaste Monitor. ROCKVILLE, MD. — A company seeking federal funds to restart a shuttered Michigan nuclear power plant is in for a heavy lift, one of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s newest top executives said during […]

A group of four Democratic U.S. lawmakers want the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Navy for a report about using low-enriched uranium to fuel U.S. submarines. The three U.S. Representatives and one U.S. Senator made the request in a Jan. 27 letter to Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and […]

Another small business protested the Department of Energy’s award of a new contract to manage the agency’s National Training Center in Albuquerque. Chenega Reliable Services, a San Antonio, Texas-based small business subsidiary of Chenega Corp., Anchorage, Alaska, lodged the protest with the Government Accountability Office on Feb. 3. Chenega is the second of two losing […]

The impact of the Department of Energy’s long-term cleanup contract at the Idaho National Laboratory helped lift revenue for Jacobs in the first quarter of fiscal 2023, an executive with the Dallas-based company said during a Tuesday earnings call. Critical Mission Solutions, the segment where Jacobs coordinates much of its government contracting work, took in […]

The president of a New Mexico-based conservative nonprofit organization in a recent op-ed railed on what he called “ignorance and hysteria” among the opposition to two proposed interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel in the southwest U.S. “[S]tate and federal politicians, working with anti-nuclear agitators, have been fiercely resistant” to proposed consolidated interim storage […]

The Department of Energy now expects the full Occupational Medical Contract solicitation for the Hanford Site in Washington state to hit the streets by late next month, according to a procurement notice last week. In a notice dated Feb. 2, the DOE Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in Cincinnati said to expect the request for […]

Dallas-based Jacobs, a Department of Energy contractor, had earnings from continuing operations of $136 million or $2 million more than the $134 million recorded a year ago, according to its latest quarterly earnings report. Earnings per diluted share were $1.07, up 4 cents per share from the year-ago number of $1.03 per share, according to […]