Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

A new submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead will be ready for production around 2029, and the National Nuclear Security Administration still hasn’t missed deliveries to the military because of COVID, according to the agency’s latest annual unclassified progress report. Notionally, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will produce the final proof-of-concept model, or first production unit, […]

The Department of Energy kicked off solicitation Wednesday for a potential $120 million small business Technical Assistance Contract for certain Office of Environmental Management field sites, including the cleanup office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The final request for proposals (RFP) for the multiple-award indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract was announced in […]

Barring settlement, a federal racial discrimination lawsuit brought by a security officer against the Department of Energy contractor running the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., would go to trial early next year. In an order last month, U.S. District Judge James Browning scheduled a trial starting Jan. 9, 2023 in litigation brought by […]

Five elected representatives from the Aiken, S.C., area said this week they planned to carry on a fight in the state legislature for a bigger share of federal settlement money related to weapon-usable plutonium at the Savannah River Site. With Rep. Bart Blackwell (R-Aiken County) acting as spokesman Monday, the state house members from the […]

Contractor inexperience with big-ticket projects and the Department of Energy’s failure to fully account for risks contributed to mushrooming cost and a three-year slide in schedule for the new underground ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to a government watchdog report published Tuesday. Since 2018, the cost estimate for […]

The prime contractor for the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina is inviting inquiries from “minority serving institutions” interested in helping carry out research for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Battelle Savannah River Alliance said in a March 11 notice on the federal procurement website (sam.gov) expressions of interest for such […]

Although Holtec International is still considering a former New Jersey nuclear power plant as a potential site for a future advanced reactor, the company had yet to make a decision as of Tuesday, a spokesperson said. Holtec has made “no firm commitment to date” on whether it will build its SMR-160 advanced reactor at Oyster […]

The Secretary of Energy of Energy will announce her next chief of staff — and more — “soon,” Tarak Shah, the outgoing chief, told all hands Tuesday in a farewell message. Shah, who hit the campaign trail for Biden and lead beachhead teams into the Forrestal Building in Washington, will depart in April, he said […]

The Department of Energy received 10 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico during February. A March 14 search of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) public website showed 10 shipments for the month taking place between Feb. 7 and Feb. 24. Five were received from the Idaho […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory appeared more or less on track to recategorize one part of its planned plutonium complex as a hazard category three facility, allowing for increased storage of the fissile material there, according to a recent report by the government’s independent nuclear watchdog. In February, Los Alamos prime Triad National Security wrapped up […]

Security guards and other plaintiffs suing President Joe Biden and the Department of Energy over COVID19 workforce vaccination requirements at the Hanford Site in Washington state have agreed to drop contractor executives from the litigation, according to a recent federal court filing. The plaintiffs will withdraw claims against Valerie McCain who heads Bechtel’s Waste Treatment […]

A public-private joint venture to use spent nuclear fuel to power micro reactors received a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy, the agency announced recently.  The venture consists of Oklo Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., Deep Isolation of Berkeley, Calif., and the national laboratories at Argonne […]

A new ventilation system to dramatically increase underground airflow at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., is more than half finished and  should start operating during the summer of 2026, according to materials presented at last week’s Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix. The overall Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee said it will hold a hearing to consider Kathryn Huff’s nomination as the head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear energy office: the post in charge of waste disposal strategy. The administration tapped Huff on Feb. 28 to become principal assistant secretary at DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy […]

The Department of Energy recently hedged a little about an agency official’s prediction that the first civil nuclear credits made available in November’s big infrastructure bill will be awarded by early summer. Although Andrew Griffith, DOE’s deputy assistant secretary for nuclear fuel cycle and supply chain, estimated during a Feb. 28 webinar that the agency […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week 15 – The Department of Energy hosts a virtual public briefing on Hanford Site cleanup priorities. 8:30 p.m. Pacific time. Register online. 16 – The Nevada Site Specific Advisory Board holds a hybrid meeting Wednesday starting at […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s five-year Enterprise Construction Management Services contract is up for bids and interested small businesses have just over a week to ask questions about the quick-turnaround bid request and just over two weeks to get quotes in.  The winner of the contract that went up for grabs last week will provide […]

Talks on the future of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina are continuing between the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration, Nicole Nelson-Jean, a veteran of both DOE branches, told the Waste Management Symposia late last week in Phoenix. Nelson-Jean, currently associate principal deputy assistant secretary for […]

The number of weekly confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management continued to decline as the winter Omicron wave receded across the country, the nuclear cleanup office said. For the seven-day period ended March 10 there were 43 confirmed active cases of COVID-19, down by 22 from the 65 […]

A bipartisan omnibus spending package awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature would increase the Department of Energy’s nuclear energy budget from 2021 levels but still come in shy of the agency’s request for the current fiscal year. If the compromise budget bill becomes law, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) would receive around 1.65 billion for […]

PHOENIX  — The president of the legacy cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico expects her team will soon close out work on  radioactive contamination found two years ago outside the fence along a public road. Also, this year, the Hunting Ingalls-led joint venture will dig up some […]

PHOENIX — Demolition of the X-326 Process Building could be completed this July at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and around the time, depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion operations might resume at the former gaseous diffusion plant, speakers told the attendees of Waste Management Symposia here Wednesday. Remediation contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth aims to […]

The final fiscal 2022 compromise budget reached by Congress this week continues the era of flush funding for the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch, which swells to nearly $7.9 billion for the 12 months ending Sept. 30, up from $7.6 billion. Under the spending plan, which on Thursday morning awaited President Joe Biden’s signature, […]

After idling for half the 2022 fiscal year at last year’s budget level, the National Nuclear Security Administration would get some $26.65 billion to see it through Sept. 30, under an omnibus spending package awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature.  That’s a 4.5% raise year-over-year that’s 3% more than requested for the semiautonomous Department of Energy […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff working on a proposed decommissioning rules change are planning to have the final version of the updated regulations on the commissioners’ desks by next year, the project’s manager said at an annual agency conference Wednesday. The final decommissioning rule, a draft of which went live for public comment March 3, should […]

PHOENIX — After finishing major demolition and remediation last fall of the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Biology center or “mouse house,” the Department of Energy cleanup contractor is “very close” to turning the property back to Y-12 prime Consolidated Nuclear Services, a speaker told the Waste Management Symposia session Wednesday. “It is imminent,” Tommy Morgan, […]