Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

Another wildfire has started at the Nevada National Security Site, with smoke sighted only a couple weeks after responders contained the 24,000-acre Cherrywood fire that burned for about a month at the test site. In a series of press releases on Wednesday, the site reported “multiple” new fires in the western section of the roughly […]

The United Kingdom was scheduled to renationalize management of its nuclear weapons production complex Thursday after almost 30 years of letting industry hold the reins. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) was to become a wholly-owned arms-length body controlled by the U.K. Ministry of Defence, taking over from the Jacobs-led AWE Management Ltd. team made up […]

Environmentalists on Tuesday sued to stop the National Nuclear Security Administration from building a plutonium pit plant at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., alleging violation of environmental law. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) should have to reopen the environmental record for the planned Savannah River Plutonium Pit Production Facility (SRPPF) and a […]

Bidders for the new prime contract at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., are getting two more weeks, until Aug. 3, to submit their proposals. In a notice published on a procurement website Tuesday the DOE Office of Environmental Management said it plans to extend the submission deadline for the […]

The company seeking a license to build an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico joined the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week in requesting that a judge toss the state attorney general’s lawsuit over the proposed site, a court filing shows. New Mexico attorney general Hector Balderas went to the wrong court […]

One of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s four current commissioners sees out her term today, leaving the Joe Biden administration with two seats to fill at the top of the independent regulatory agency. Commissioner Annie Caputo, who was nominated to her three-year term in 2018 under the Donald Trump administration, leaves NRC Wednesday, commission chair Christopher […]

After failing to build a plutonium recycling plant at the Savannah River Site after 20 years of planning and billions spent, the chair of the House Armed Services Committee said Tuesday he has doubts about whether the National Nuclear Security Administration can turn the failed project into a plutonium pit factory.  “I do not trust […]

After two presidential administrations allowed the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board to dwindle to only seven out of a potential 25 members, the panel voted Monday to adopt a policy to avoid such staffing shortages in the future. The Citizens Advisory Board voted during an online meeting carried via Youtube to […]

After holding up the project two years, the Department of Energy will start developing an environmental assessment in July for a 2,000-gallon test of the Test Bed Initiative that involves grouting and out-of-state disposal of low-activity tank waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state. DOE’s site manager for Hanford, Brian Vance, told the Washington […]

The story “NNSA Approves CD-1 Range for Savannah River Pit Factory; $6.9B-$11.1B” [Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, June 29, 2021] should have said that Jill Hruby, the Joe Biden administration’s nominee for NNSA administrator, disclosed a schedule slip for the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF) in congressional testimony on May 27.

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 […]