Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Testimony on a restraining order, keeping the Department of Energy contractor running the Oak Ridge National Laboratory from placing a small group of COVID-19 vaccine refusers on unpaid leave, has closed and the order will remain in effect short-term. The current temporary restraining order will “remain in effect until either Friday at 5:00 p.m. or […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) has introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to prevent unvaccinated federal workers and contractors from being fired if they provide proof of COVID–19 antibodies. Newhouse, whose congressional district includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, announced the introduction of the Options Over Terminations Act Tuesday. “Federal employees who […]

Crews finished building the structure of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s next-generation, secondary-stage factory in September and the compound’s electrical hub is scheduled to be completed in around January, the site prime contractor said recently. The milestone for the Main Process Building, where the most important weapons work at the Y-12 National Security Site will […]

A federal court case challenging one of two proposed commercial interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel remained on hold Wednesday as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission worked through its licensing review, the agency said in a status report Tuesday. NRC told the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that Holtec International’s application to build an interim […]

One of two economically-troubled Illinois nuclear power plants bailed out by the state government last month has completed its refueling process, the plant’s operator said Wednesday. Byron Nuclear Generating Station “completed its refueling outage earlier this month,” a spokesperson for Exelon Generation told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing via email Wednesday afternoon. The Ogle County, Ill. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has maxed out the options on Consolidated Nuclear Security’s short-term extension to run the Pantex Plant and the Y-12 National Security complex, keeping the short-timer incumbent on the job through March while the agency finalizes the award of a follow-on deal. With an expected four-month transition period to the next […]

Environmentalist groups from California, New Mexico and South Carolina are fighting to keep their lawsuit to slow plutonium-pit production from being thrown out of court and claimed this week that Congress’ mandate to produce pits does not prevent further environmental review of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s planned pit complex.  “[T]his lawsuit involves more than […]

Lockheed Martin [LMT] on Tuesday reported lower sales in its third quarter and reduced its outlook for revenue for 2021 with further declines expected in 2022 before rebounding to growth beginning in 2023. Combined with the depressed sales outlook at least through 2022 and a cut to the forecast for operating cash flow this year, […]

The Department of Energy said in an online notice Tuesday it is awarding the new remediation contract at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee to an Amentum-Jacobs team called United Cleanup Oak Ridge LLC in a deal potentially worth $8.3 billion over a 10-year ordering period. United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR), won the Oak Ridge […]

Eight Los Alamos employees who refused to get a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination have sued the lab’s operations contractor in federal court and will get their chance at stopping the mandate in a hearing scheduled for Friday, court papers filed Tuesday show. All eight of the plaintiffs received a religious exemption to Los Alamos’s vaccine mandate, […]

A hearing was to continue this morning in a federal courtroom in Knoxville, Tenn., over a preliminary injunction requested by a half-dozen employees at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory who seek to avoid being placed on unpaid leave for refusal to take a vaccine against COVID-19. The hearing began yesterday in the […]

A decommissioning company planning to take over operations at a Wisconsin nuclear power plant may have to submit its first evidence briefing to the state agency reviewing the transaction in December, according to a draft schedule in a recent notice from the panel. Dec. 1 could be the deadline for an EnergySolutions subsidiary company and […]

The interested public has until the end of the week to submit its comments on a proposed cleanup plan for a former New Mexico uranium mine currently under Nuclear Regulatory Commission jurisdiction. Sunday is the deadline for public input on a proposed license amendment for the United Nuclear Corporation’s (UNC) Church Rock site, according to […]

Low-level nuclear waste shipments from a Massachusetts nuclear plant being decommissioned by Holtec International won’t have to adhere to a 20-day tracking rule, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decided last week. Although NRC’s regulations say that a company shipping low-level radioactive waste to a disposal site needs to track and report shipments that don’t arrive at […]

Maryland-based Amentum, a major player in the Department of Energy’s weapons complex, announced in a Monday press release it is buying another federal contractor, Virginia-based PAE in a cash transaction valued at $1.9-billion. The acquisition, which includes Amentum’s assumption of some debt, was approved by PAE’s board of directors, according to the release. As a […]

Lawyers representing a half-dozen employees at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee who refuse to take a COVID-19 vaccine are expected Tuesday to argue in federal court that contractor UT-Battelle could rely on options other than a vaccine mandate to protect workers during the pandemic. Had UT-Battelle (UTB), the joint venture […]

David Huizenga, the Department of Energy’s defense-nuclear do-it-all, is stepping aside as the National Nuclear Security Administration’s top career civil servant to become a senior advisor to the nuclear-weapons sub-agency’s administrator, initially focusing on negotiations to return the U.S. to the Iran Nuclear Deal, according to an internal email.  Huizenga will assume his new role […]

A group called the Silent Majority Foundation is planning a class action lawsuit on behalf of workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state refusing to comply with a federal mandate to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a Sunday online announcement. “The plan includes bringing a suit for a temporary restraining […]

A former Sandia National Laboratories employee’s maneuvering for a lighter prison sentence has the government wondering whether the ex-Sandian should receive any sentencing leniency at all, according to a Friday court filing. Joshua Cordova has acted “shamelessly” since reading a plea agreement with the government, claiming that tens of thousands of dollars worth personal items […]

One of the last major milestones before radiological operation can start at the long-awaited Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is scheduled to begin this week. A 10-day “heat up” period is set to start Tuesday followed by a 50-day demonstration run of the plant, Brian English, a manager […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: October 27: The West Valley Citizen Task Force meets via Zoom at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time. 28 – The Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board to meet. Contact seab@hq.doe.gov for registration information. Starts at 1:00 p.m. Eastern […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing decommissioning plans from the company set to take ownership of a Wisconsin nuclear power plant even as the state’s public service commission deliberates about the details of the plant’s sale, according to a recent agency filing. EnergySolutions, which is slated to take over the license for Kewaunee Power Station […]

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims has granted the Small Business Administration Office of Hearings and Appeals 24 more days, until Nov. 12, to revisit on remand the issue of whether Swift & Staley is too big to qualify for a $160-million set-aside contract to provide landlord services at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site […]

The disarmament advocating Ploughshares Fund was set to host the speaker of the House, the chair of the House Armed Services Committee and the principal deputy national security advisor for a live, webcast podcast recording on Thursday. The event, Press the Button Live, was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Jon Finer, President […]

Employees of Department of Energy’s cleanup contractors at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio as well as the Idaho National Laboratory could be sacked if they fail to receive their final vaccination against COVID-19 by Dec. 1, as spelled out in recent documents. Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth workers who are not yet inoculated, or applied for a medical […]