Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Brian Vance, the top manager for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, told a National Academies panel Tuesday “time is our common enemy” in cleaning up the most contaminated property in the weapons complex. “Maximizing risk reduction per dollar,” is key to addressing the 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste […]

Due to the “fits-and-starts” so far with demonstration of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, the Department of Energy plans to restart the facility’s final test run, which the agency now expects to last beyond the previously scheduled 50 days, officials at Idaho National Laboratory said Tuesday. “There really is no such thing as a 50-day […]

The Department of Defense wants to hire a new director for strategic deterrence and capability to oversee “efforts to modernize and sustain the nuclear deterrent,” according to a recent want-ad on the official federal jobs board. The director would be responsible for a swath of nuclear-weapons tasks that were once organized under the now-defunct post […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory appointed Evelyn Mullen executive officer for weapons, the New Mexico nuclear-weapons design laboratory announced Monday. In her new role, Mullen will be an “executive leader in the organization, with a focus on both tactical and strategic operational needs,” according to Los Alamos’ press release. She will report to Robert Webster, the […]

A Senate committee was scheduled Thursday to decide whether Kathryn Huff will get a chance to lead the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, according to a recent meeting notice.  When the White House announced its intention to nominate Huff to be assistant secretary for nuclear energy in January, the former assistant professor of […]

The company aiming to build an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Texas joined the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in calling for a state lawsuit to be kicked out of a federal appeals court, according to a new filing on the docket. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s arguments against Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed […]

Holtec International late last week withdrew some sharp criticism it made against the company selected to provide spent-fuel management services at a California nuclear power plant, framing its comments as a heat-of-the-moment reaction. Comments directed at Orano USA in an April 6 letter “reflected an emotional response in the immediate wake of the disappointing news,” […]

DNFSB taking advantage of closed-door meetings, according to report to Congress The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has made use of “Nonpublic Collaborative Discussions” on various issues since being given the option to use such private meetings in the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, according to a recent report. “The NDAA [National Defense Authorization […]

The Department of Energy has signed off on a $5.4-million task order for Four River Nuclear Partnership to build an emergency operations center at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, according to a procurement notice posted online Friday April 22. Construction is scheduled to start this year, according to the DOE Office of Environmental Management budget […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration seeks no funding for fiscal year 2023 for either a nuclear, sea-launched cruise-missile warhead or for previously planned alternations for the B83 gravity bomb, according to the agency’s full budget request for the year. The news follows the Navy’s disclosure last week that it would seek Congress’ permission to cancel […]

It is time for a federal district court judge in Washington state to toss out the amended complaint brought by more than 300 workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site who oppose mandatory vaccination against COVID-19, government lawyers said in filings last week. “Regardless of what procedural exhaustion requirements must be met to assert […]

Honeywell’s wholly owned subsidiary National Engineering and Technology Solutions of Sandia will be the prime contractor for the Sandia National Laboratories for another five years, the National Nuclear Security Administration announced Monday. The semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency said in a press release that it exercised five options on National Engineering and Technology […]

During the past week there were 23 confirmed, active cases of COVID-19 among the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management’s federal and contractor workforce, an increase of 10 from the prior week, according to a spokesperson. That is still lower than the 27 recorded two weeks earlier. As of Monday morning, there was no […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: 26: The National Academies’ Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board kicks off a three-day meeting starting at 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time at the Holiday Inn Richland, Wash., regarding continued analysis of supplemental treatment of low-activity waste at the Hanford […]

The procurement arm of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office is requesting information from contractors capable of storing and disposing of low-level or mixed low-level hazardous waste, according to a recent online notice. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center issued a sources sought/request for information (RFI) on Thursday April 21, trying to […]

Prospective bidders on a Department of Energy contract for long-term storage of domestic elemental mercury now have two extra weeks, until May 20, to submit proposals. In an update on its procurement page for Elemental Mercury Long-term Management and Storage, the DOE said Thursday April 21 that the submission deadline is being extended to May […]

The Department of Energy requested $10 million to fund local and tribal participation in the agency’s quest to site and eventually build a federally operated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, according to a detailed fiscal year 2023 budget request released late last week. For the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, DOE says […]

Until the recent past, the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico let its fire trucks fall into disrepair and did a poor job of training firefighters, the agency’s Office of Inspector General said in a just-released report.   While it found no evidence to substantiate the most serious allegations raised about the […]

The company selected to manage Diablo Canyon Power Station’s spent fuel inventory fired back Wednesday at claims from a competitor that its cask system was unsafe and untested. Orano USA, whose subsidiary TN Americas on April 6 locked down the spent fuel contract with plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), was “surprised” at what […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is looking for a new remote office site in Las Vegas for personnel who don’t need to regularly commute to the Nevada Nuclear Security Site some 60 miles to the northwest of the city, according to a recent procurement note. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency “plans to […]

New Mexico’s governor blasted the Secretary of Energy this month for failing to provide “meaningful and transparent public engagement” about the agency’s plans to ship immobilized, surplus plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from South Carolina. “Because the issues raised in the petition can only be addressed by DOE, I am passing this petition […]

William (Ike) White, the top manager of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch, expects excess contaminated facilities in the weapons complex to draw more attention in the next decade or so, he told a National Academies of Sciences board Wednesday. Within that span, it will be time for the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management […]

Operators of financially struggling nuclear power plants now have around a month to bid for some of the cash available under the Department of Energy’s civil nuclear credits program, the agency announced Tuesday. Bids on the first round of DOE’s roughly $6 billion nuclear credits program, greenlit in November’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, are […]

Department of Energy managers, college officials and lawmakers broke ground Tuesday on a new off-site research center for the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. The $50-million Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative facility, to be built by North Wind Group on the University of South Carolina-Aiken campus, will provide 60,000 square feet of laboratory, office and […]

The Jacobs-led cleanup contractor the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has lifted a self-imposed “stand down” order at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, an agency spokesperson said Tuesday. The contractor, Idaho Environmental Coalition, lifted the order March 31, the DOE spokesperson said in a Tuesday email. The spokesperson was responding to a Weapons […]

Some 260 Palisades Nuclear Generating Station employees, accounting for more than 40% of the current workforce, will stay on the job even after a decommissioning company takes over, the plant’s owner said. These employees will remain on site “as part of the first phase of decommissioning,” a spokesperson for plant owner Entergy told Exchange Monitor […]