Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: 07-09: Exchange Monitor’s 14th Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit. Hyatt Regency Crustal City at Reagan National Airport. Arlington, Va. 8:00 a.m. Eastern – 5:00 p.m. Eastern Monday and Tuesday, 8:00 a.m. Eastern to 12:30 p.m. Eastern Wednesday. […]

Confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 across the National Nuclear Security Administration enterprise have tripled since January and are also three times higher than this time last year, according to data from agency headquarters. The civilian nuclear weapons steward also reported five confirmed COVID-19-related deaths since the first week of January, spokespersons from headquarters in Washington […]

A Jacobs executive, a college professor, a retired federal regulator and the mayor of town adjoining the government’s largest nuclear cleanup property are the four newest members of an advisory board to the Department of Energy’s $7.5-billion Office of Environmental Management, the agency said last week in a press release.   Newly-appointed members of the 17-member […]

With the promise of a reliable nitrogen supply apparently in hand, the Department of Energy is preparing to resume a final test run to demonstrate operations of a long-awaited plant to treat sodium-bearing radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory, according to a state official. “Warm up” of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) was […]

The Department of Energy’s latest best- and worst-case estimates for fully cleaning up the Hanford Site in Washington State were each several tens of billions of dollars lower than the previous estimate, though the calculation released this week does not fully include the cost of delays to the site’s crucial High-Level Waste Facility. The feds […]

The Department of Energy and the prime for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico last month brought online the 700-C underground ventilation fan not used regularly since the 2014 accident that forced the disposal site out of service for about three years. Reinhard Knerr, manager of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office that oversees the […]

Exelon has completed its separation from spin-off company Constellation Energy Corp., announced a year ago as the new home for a fleet of nuclear reactors, according to a Tuesday press release. Exelon will continue its electricity utility and distribution business, the company said in the Tuesday press release. The Constellation spinoff will oversee the nuclear, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s current suite of safety regulations should work as intended in the event of a future cross-country nuclear waste transportation campaign, the agency’s material control chief said Wednesday in a public meeting. “We do feel we are well positioned for any future shipments of spent fuel based on our strong regulatory framework […]

In a milestone for U.S. nuclear-weapons cleanup in Washington State, the Department of Energy since Jan. 26 has prepared 50,000 gallons of liquid radioactive waste at the Hanford Site for solidification into stable, storable glass as soon as December 2023. By the end of the year, DOE and its contractors hope the new Tank Side […]

A glitch with an emergency diesel generator at the Davis-Besse reactor should be classified as a low-to-moderate safety problem, Energy Harbor Corp. staff argued at a Tuesday hearing held by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. On May 27, 2021, a field flash selector switch on an emergency diesel generator at the Ohio plant failed a test. […]

As legislators on Capitol Hill weigh in on Holtec International’s now-delayed proposal to discharge wastewater from Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station into a nearby bay, local politicians are also chiming in to voice their opposition. “We will never allow the dumping of radioactive material into Cape Cod Bay,” said state Sen. Susan Moran (D-Plymouth), during a […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has hauled away the last of demolition debris from buildings torn down last year at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site in Southern California, according to a Tuesday release. Trucks carrying the waste from buildings within DOE’s Energy Technology Engineering Center northwest of Los Angeles rolled out […]

Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who has taken an active interest in Department of Energy facilities in New Mexico,  has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, but should make a full recovery, his office staff said in a Twitter posting on Tuesday. Early last Thursday, Luján age 49, experienced dizziness and fatigue before checking into […]

The Government Accountability Office has denied a protest by a group called Oak Ridge Environmental Partners that challenged the Department of Energy’s  $8.3-billion Cleanup Contract issued in October to United Cleanup Oak Ridge, a team led by Amentum and Jacobs, the current incumbents at the Tennessee site. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) notice dated Tuesday […]

In a speech offering 58 minutes of counterprogramming to reports that the U.S. and other nuclear-armed nations were nearing an inflection point in negotiations with Iran over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called for sanctions on the Islamic Republic. “Today I call on the Biden administration and […]

A panel at the Department of Energy has authorized startup of the Tank-Side Cesium Removal project, according to the latest available weekly staff report on operations at the Hanford Site in Washington state from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  “The DOE Startup Authorization Authority for the TSCR [Tank-Side Cesium Removal] system approved its startup,” […]

Banning storage of high-level nuclear waste and spent fuel in New Mexico would be like diverting a planet-killing asteroid, a New Mexico state Senator who supports a ban said Tuesday. “This is our Don’t Look Up moment,” said state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D) Tuesday during a New Mexico Senate Conservation Committee hearing, referencing the 2021 […]

Editor’s note: this story corrects errors about the cost and schedule estimates for the Y-12 National Security Complex’s direct melt bottom-loading furnaces published in the January 25 edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, “New Uranium Reclamation Furnace at Y-12 Starting Up in 2026, Defense Board Says.”    Bottom-loading furnaces at the Y-12 National Security Complex, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nuclear Emergency Support team was scheduled to take one of its radiation-sniffing Bell 412 helicopters out for what figures to be one of the last pre-Super Bowl patrols before the fleet trades up to new models, the agency announced Monday. The pregame, daytime-only flights in the vicinity of Los Angeles’ […]

Unlike many other federal agencies, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board did not receive any supplemental funding during fiscal 2021 to ensure emergency operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a financial report released Monday. While the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) kept running without money from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security […]

The Department of Energy is tinkering with the way it will judge proposals for a potentially $5.87-billion Decontamination and Decommissioning Contract at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, according to a notice released Friday. The agency is considering the changes after last week’s virtual one-on-one meetings with potential bidders who responded to the draft solicitation, which […]

Steven McAndrews is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s new deputy associate administrator for information management and deputy chief information officer, a senior agency official said. McAndrews on Monday become the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) second in command at the office that among other things handles the “operational, technical, and administrative functions in support of […]

Six employees at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory who refused COVID-19 vaccine are assured of their day in court after obtaining a right to sue from a federal agency, the judge in the case confirmed Monday. The six plaintiffs filed an amended complaint Jan. 4 against the University of Tennessee- Battelle partnership (UT-Battelle) operating the […]

An anti-nuclear group still wants the The Nuclear Regulatory Commission to hold a public hearing on the recently-approved sale of a Michigan nuclear power plant, even though Holtec International effectively cut SNC-Lavalin, whose character was at the center of the anti-nuker’s demands, out of the decom job. But hearings are a matter for the commissioners […]

Interested stakeholders will get a chance to talk to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about a recent report reviewing the agency’s ability to regulate large-scale spent nuclear fuel transport in the U.S. NRC was scheduled host a virtual meeting Wednesday to discuss the staff report and answer stakeholder questions, according to a notice from the commission. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration took a step toward forging another link in the nuclear-weapon supply chain of the 21st century late last year when it sought industry input about producing new quantities of high explosives for weapons. The agency has long foreseen the need for fresh nuclear-weapon-usable triaminotrinitrobenzene-based (TATB) energetics, and in October issued […]