Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

People reportedly appointed to new senior leadership roles in the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, including one person who was supposed to lead the office, had yet to officially start their new jobs as of Monday, nearly a month after the personnel announcements hit. In mid-January, the White House announced that President Joe […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: 16: The Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board meets virtually via Webex starting at 1 p.m. Mountain Time. 16: Nevada’s Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board meets at  4 p.m. Pacific Time at Molasky Building, 15th Floor […]

Net earnings from continuing operations fell at Jacobs, Dallas, in the first quarter of fiscal 2022, which the global engineering firm and Department of Energy contractor attributed largely to tax-related adjustments, according to financial results reported last week. Net earnings from continuing operations for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021, were $134 million, or $1.03 […]

A recent Government Accountability Office report confirms what most observers already assumed — the COVID-19 pandemic prompted much of the federal workforce at the Department of Energy and elsewhere to abandon their cubicles in favor of telecommuting, although the practice has its own hassles. The DOE found there were limits to its work-from-home efforts especially […]

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján said in a video released Sunday via Twitter “I’m on the road to recovery” from a recent stroke and should resume Senate votes in Washington, D.C., “in just a few short weeks.” First Luján, flanked by two members of his University of New Mexico medical team, said he will enter […]

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge is scheduled to hear oral arguments today on whether Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley exceeds size limits for the $160-million Paducah Infrastructure Support Services set-aside contract awarded in December 2020 for the former gaseous diffusion plant in Kentucky. Although today’s hearing set for 11 a.m. Eastern […]

Something akin to the canceled Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste repository in Nevada is still central to disposal of thousands of canisters from the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to the lifecycle cost report published last week. The Bechtel-built Waste Treatment Plant at Hanford, expected to run for 40 years or […]

A pair of Republican legislators last week asked Congress’s investigative arm to look into whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is prepared to handle applications for future advanced nuclear reactors, according to a recent letter. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) should investigate NRC’s “preparedness to review and approve applications for advanced nuclear reactor designs,” Sen. Shelley […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday appointed nearly a half dozen nuclear scientists, engineers, policy experts and industry leaders to a federal council tasked with advising the agency on its current and future nuclear energy programs, according to a press release. Bill Magwood, director-general of the intergovernmental Nuclear Energy Agency, will chair the 11-person Nuclear […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — With transition to a follow-on contract derailed for now, the National Nuclear Security Administration planned to extend the existing site-management contract for two of its main nuclear-weapons production sites for up to a year, people familiar with the plans said this week. Incumbent Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), a team led by Bechtel […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to reassess the priorities of its Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, senior administration officials said here this week. The review, which had yet to start as of Wednesday, will “reexamine the priorities and missions” of the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN) “in light of the […]

Members of a California community hosting a former nuclear power plant should hear from the Department of Energy’s acting spent fuel chief this week about the agency’s effort to site a federal interim storage facility, according to a press release from the plant’s operator. Kim Petry, DOE’s acting assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is issuing a no-bid contract to the minority-owned firm, Career Communications Group, to give the nuclear cleanup branch a presence at a black engineering conference later this month and help the office improve outreach to technically-savvy minority recruits. The DOE’s Cincinnati-based Environmental Management (EM) Consolidated Business Center […]

No existing federal law allowed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license a proposed commercial interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Texas, the Lone Star State’s attorney general told a federal judge Monday, rolling out his long-awaited argument in the state’s lawsuit against the agency. NRC “lacks authority” to grant a license to Interim […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — A mining and construction project at the Nevada National Security Site critical to the next generation of non-explosive, nuclear-stockpile testing should have its cost and schedule set in June, the head of the site’s management contractor said here Tuesday. An independent cost estimate of the U1a Complex Enhancements Project’s (UCEP) Infrastructure and […]

Expanding on its decision last week to deny a protest of the Department of Energy’s most recent cleanup contract at the Oak Ridge Site, the Government Accountability Office said Monday that the agency properly vetted a Veolia-led team’s proposal and took into consideration the team’s relevant past experience with cleanup jobs. The agency’s evaluation was […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Maybe by March, the National Nuclear Security Administration will understand the extent to which COVID-19 has delayed modernization of U.S. nuclear weapons, the agency’s top Washington-based weapons official said here Tuesday. Programs under review include the W80-4 air-launched cruise missile warhead, which the agency said last year looked to be affected by […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is done with its remediation of the Plutonium Finishing Plant, according to a recently-posted staff report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.   The DOE Office of Environmental Management has approved Critical Decision 4 for the cleanup of the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP), “marking completion of […]

While more than 300 plaintiffs are now listed, an amended complaint last month by guards and other anti-vaccine workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington has the same central weakness as the original one rejected by a federal judge, government lawyers said in a filing last week. U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice […]

Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk met privately with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Jan. 27, a board spokesperson confirmed Monday. Members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) leadership of DOE and its $7.5-billion Office of Environmental Management “try to meet periodically to discuss updates,” in closed sessions, DNFSB associate director for […]

A bill making its way through the New Mexico state legislature aimed at blocking a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the state will no longer ban the storage of such waste outright, according to amendments adopted in committee Monday. A package of amendments on House Bill 127, adopted by unanimous vote […]

The House of Representatives could vote Tuesday on a 21-day stopgap budget unveiled Monday by House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) to keep the Department of Energy and the rest of the federal government open through March 11. “This Continuing Resolution [CR] – the product of bipartisan, bicameral negotiation – extends funding through March […]

ALEXANDRIA VA. — The head of the National Nuclear Security Administration on Wednesday would shed no light on the timeline for transitioning the agency’s two main weapons production sites to new management, though the transition was supposed to be halfway over by now. Meanwhile, Consolidated Nuclear Security, the Bechtel-led incumbent managing the Pantex Plant in […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The lead parent company of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions could take over construction of the Savannah River Site’s planned plutonium pit factory, with plenty of opportunities for subcontracting, an official with the site’s prime contractor said here Monday. “We’re looking at it, but I’m not going to stand here and say that […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied a request to let companies fund disposal of major components of shuttered nuclear plants by tapping into the plants’ decommissioning trust funds, according to a recent notice from the agency. The proposed rulemaking, which NRC rejected in a Federal Register notice published Feb. 4, would have updated federal regulations to […]

Dozens of stakeholders, headed by a former secretary of energy, pressed the governor of California in a letter last week to prevent the state’s last operating nuclear power plant from shutting down. “With the accelerating threat that climate change poses to life on Earth, we write today to urge that the state reverse the decision […]