Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Robert Edwards III, a seasoned hand around the weapons complex, has retired as manager of the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office, DOE confirmed Thursday. Edwards retired effective July 31 “after 35 years of federal service,” and Joel Bradburne, the deputy manager for the Lexington, Ky., office in charge of the Portsmouth Site in Ohio […]

Perma-Fix President and CEO Mark Duff said Wednesday he was “disappointed” with the environmental services company’s second quarter financial performance, which he blamed on complications related to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. For the quarter ended June 30, Perma-Fix posted company-wide net income of around $3 million or $0.25 per share, according to an earnings report […]

A $1-trillion infrastructure bill with tax credits for financially-struggling nuclear power plants passed the Senate on a widely bipartisan vote Tuesday.  The infrastructure package cleared the Senate in 69-30 and now heads to the House, whose members were scheduled to return to Washington on Aug. 23 to vote on the measure. If the bill becomes […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is taking comments between now and Sept. 1 on its conditional approval of a Department of Energy request to push the startup of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit to September 2022. In March, an executive with contractor Fluor Idaho told the Waste Management Symposia that the site might start […]

The Air Force on Wednesday morning launched a non-nuclear Minuteman III missile, carrying what the service called a “high-fidelity joint test assembly,” from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Air Force announced the early-morning launch in a press release. Supporting the test launch from the west coast were Air Force personnel from the 341st […]

Bethesda, Md.,-based Orano has a new management team and several new board of directors for its Federal Services Business unit that does business with the Department of Energy, the company said early Wednesday. Orano Federal Services President Dorothy Davidson said in a press release that the new management team will include: Joe Faldowskim, chief operations […]

Bradley Wallin will lead Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s nuclear weapons programs, settling a succession that began when Kim Budil was promoted to lab director earlier this year, the design lab announced Monday. Separately, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced that Jeff Harrell, the federal manager for the agency’s Sandia Field Office, retired in July. […]

Navarro Research & Engineering should take over Sept. 1 as the new Technical Assistance contractor at the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, an agency spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. The Oak Ridge, Tenn.,-based company, which beat out five other bidders for the potential five-year, $72-million small business set-aside, received its notice to proceed […]

The company in charge of decommissioning Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power station accused a nuclear watchdog of serious process fouls after the group’s latest attempt to halt the plant’s license transfer, according to a regulatory filing. NRC should no longer allow Three Mile Island Alert to “blatantly ignore” reasonable requirements of public participation in […]

Oak Ridge, Tenn.,- based Navarro Research & Engineering won the $76-million Carlsbad Technical Assistance Contract from the Department of Energy and promptly drew a bid protest by a firm called Pecos Technical Solutions. A DOE chart of major contracts for the Office of Environmental Management, updated July 21, has Navarro taking over from incumbent North […]

On Monday, not long after senior nuclear-weapons managers gathered outside of Washington and lamented programmatic gear-grinding caused by what they called premature attempts to pin down costs, the House Armed Services chair asked the president to consider shrinking the arsenal, in part over concerns about its affordability.   The Biden administration’s forthcoming Nuclear Posture Review should […]

The Senate on Monday confirmed a former Department of Energy lawyer with private sector experience to serve as the agency’s new general counsel. Samuel Walsh, who served at DOE under the Barack Obama administration, was confirmed to his new position as agency general counsel by voice vote in the Senate Monday evening. Walsh was nominated […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has yet to receive a Department of Energy package on federal plans for a 2,000-gallon test of the Test Bed Initiative, where some low-activity tank waste from the Hanford Site would be grouted and shipped out-of-state for final disposal. The DOE Office of Environmental Management informed the state agency […]

Five new-to-the-organization faces will join the new Los Alamos directorate in charge of turning the lab into the first national center for plutonium pit production since Rocky Flats ceased production in 1989. Three of these five managers were to be on the job Monday, with two colleagues to follow later this month and next, according […]

Despite being on the menu for a special session this weekend, the Texas legislature hasn’t yet heard debate on legislation to address a proposed interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel in the state. Saturday’s special session of the state Senate ended without discussion on Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed interim storage facility in Andrews […]

Here are some events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week. August: 07: Start of the second special session of the Texas legislature, to include debate of radioactive waste handling in the state. The legislature was set to gavel back in on Monday, Aug. 09. 09: Final […]

A Republican bid to add the better part of $4 billion for construction of plutonium pit factories to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget failed in the Senate on Sunday.  The funding was proposed as an amendment to the bipartisan infrastructure bill that at deadline Monday appeared headed for a final vote in the Senate […]

With the COVID-19 pandemic making telecommuting more routine, the Department of Energy might terminate the lease for office space it secured last year in Albuquerque, N.M., to accommodate certain staff for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, an agency spokesperson said by email. “Due to COVID-19 restrictions,” the Carlsbad Field Office was not able to use […]

Earnings rose at Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va., in the 2nd quarter, which the shipbuilder and Department of Energy contractor attributed in part to COVID-19’s effects last year on the Virginia-class attack submarine program, according to a Thursday press release. Net earnings for the second quarter ended June 30 were $129 million, compared with […]

ALEXANDRIA — Congress should not relax legal deadlines to produce plutonium pits this decade, even though the National Nuclear Security Administration has acknowledged it won’t meet at least one of them, nuclear-weapons managers here said Wednesday. “I would say no,” Michael Thompson, said here Wednesday when asked whether Congress should change the law so that […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration would essentially receive its 2022 budget request under a spending bill the Senate Appropriations Committee marked up Wednesday, matching the funding the full House approved last week. Unlike the House, however, Senate Appropriators approved the $72 million the Joe Biden administration sought for the planned W93 submarine launched ballistic missile […]

Earnings fell at Parsons, Centreville, Va., in the 2nd quarter, which the defense and infrastructure company attributed in part to its acquisition announced in June of BlackHorse Solutions, a company involved in cyber and artificial intelligence, for $203 million. Net income for the second quarter ended June 30 was $6.7 million or $0.7 per share […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Materials for the third and final Nightshade subcritical plutonium test at the Nevada National Security Site have shipped out from the Los Alamos National Laboratory ahead of a shot planned for the fall, the head of the lab’s weapon’s program said here Wednesday. Nightshade C had been scheduled to fire in Nevada […]

The Department of Energy is taking steps to implement White House policy to stem the tide of increasing COVID-19 infections by again ordering mask wearing indoors, giving more time off to have family members vaccinated and holding off on many in-person meetings. Effective immediately, “any DOE-hosted in-person meeting, conference, or event that will be attended […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved all of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s funding request for the upcoming fiscal year at a Wednesday markup. In a 25-5 vote Wednesday the Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the annual Energy and Water Development budget, which included every dime of NRC’s roughly $874 million request for fiscal 2022.  […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved 25-to-five on Wednesday a fiscal year 2022 spending bill for the Department of Energy and other agencies with roughly $7.7-billion for Department of Energy nuclear weapons cleanup. The committee’s plan for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) office, which oversees cleanup of 16 Cold War and Manhattan Project nuclear sites, […]