Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

A senior official at Entergy Corp. said Wednesday that the energy company believes a sweeping federal legislation package passed over the summer that includes tax incentives for nuclear power plants could bring value to its stakeholders. Entergy is “optimistic” about the potential benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law in August by President […]

The Navy plans to buy five Columbia-class nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines in a block buy after the first two vessels and little margin remains to get the first vessel on patrol by the early 2030s, an admiral said Tuesday. “For long range planning and to signal the industrial base…our plan will be to buy the […]

As expected, the prime cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee has taken over transuranic waste responsibilities from North Wind, the agency said Tuesday. As of last week, Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) took over the Transuranic Waste Processing Center from North Wind Solutions, DOE said in a Tuesday […]

Critical-decision 2 for a new plutonium pit production plant at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is now expected in fiscal 2025, a state panel heard last week from the National Nuclear Security Administration. Jason Armstrong, manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) field office at Savannah River, told the […]

The Joe Biden Administration will maintain all three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad, which need to be modernized to remain relevant, a senior Pentagon official said Tuesday. “At least in this current moment, in the current security environment, and again validated all the way up to the President … we needed to retain the […]

The New Mexico Environment Department could issue a 10-year draft permit for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., before Christmas, a state spokesperson said recently. The draft permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should be released for public comment by late November or early December, Matthew Maez of […]

The utility in charge of California’s last operating nuclear power plant has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to pick up where it left off on a decade-old request to extend the facility’s license, according to agency filings. If approved, Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) Monday request would see NRC revisit the utility’s 2009 license extension […]

The Washington state congressional delegation wrote to President Joe Biden last week, urging more federal funding for the Hanford Site in fiscal 2024 as the former plutonium production facility starts turning low-level radioactive tank waste into glass. The DOE and Bechtel are targeting the startup of the Direct-Feed-Low-Activity-Waste Facility at the Waste Treatment Plant by […]

A federal magistrate judge has ruled a scientist fired by a Honeywell-owned prime contractor for Sandia National Laboratories need not litigate his wrongful termination case in U.S. District Court. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephan Vidmar ruled Oct. 20 that National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia has not proven the lawsuit brought by Carlsbad, N.M., -based […]

An Illinois nuclear power plant that just last year had been slated for closure could be getting a new lease on life, the facility’s operator said Monday. Constellation Energy, which owns Dresden Nuclear Generating Station, has applied with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a 20-year license extension for the Morris, Ill., plant, the company said […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects to issue a solicitation around Dec. 5 for a contractor to build a viewing platform at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. In addition, the Nashville District of the U.S. Army Corps plans to hold a site visit Dec. 13 for prospective bidders on the […]

Work crews have completed construction of a protective cocoon around another old plutonium production reactor at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Department of Energy said last week. The steel structure around the K East Reactor is more than 120 feet tall and 150 feet wide, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said in […]

The parties in New Mexico’s ongoing lawsuit over two proposed interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel will no longer have to present their cases next month, a federal court ruled last week. Although oral arguments in New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas’s lawsuit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had been scheduled for Nov. 15, […]

November Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 01: Atlantic Council, “The future of US nuclear strategy: Releasing the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review.” Features senior Department of Defense officials. 1030 15th St. NW, 12th floor, Washington. 2:00 p.m. Streaming online. Register here. 01: […]

WASHINGTON — The National Nuclear Security Administration late last week was still preparing to explain to Congress what caused construction of the agency’s next-generation uranium manufacturing hub in Tennessee to fall two years behind schedule, the agency’s head said here. “We’re not ready for public statements” about the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) Jill Hruby, administrator […]

As expected, the Department of Energy extended Centerra Group’s paramilitary security contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina by two years. That is according to the most recent major contracts summary issued Monday, which says Centerra’s contract now runs through Oct. 7, 2024. A DOE spokesperson confirmed the contract extension in a Wednesday […]

A series of small but troubling safety and health issues triggered a “stop work order” by the legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, federal and company managers said during an online meeting Wednesday. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) issued the stop work order Oct. 13, suspending most field […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management field office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Wednesday evening the agency could soon pick up its first contract option with the legacy cleanup contractor. “The Department of Energy is getting ready to award our first contract option period under our contract […]

The depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky, both back in service after extended outages, are benefiting from backup sources of hydrogen, the federal agency said Tuesday. The Paducah facility in western Kentucky was the first to restart conversion of depleted uranium […]

With retirements and resignations depleting key worker ranks, a procurement manager with the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch said this week the feds should tap parent companies of prime contractors. “Attrition and retention challenges have recently increased the need for the Office of Environmental Management (EM) prime contractors to access corporate support resources to […]

WASHINGTON — Though the government lags private industry in the development of centralized nuclear waste storage, Washington can still be part of the solution, the Secretary of Energy said here Wednesday. “I understand that there are private efforts going on, but we believe that the government has a role in a [nuclear waste] repository as […]

A woman who assisted with the attempted sale of classified nuclear-powered attack submarine secrets should get three years in prison, her lawyer said Wednesday. A three year sentence “would be consistent with, and in some cases greater than, sentences imposed for other accomplices, as well as even some principle offenders,” Diana Toebbe’s legal counsel wrote […]

The head of the National Nuclear Security Administration was scheduled to discuss arms control Thursday at a major nuclear-policy conference in Washington. Agency Administrator Jill Hruby was set to speak alongside Bonnie Jenkins, under secretary for arms control and international security, in an evening session at the biennial Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference. The session, […]

WASHINGTON — The Secretary of Energy told attendees at an international nuclear power conference Wednesday that the U.S. aims to keep nuclear at the center of its energy mixture in the long term. “[W]e are committed to maintaining and modernizing our existing fleet, and we are committed to developing a secure and diverse supply chain […]

Former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, 68, a Rhodes scholar and theoretical physicist who helmed the Pentagon between 2015 and 2017, died of a heart attack Tuesday  at his home in Boston. At the time of his death, Carter was director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy […]