Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

It is set to be another sizzling hot week at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state with daytime high temperatures hitting the triple digits today through Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service forecast for the area. “Hot and dry conditions will continue into the midweek with breezy conditions elevating fire weather […]

Nuclear weapons cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management would get a little more funding than requested for fiscal year 2022, if a House subcommittee’s recommended budget becomes law. DOE Environmental Management (EM) would get just under $7.8 billion from the fiscal year 2022 spending bill the House Appropriations energy and water […]

As expected, a draft 2022 spending bill from a House Appropriations panel has the requested $27.5 million to help the Department of Energy find a site for a federally owned consolidated interim waste storage site, and no money to turn Yucca Mountain into a permanent waste repository. The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s […]

Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs would get almost exactly the funding they requested for fiscal year 2022, if the House’s first draft of the Department of Energy’s budget bill becomes law. The House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee released its draft 2022 energy and water appropriations act on Sunday and planned to mark up […]

In a long-awaited legal settlement over six years of mislabeled, radioactive waste shipments to Nevada, the Department of Energy agreed to tighten waste-inspection standards at nuclear weapon sites and overhaul its solid waste permit with the state by early next year, Carson City’s top environmental official said Wednesday. DOE will also have to revise the […]

The executive of a Texas county slated to host a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel said Wednesday that the county commission may vote to take a public stance on the project following a community meeting earlier this week. While the Andrews County, Texas Commissioners’ Court can vote to pen a letter of […]

Shipments of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from National Nuclear Security Administration operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were set to resume this week after being on hold since an ignition scare in February, according to the Department of Energy. “After a careful review of the drum event” […]

The Secretary of Energy did not deny any written requests for information from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in the six months ended June 30, the chair of the independent federal board reported recently to Congress. “The Board has no denials of access to information to report in the past six months,” Defense Nuclear […]

Fowler General Construction Inc. of Richland, Washington, received three Hanford contracts totaling almost $19 million from tank farms prime Washington River Protection Solutions. One $5.3 million contract is to construct a 17,600-square-foot office building at Hanford’s 222-S laboratory. The laboratory provides analytical support for the tank farms.  The other two contracts cover $13.5 million are […]

Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions, the Department of Energy contractor in charge of the 177 underground tanks of radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, is looking for firms to do corrosion testing on double-shell tanks. Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) published a notice Wednesday on a federal procurement website seeking “expressions of […]

Responders at the Nevada National Security Site have completely contained the wildfires that broke out there last week in the site’s western region at Area 16, Area 29 and Area 30, the site said Tuesday. The total estimated burn area was about 275 acres, according to a press release from site management and operations contractor, […]

As part of President Joe Biden’s executive order to review certain policy issued by the Donald Trump White House, the Environmental Protection Agency is taking another look at its December 2020 approval of plans for a new landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, the agency said in a letter last […]

Daytime high temperatures around the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state should exceed 100 degrees only a couple of days this week, although a fire watch is in effect, according to a National Weather Service forecast. The forecast around Richland, Wash., no longer includes the excessive heat advisory, as daytime highs will not […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has delayed the final environmental review for Holtect’s proposed interim spent fuel storage site in Lea County, N.M., to November from July, the agency said Friday. In a letter dated Friday, the commission also said that a separate safety review for the proposed site will also be delayed, to January from […]

The Joe Biden administration plans to nominate Sandia National Laboratories alum and State Department veteran Mallory Stewart to be assistant secretary for arms control, verification and compliance, the post responsible for ensuring the last remaining nuclear arms treaty is functioning as intended. The White House announced its intent to nominate Stewart just before the U.S. […]

A nuclear watchdog aiming to halt the sale and decommissioning of the power plant at the epicenter of one of the nation’s worst nuclear disasters is again asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reconsider its challenge, according to a new motion filed with the agency last week. NRC erred when it tossed Three Mile Island […]

Bidders vying for a potential five-year $100-million contract for moving containers of transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should inform the Department of Energy about all their recent vehicle accidents, even those where a truck hits a deer. That is one of the takeaways from the questions and answers published […]

New Mexico is very unhappy about the possibility of a commercial interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel within its borders, a cadre of officials told the Secretary of Energy last week. The Land of Enchantment “has not and will not consent” to the proposed Holtec International interim storage site in Lea County, N.M., said […]

A federal magistrate judge set an Aug. 4 discovery hearing in a lawsuit about alleged radioactive contamination by current and former contractors at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio’s Thursday action will help determine what documentation Ursula McGlone and other plaintiffs living within seven miles of […]

Terry Wallace retired from the Los Alamos National Laboratory last week after a nearly 20-year lab career, which he capped by running the site on an interim basis in 2018, during the transition to non-profit management and operations contractor Triad National Security. Wallace’s last day was June 30, the lab announced in a retrospective published […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has received more than 1,000 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste since the deep underground repository reopened in 2017 after the underground radiation leak of February 2014. More than three weeks ago, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received its 1,000th shipment since April 2017, […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not published Monday, July 5 in observance of the Independence Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on July 6.

In documents released this week, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management expressed reluctance to resume the pre-pandemic practice of in-person meetings on contract procurements, such as the ongoing prime contract solicitation at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Ten pages of questions and answers on the potential 10-year, $3-billion contract for management and operation […]

A Texas minerals company has joined a federal lawsuit, headlined by an antinuclear group, aimed at holding up the licensing process for a proposed interim nuclear waste storage facility at the Western edge of the Lone Star state. Fasken Land and Minerals’s June 25 petition against NRC was combined Tuesday with an existing coalition of […]

SOC, a Day & Zimmermann company, filed a bid protest June 28 over the Department of Energy’s decision to stand by a February award of a security services contract to Securitas-led SRS Critical Infrastructure Security. It is the second challenge filed by a losing bidder with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the  $1-billion contract […]

Fire danger at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has escalated from “very high” earlier this week to “extreme” on Wednesday as the region continues to suffer through a heatwave and the threat of power disruptions, according to an advisory from the landlord contractor at the cleanup property. With daytime highs in […]