Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

A U.S. District Court judge in South Carolina agreed Thursday to grant a Department of Justice motion to dismiss a False Claims Act lawsuit filed in 2016 against Fluor and the Fluor-led management contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site over millions of dollars in reimbursement for home office expenses. The one-page order […]

In another bid to combat mounting nuclear power plant closures, a group of Senate Democrats last week unveiled a bill to keep the existing fleet afloat. If the Zero-Emission Nuclear Power Production Credit Act became law, nuclear plant operators could expect a tax credit on every kilowatt-hour (KWh) of electricity they produce, according to the […]

A pre-pandemic report from the company set to decommission a New York nuclear power plant is available for public comment, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced last week. Members of the public can submit comments on Holtec International’s Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) for Indian Point Energy Center through October 22, NRC said in a Federal […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Monday formalized its choice to build the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility pit factory out of the remains of the partially constructed Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. The planned pit plant will cost between $6.9 billion and $11.1 billion to build and be ready to annually produce at least […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, where daytime high temperatures are in the triple-digits, should be prepared for potential power outages lasting up to four hours on Tuesday, according to an online advisory to employees. “Employees that can telework should telework,” according to the advisory posted online by Leidos-led services […]

North Wind Site Services has won a Department of Energy remediation contract, potentially worth $22 million over five years, at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna, N.Y., the agency said in a Monday press release. West Virginia-based North Wind Site Services is part of North Wind Group, which in turn is owned by Cook […]

Centrus Energy got approval in June from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to operate a 16-machine cascade at DOE’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, that is intended to take uranium to the upper bounds of low-enrichment. Centrus can operate the cascade until May 31, 2022, under the license amendment the commission approved June 11. The Bethesda, […]

Contractors serving the Department of Energy’s weapons complex are watching eagerly to see what contract awards are made for a trio of solicitations, including one for a new prime at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and multibillion-dollar awards elsewhere in the complex. Questions were due over the weekend, and proposals are due […]

The proof-of-concept plutonium pit for the next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile warhead is still on the slate for fiscal year 2023, but cranking out 30 copies annually just three years after that will be “challenging,” the director of the world’s first nuclear weapons lab said Friday. But “I would rather push to a timeline that is […]

A proposed rulemaking for decommissioning nuclear power plants doesn’t go the distance to ensure a balance of safety and efficiency, one of the Senate’s most outspoken nuclear critics told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week. In a letter to NRC chair Christopher Hanson dated Friday, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) sounded the alarm about the agency’s […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: June 28: The Savannah River Site’s Citizens Advisory Board meets online starting at 1 p.m. Eastern Time.  

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state are this week coping with what the National Weather Service described in a Monday bulletin as “dangerous heat.” At deadline, the high for Monday was forecast to reach 115 degrees Fahrenheit with daytime highs expected to remain above 100 degrees F throughout the week. […]

For the second time in two weeks, a senator from Washington state insisted Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm raise the Joe Biden administration’s financial commitment to long-term Hanford Site cleanup and continue payments to localities bordering Department of Energy nuclear facilities. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) hammered at the topics during Granholm’s Wednesday appearance before the […]

The Joe Biden administration’s nuclear posture review will be bundled with a larger national defense strategy to be released in early 2022, but the administration plans to make a “significant signal” about U.S. force structure before that, a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday at a virtual conference. “The Biden administration and the interim national security […]

WASHINGTON — As federal budget season wears on, details are still scarce on the Joe Biden administration’s plans for a federal interim storage site for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, and one key appropriator isn’t happy with the lack of information. When asked after a Department of Energy budget hearing Wednesday in the Senate Appropriations […]

Final solicitations are coming this autumn for multibillion-dollar contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Department of Energy said Wednesday. The final request for proposals (RFP) for the potential $21.5-billion Savannah River Site Management and Operating Contract should hit the street in September while the potential […]

WASHINGTON — COVID-19-related delays at the Department of Energy and its vendors might delay refurbishment of a warhead intended for next-generation nuclear-tipped air-launched cruise missiles, the acting head of the National Nuclear Security Administration said Wednesday in congressional testimony. “So there’s no near-term impacts with that but there could be a schedule adjustment,” Charles Verdon, […]

WASHINGTON — Personnel at the Nevada National Security Site have fired the second in a series of three planned subcritical plutonium tests called Nightshade, the acting head of the National Nuclear Security Administration said Wednesday. Charles Verdon, the agency’s acting administrator, confirmed the test firing to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing after he testified before the […]

Residents in the area around a shuttered nuclear plant in southern New Jersey were in the dark for around two hours Monday afternoon after a construction accident caused a power outage, said the company in charge of decommissioning the site. A contractor working for Holtec International backed into a utility pole while moving equipment at […]

The Department of Energy expects to use one of five firms selected in December for a task order to move transuranic waste currently stored at the Separations Process Research Unit facility in Schenectady County. N.Y., an agency spokesperson said via email Monday. EnergySolutions, Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Unitech Services Group, Waste Control Specialists and Veolia Nuclear […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and the acting chief of DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, Charles Verdon, were to face questions from a Senate Appropriations Committee panel at 10 a.m. for the first time since the Joe Biden administration rolled out its Department of Energy budget request for fiscal 2022. The hearing by the […]

Nearly a hundred advanced nuclear energy projects are getting cash from the federal government, with the bulk going toward nuclear waste research, the Department of Energy announced Tuesday in the midst of budget season. Most of the $61 million DOE is awarding to advanced nuclear research programs, $58 million, will go to universities, the agency […]

Transuranic waste generators were for years estimating the weight of their payloads instead of weighing them out, so the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has temporarily stopped taking shipments with dunnage — material used to fill out shipping containers, according to a federal report. The practice is widespread across DOE, according to the […]

Later this year and sometime next year, the Savannah River Site will install a crucial pair of upgrades at the H-Canyon chemical separations facility to help site personnel prepare plutonium from a Japanese reactor for on-site solidification and, eventually, deep-geologic disposal elsewhere. H-Canyon will get a new tank later this year and a new electrolytic […]

After a recent hearing, a state court tentatively denied an environmental group’s petition to hit the brakes on decommissioning a nuclear power plant in southern California, according to a court filing. The California Coastal Commission didn’t violate state environmental law or its own regulations when it gave a permit to Southern California Edison (SCE) to […]