Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The governor of Michigan late last week announced that the company in charge of decommissioning a recently-shuttered nuclear power plant had applied for a federal bailout to restart the facility, according to a press release. Holtec International, which officially took ownership of Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in June from former operator Entergy, has submitted a […]

The entire Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is poised to hear oral arguments Tuesday on whether President Joe Biden’s administration exceeded its authority by requiring that most federal employees get vaccinated against COVID-19. The Fifth Circuit has a livestream link where the public can listen to the hearing in real time although the livestream […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management, long-term custodian of 101 previously contaminated sites cleaned up by other federal entities, expects to see its portfolio nearly double over time, a top administrator said last week. The Office of Legacy Management will take charge of 20 more sites over the next five years, Jay Glascock, […]

ARLIGNTON, VA — Though some in the U.S. government feel Russia will rely increasingly on non-conventional and nuclear arms, including tactical nuclear weapons, that does not make a case for continuing development of a low-yield, sea-launched nuclear cruise missile, a Pentagon official said here Wednesday. The sea-launched nuclear cruise missile (SLCM-N), with its W80-4 variant […]

Two megadollar Department of Energy nuclear cleanup contracts, together potentially worth more than $50 billion, could be awarded by early 2023, a top Office of Environmental Management procurement executive told a gathering in Santa Fe, N.M., Wednesday. The Integrated Tank Disposition Contract for the Hanford Site in Washington state and the Decontamination and Decommissioning Contract […]

More than a year after President Joe Biden announced the effort, much of the Department of Energy’s weapons complex is struggling to understand the particulars of the Justice40 Initiative if comments Wednesday by nuclear cleanup advisory board chairs are any indication. In broad terms, Justice40 was set up by Biden’s July 2021 Executive Order 14008, […]

Richard Tighe will be the president and chief executive officer of the Bectel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security, prime contractor of the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the company announced Wednesday. Tighe replaces Bill Tindall, who retired in July. Gene Sievers, Gene Sievers, site manager for Y-12, […]

The owner of California’ last operating nuclear power plant last week bid for a chunk of federal bailout cash to help the facility’s twin reactors running, a utility spokesperson said Wednesday. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) on Friday applied for a portion of the $6 billion in civilian nuclear power credits administered by the federal […]

The Senate may not pass its big defense policy bill before voters decide who controls Congress in November’s midterm elections, the head of the chamber’s Armed Services Committee said Wednesday at an industry conference. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) is “pushing hard” to get the chamber’s 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed before lawmakers bill […]

In one of its first public field hearings since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board will review operations at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico this November. During a Nov. 16 session in Santa Fe, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) will look into both […]

The Department of Energy now expects to replace an aging electrical substation on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant grounds near Carlsbad, N.M., in 2023, a spokesperson said Tuesday. The substation replacement project is now planned for “the spring time frame,” a spokesperson for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) said in an email reply to […]

Speaking to state lawmakers last week, Holtec International’s interim storage chief sought to allay fears that the company’s proposed spent fuel storage facility in the Land of Enchantment would become a permanent repository for nuclear waste. “Interim storage — and it is interim — will be measured in decades,” Ed Mayer, the project lead for […]

The U.S. Air Force launched its second unarmed Minuteman III test in the early hours of Wednesday morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, ramping up dry runs for the land-based nuclear-launch vehicle following a pause after Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine in late February. The test launch, which took place at 4:13 a.m. […]

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D), Nevada’s junior U.S. senator, announced Tuesday she is working from home with a mild case of COVID-19. Rosen, who ousted former Sen. Dean Heller (R) in 2018 to turn the state’s upper-chamber delegation blue, is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee that annually authorizes defense programs, including those at […]

Operators of financially-troubled nuclear power plants are about out of time to apply for the first round of federal bailouts through the Department of Energy’s civil nuclear credits program. Tuesday is the deadline for the first $1.2 billion funding cycle under DOE’s nuclear credits program, unveiled as part of the White House’s November bipartisan infrastructure […]

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) late last week signed a bill aimed at keeping the Golden State’s last operating nuclear plant online into the next decade, his office said. The legislation, which Newsom signed into law Friday afternoon, authorizes the California Department of Water Resources to loan Diablo Canyon Power Plant operators Pacific Gas & […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 07: Meeting, Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB) Chairs. 10:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. Eastern time. La Fonda on the Plaza, La Terraza Meeting Room, 100 East San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501. And streaming […]

Discovery of radioactive contamination on a transuranic waste transportation container in August prompted the Department of Energy to pause certain work at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., a spokesperson said Friday. During maintenance on Aug. 24, a staffer spotted an “unexpected substance” near the bottom of the shipping container, a Waste Isolation […]

The Department of Energy granted a request by Los Alamos National Laboratory’ cleanup contractor in New Mexico to resume “drilling and draining” containers with free liquids to prepare them for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, an agency spokesperson said Friday. DOE has also endorsed plans by Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) to […]

The prime contractor for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is investigating two separate incidents where technical safety requirement violations occurred at the disposal facility for defense-related transuranic waste, a spokesperson said late Wednesday. The incidents that led to the violations occurred Aug. 15 and Aug. 16, said the spokesperson […]

California lawmakers on Wednesday passed an eleventh-hour bill that, if signed into law, would help keep the Golden State’s last operating nuclear power plant running into the next decade. The state Senate passed the proposed measure 31-1 late on Wednesday night, the final scheduled day of the legislative session. The bill would give the California […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration sole-sourced a real-estate development contract to Tucson, Ariz.-based Tierra Right of Way to procure a parcel of land for the Kansas City National Security Campus in Missouri, which is “in dire need of new facilities.” The Kansas City National Security Campus, operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, is the […]

Due in part to this year’s Cerro Pelado wildfire, the New Mexico Environment Department has given the cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory until Oct. 30 to perform sampling connected with a hexavalent chromium plume. The state agency officially granted a two-month extension in an Aug. 24 letter to the […]

The Department of Energy expects next month to publish its key findings from a review of hundreds of public comments on its ongoing effort to site a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, an agency spokesperson said Wednesday. DOE is “going through the formal review process” for its November request for information (RFI) […]

Vector Resources, a women owned small business, recently protested the award of a potentially $53 million technical and administrative services contract at the Y-12 National Security Site to Sigma Science.  Vector lodged two protests about the award with the Government Accountability Officer on Monday, the congressional investigator said on its website. Work under Sigma Science’s […]