Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

A Colorado Republican will chair the House Armed Services subcommittee in charge of Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs, the full committee’s new chairman announced recently. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) will lead the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, which aside from setting policy and spending limits for the entire National Nuclear Security Administration every […]

Those seeking funding to help the Department of Energy develop a strategy for siting an interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility have a day or so to throw their hat in the ring. DOE’s roughly $26 million funding opportunity announcement closes Jan. 31, the agency has said. That deadline is about a month later than […]

After skipping a couple of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual controlled deer hunts returned to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina during December, and 261 deer were killed, according to the site’s top fed. “Finally we did the deer hunts in December,” Michael Budney, who heads DOE’s Office […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. January 31: Meeting: The National Academies’ Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board holds two days of hybrid meetings starting at 10 a.m. Pacific Time on its review of the continued analysis of supplemental treatment of Low-Activity Waste […]

As scheduled, Bob Pragada formally became the new big boss at Jacobs last week, as the former president and chief operating officer succeeded retiring CEO Steve Demetriou, the company announced in a press release. Also last week Jacobs announced the appointment of a new chief financial officer effective in August. The Dallas-based international engineering and […]

A bill aimed at preventing a private company from building a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico without prior state approval cleared on Tuesday its first legislative hurdle in Santa Fe. The measure, sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D), was favorably reported out of the state Senate Conservation Committee […]

A National Nuclear Security Administration plan bound for Congress will detail the agency’s needs over the next decade for new experimental capabilities to test nuclear weapons and materials, the agency said this week. Lasers, used at the Livermore’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the University of Rochester’s Omega Laser Facility, and pulsed power, used at […]

A joint venture led by a Veolia affiliate has been tapped by Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co. to run two landfills at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state under a deal potentially worth $124 million over six years, Veolia said Wednesday. The Hanford cleanup prime has picked the joint venture between Veolia […]

A federal appeals court could hear oral arguments this May in Seattle in a legal challenge brought over COVID-19 vaccination policy at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday informed attorneys for the Justice Department and the Silent Majority Foundation, representing more […]

As expected, citizen groups in New Mexico have asked the state Environment Department to extend the comment period by 60 days on a 10-year permit renewal for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The draft permit is more than 1,200 pages long so granting the extension until April 19 is justified, according to […]

Conversion of 400 LGM-30 Minuteman III ICBM silos to accommodate Northrop Grumman’s Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missiles will draw lessons from recent work by the company’s team in Utah. Parsons Corp., an original designer of the Minuteman silos, is a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman on the conversion of the Minuteman III silos for the Sentinel program. […]

Earlier this month a Department of Energy contractor started removing radioactive waste from an underground tank at the AX Farm at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Removal of radioactive and chemical waste from Tank AX-101 started Jan. 13, and should take about 18 months, the Department of Energy said in a Tuesday news release. […]

Like football fans, contractors considering bids on Department of Energy business often lack faith they will receive a fair shake from officials, a Tuesday report from a federal watchdog indicates. Representatives from 15 of the 24 industry contractors interviewed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on DOE procurement “expressed concerns about the fairness of DOE’s […]

  California’s last nuclear power plant must start its federal relicensing process anew, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday, derailing its operator’s plan to put huge chunks of bailout money to quick work via a regulatory shortcut. In 2022, Diablo Canyon Power Plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) secured more than $2 billion in […]

Roughly a quarter of the way through fiscal 2023 the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has received 107 shipments of transuranic waste, about on pace for meeting its 400-shipment target for the fiscal year ending in September, DOE and its contractor told New Mexico lawmakers Tuesday. There have been 107 shipments to the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration planned to award its next big facilities operations contract in December 2025, a Department of Energy official told the Government Accountability Office in a letter dated December 20. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Tuesday published the letter to Allison Bawden, director of the office’s Natural Resources and Environment team, […]

Citing “unprecedented danger” arising from Russia’s nearly year-long war against Ukraine, the peace-advocating Bulletin of Atomic Scientists on Tuesday set its Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds until midnight. It is the closest the long-running, metaphorical clock — a consensus gut-check among dove-like experts — has ever been to the symbolic midnight hour that marks the […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission needs another month to review Holtec International’s application for a proposed consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, an agency official said here Tuesday. NRC is “in the process” of reviewing new information submitted this week by Holtec, so the agency will not be ready to make […]

The Department of Energy cannot sign off on a decommissioning company’s gambit to restart a shuttered Michigan nuclear power plant, a coalition of anti-nuclear groups told the Secretary of Energy in a letter Monday. Holtec International’s proposed bid on DOE’s civil nuclear credits program, aimed at securing federal funding for Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, “goes […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — The two companies aiming to build privately-owned interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel should apply for financial aid under a multi-million-dollar Department of Energy program, a senior agency official said here Tuesday at a conference. Holtec and Interim Storage Partners (ISP) are “welcome to apply to the funding opportunity announcement,” Kim […]

Feds at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina are busy planning to transfer responsibility for the complex to DOE’s nuclear weapons office from the cleanup branch in fiscal 2025, a top local boss said Monday. “As we discussed before, we have been charged to come up with a plan by June […]

Amentum-led Department of Energy contractor Washington River Protection Solutions asked for expressions of interest from makers of robots that could provide a better view of the pits that lead to underground radioactive waste tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “The robotic solution will be referred to as the Pit Vyper in this document,” […]

The Department of Energy’s ongoing funding opportunity for communities interested in hosting a federal interim storage facility got a little larger Monday after the agency announced it would tack on roughly $10 million in additional funding for the program. The agency increased the total award for its interim storage funding opportunity to around $26 million, […]

Akima Systems Engineering, Herndon, Va., protested the award of a potentially $340-million operations and maintenance contract at the Department of Energy’s National Training Center in Albuquerque, N.M., which the agency in December awarded to Eagle Harbor, Manassas, Va. Akima lodged the protest on Jan. 17, just shy of a month after DOE awarded Eagle Harbor […]

With a Department of Energy solicitation for a new Occupational Services contract expected as soon as February for the Hanford Site in Washington state, the agency last week released various details about the work, including a video tour of two existing worker health facilities. DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center published both a list […]

The Department of Energy is once again seeking candidates to run the agency’s spent nuclear fuel disposal programs, according to a job posting listed last week. DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy is looking for a “seasoned executive” to join the agency as its Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition, according to the […]