Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

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 […]