Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

President Joe Biden’s administration is starting to weigh potential nominees for a permanent assistant secretary for environmental management, including one who has held the post before, an industry source said last week. Under consideration for a possible return to the nuclear-weapons cleanup office is Monica Regalbuto, who led the office from 2015 until 2017 and […]

Centrus Energy Corp. has identified about $9 million worth of pandemic-related expenses at  its new enrichment cascade in Ohio and wants the Department of Energy to help defray the costs, the company in a regulatory filing. “[W]e plan to seek additional funding commitments from DOE for the additional costs,” Centrus wrote Aug. 13 in its […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday offered a strongly-worded rebuke to the New Mexico attorney general’s claim that a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel violates federal law, according to a new court filing. NRC has the right to license commercial facilities under the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), the agency argued in the […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will be published on Tuesday and Thursday only during the weeks of Aug. 16, 2021 and Aug. 23, 2021, as part of the Exchange Monitor’s annual August recess.

Facing a tough comp that included a big one-time payment, profits fell year-over-year at Centrus, Bethesda, Md., in the second quarter of 2021, though core operations remained essentially healthy and the company scored a crucial regulatory blessing for a new enrichment cascade. The fuel reseller and enrichment technology developer posted quarterly net income attributable to […]

After Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) this week mandated state employees get vaccinated for COVID-19 by Oct. 4, the Washington Department of Ecology, state regulator for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, delayed a planned “soft reopening” of its offices previously scheduled for August, an Ecology spokesman said Tuesday. The reopening has been pushed back […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will end mandatory telework and allow in-person work to resume by the end of next month, the agency said in a recent letter to staff. As part of its “full re-entry” program, NRC staff can return to their offices September 26, the agency said in the letter dated July 30. Although […]

Lack of an Illinois legislative solution has convinced Exelon to proceed with its plans to close its Byron and Dresden reactor complexes in September and November, respectively. Exelon originally announced its plans to shut down the four reactors at the two sites in August 2020 because of revenue shortfalls in the hundreds of millions of […]

On Monday, the Central Plateau Cleanup Company awarded a $9.5 million subcontract to DGR Grant Construction Inc. of Richland to build a steel enclosure over the site’s K East Reactor.  The work is to be finished by 2023. The Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Company (CPCC) is the prime contractor for solid waste cleanup in the […]

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 […]