Publications: Morning Briefing

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 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Monday published a draft solicitation for an indefinite-award, indefinite-quantity Counter Nuclear Smuggling System Deployment contract with an order ceiling of $800 million. “Contractors will be responsible for providing design, integration, construction, communications, logistics, training, and equipment procurement to support the deployment of counter nuclear smuggling systems,” the semiautonomous Department […]

The Atkins-led contractor overseeing depleting uranium conversion at gaseous diffusion plants in Kentucky and Ohio needs a more focused and formal approach to “safety culture,” the Department of Energy’s auditing branch said in a recent assessment. The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments report was released this month for Mid-America Conversion Services, the joint venture of […]

A New Mexico state senator’s latest attempt to keep a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel out of the Land of Enchantment should soon see a floor vote, after clearing a second state senate committee Tuesday. The measure, which proposes amending state law to ban the storage of spent nuclear fuel in New […]

The Department of Energy and its cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory are making “minor instrument repairs” this week at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, which is still “heating up to begin simulant treatment followed by radiological operations,” a DOE spokesperson said Monday. The spokesperson did not offer a projected date for startup of […]

The nation’s only nuclear power construction site will represent less than a tenth of total new generation capacity this year, the federal government’s independent energy auditor reported Monday. Although two new reactors with a combined capacity of 2.2 gigawatts (GW) are slated to come online in 2023 at Georgia’s Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, […]

Although a federal appeals court ruled Swift & Staley should not have been issued a new five-year Department of Energy contract to continue as landlord of the Paducah Site in Kentucky for five more years, it appears the contractor will stay in place there at least through July 2024. The DOE in a notice of […]

Congressional leaders asked the Department of Energy to turn over by Feb. 16 its communications with three national labs reportedly targeted in January by Russian hackers. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California was among the labs the hackers targeted by, among other things, creating fake login pages and asking authorized users of the lab’s […]

The Jacobs-led contractor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory was poised to start simulated operations of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, according to an Idaho Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson. “They are estimating radiological waste will start being added mid-February,” the state Environmental Quality Department spokesperson said Wednesday in an email to Exchange […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 08: Meeting: The Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board for Oak Ridge holds a hybrid meeting starting at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. To attend virtually, please email to: orssab@orem.doe.gov no later than 5 p.m. […]

A New Mexico state Senate panel was scheduled Monday to vote on a bill to block a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the Land of Enchantment.  If made law, Senate Bill 53, sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D), would update New Mexico law to ban the disposal of spent nuclear […]

Effective Saturday Feb. 4, Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors took over operation of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. Salado Isolation Mining Contractors (SIMCO), which also includes New Mexico-based subcontractor Los Alamos Technical Associates, said in a Friday evening press release it was about to officially take over as prime […]

There will be some churn in the 118th Congress among staff on the House Armed Services Committee, which sets policy and spending limits for Department of Energy nuclear-weapons programs, according to documents the committee published Wednesday. Christopher Vieson will be the top committee hand at Armed Services for the new Republican majority, according to a list […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is waiting for more information before it assesses the potential impacts of the White House’s announcement this week that the three-year-old COVID-19 national emergency declaration would end this summer, a spokesperson said Wednesday. In an Office of Management and Budget policy statement Monday, the Joe Biden administration announced that it would […]

Employees suing the Department of Energy’s prime for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee over its COVID-19 vaccination policy continued settlement talks with the contractor and a mediator, according to a recent court filing.  Since the Dec. 28 joint status report, “the parties have continued to exchange offers and counter-offers,”  according to the update […]

In a draft report presented this week to  a National Academies panel, a Department of Energy research team said grout represents the safest bet for treating half of the low-level radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “Only alternatives employing grout technology appear to be technically viable, low-to-moderate risk, and flexible enough to […]

There will be some churn in the 118th Congress among staff on the House Armed Services Committee, which sets policy and spending limits for Department of Energy nuclear-weapons programs, according to documents the committee published Wednesday. Christopher Vieson will be the top committee hand at Armed Services for the new Republican majority, according to a […]

Nuclear power plant operators looking to take advantage of a federal bailout scheme may have to wait a bit longer to apply for the program’s second funding round, according to a Department of Energy spokesperson. DOE expects to release “application guidance” for the second round of its civil nuclear credits program in the first quarter […]

In a Federal Register notice Tuesday, the Department of Energy said that glass logs produced from low-level radioactive tank waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state can be treated as low-level waste. DOE published that conclusion after consulting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, tribes and other local stakeholders in the final “Waste Incidental to […]

The Department of Energy expects to begin awarding funds from its multi-million dollar interim storage funding program by midyear, an agency spokesperson said Tuesday. Roughly $26 million is up for grabs in DOE’s interim storage funding opportunity announcement, aimed at bringing together communities and other stakeholders to hash out how the department should go about […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico is working with Carlsbad city officials to secure federal money for electric vehicle charging stations in the community, a spokesperson said in a Tuesday email. The local Carlsbad Current Argus newspaper reported last week the city and DOE’s Carlsbad field office management have agreed to […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory will install by 2030 the equipment needed to make at least 30 plutonium pits annually, according to a Jan. 19 memo from the deputy secretary of energy. Formally known as the Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project 30 Base Equipment Installation subproject, the installation will provide the lab with “the […]

The company in charge of decommissioning a shuttered Massachusetts nuclear power plant affirmed Monday night that it would not discharge radioactive water from the facility until it gets a required federal permits modification later this year. Holtec International “will fully comply” with the terms of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station’s National current Pollutant Discharge Elimination System […]

An entity called SRS Critical Infrastructure Security, which appeared to have the business in hand two years ago, filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Department of Energy’s award of a new Savannah River Site security contract for incumbent Centerra. The award was announced earlier in January, and the bid protest […]