Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

A House Armed Services panel on Tuesday called for a briefing about delays to a bomb and warhead refurb at the National Nuclear Security Administration and a new report on planned subcritical testing facilities. The strategic forces subcommittee wrote the requirements into a report appended to its portion of the fiscal year 2022 National Defense […]

A federal suit against a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel remains in limbo while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission works through licensing proceedings, according to a Wednesday court filing from the agency. Holtec International’s application for a federal license to build an interim storage facility in Lea County, N.M. is “still under consideration […]

As of Wednesday, everyone was again required to wear face masks inside of Department of Energy buildings located in areas with substantial or high COVID-19 transmission, the agency announced in an email blast. “[E]ffective immediately, face coverings must be worn by everyone in all DOE buildings and leased spaces that are in areas of substantial […]

The nation’s nuclear fleet would get a cash injection if the Joe Biden administration’s proposed bipartisan infrastructure bill becomes law, according to a summary of the trillion-dollar measure. Under the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Department of Energy would get roughly $6 billion to dole out over four fiscal years to struggling nuclear […]

The roughly 1% annual increase the Joe Biden administration proposed for civilian nuclear weapons programs is “minimally sufficient” to keep warhead and bomb modernization on track in 2022, but maybe not beyond, a joint Pentagon-Department of Energy nuclear acquisitions group told Congress in a letter dated Friday. The Biden request of roughly $20 billion for […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing process for two proposed interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel can’t legally move forward without approval from host state governors, a Texas congressman argued Tuesday on the House floor. “The law is very clear … that the governor can disapprove [of an interim storage facility],” said Rep. Henry Cuellar […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has opened a training center in Carlsbad, N.M., to prepare staff for resumption of shipments of remote-handled waste at the underground disposal facility, the agency tweeted Monday. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has not taken shipments of remote-handled (RH) transuranic waste using RH-72B casks since 2014, […]

Testing done in recent weeks by the Department of Energy at the Hanford Site in Washington state has turned up no signs the foul odor encountered by workers around a tank farm was ammonia from tank vapors, an agency spokesperson said Tuesday. Following last month’s incident three employees were checked out at a Richland, Wash., […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is putting together a team to review a financially-troubled Ohio nuclear power plant’s response to several equipment failures and a recent reactor trip, the agency said Tuesday. Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station has experienced four emergency diesel generator failures over the last two years, NRC said in the statement dated Tuesday. The […]

Jill Hruby was sworn in Monday as the sixth administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, she wrote in a Twitter post on the official government account for the nuclear-weapons agency’s leader. Today, surrounded by my family, I was sworn in as #NNSA Administrator by @SecGranholm. Leading the dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to advance […]

Some 200 members of the Society of Professionals, Scientists and Engineers were scheduled to begin a three-day strike Tuesday at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California to protest what they call unfair labor practices, the union said Monday. “The 200 strikers will spread out across the lab’s gates,” the union wrote in a press […]

Two proposed commercial interim storage sites run afoul of federal law governing radioactive waste disposal, a cadre of Texas state legislators told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a letter last week. If NRC were to license either Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) or Holtec International’s proposed interim storage facilities they would violate the Nuclear Waste Policy […]

A federal district court in Ohio has said attorneys involved in a lawsuit over off-site radioactive contamination from the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio should explore potential mediation soon. A notice published Friday by Richard Nagel, the federal clerk for the U.S. District Court in Southern Ohio, listed a case brought by Ursula […]

The Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board heard Monday the proposed fiscal 2022 budget proposal for the Department of Energy site in South Carolina includes $9 million toward development of a new emergency operations center. The minibus appropriations package scheduled for debate Tuesday afternoon on the House floor also includes the $9 million for the […]

The House of Representatives was scheduled to begin floor debate Tuesday on a seven-bill appropriations package for the 2022 fiscal year, lawmakers announced Monday after a meeting of the chamber’s Rules Committee. Floor debate was scheduled to start at 1:15 eastern time, with votes to begin at 8 p.m., according to a schedule posted online […]

Developing two new deep-mine panels for disposal of transuranic waste at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., should not entail new environmental risks, according to a document posted last week on the procurement website for a new prime contract. Excavation and use of two replacement panels, dubbed Panels 11 and […]

Like a spending bill passed earlier this month by the House Appropriation Committee, the National Defense Authorization Act that cleared Senate Armed Services last week,restores $5.7 million in community funds the Joe Biden White House left out of its fiscal 2022 budget request for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. That […]

The Department of Energy expects to continue modified schedules at the Hanford Site in Washington state throughout the summer as the area continues to struggle with oppressive heat, according to a recent Defense Facilities Safety Board report. The staff report dated July 2 and recently posted online on the safety board’s website details some of […]

Here are some events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week. July: 26: Meeting: House Rules Committee. 2:00 p.m. Eastern time. H-313, Capitol Hill. The Committee will write a rule of debate for a minibus appropriations package that includes the House Appropriations Committee’s proposed DOE budget for 2022. […]

The House Rules Committee was to write a rule for debate Monday that would tee up a vote this week on a massive spending bill that includes the Department of Energy’s proposed 2022 budget of roughly $45 billion. The committee was scheduled to meet on Capitol Hill at 2:00 p.m. to consider a rule and […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will allow members of the public to comment this week on the decommissioning of a recently-shuttered nuclear power plant in New York, according to a notice from the agency. Holtec International’s Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) for Indian Point Nuclear Generating Station will be on the docket at a public meeting […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has officially started the job hunt for someone to run its spent fuel and waste disposal program, according to federal want ad posted Wednesday. Anyone interested in becoming the Office of Nuclear Energy’s (ONE) deputy assistant secretary for its spent fuel and waste disposition program can apply […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership, the contractor that runs the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, this week asked a federal court in New Mexico to dismiss a $500,000 lawsuit filed by an African American security employee who claims he was bypassed for a promotion due to his race. While the Amentum-BWX Technologies partnership acknowledges plaintiff […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management appointed Michael Mikolanis to lead its Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico, a DOE advisory board learned Wednesday. The Mikolanis appointment was announced to the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board by Lee Bishop, DOE’s deputy designated federal officer, during a virtual meeting. Mikolanis, […]

John “Devin” Biniaz was appointed deputy associate administrator for defense nuclear security, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Tuesday. In his new role at headquarters, Biniaz wil backstop Jeffrey Johnson, the head of the office responsible for physical and information security at the agency’s labs, plants and sites.  Biniaz was most recently assistant manager of […]

Oral arguments are set for today in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., as Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley seeks to hold onto the $160-million Paducah Infrastructure Support Services Contract in Kentucky, which it won in December before the Small Business Administration ruled the company exceeds the size limit for […]