Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

A federal lawsuit brought against current and former Department of Energy contractors at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio is timely because it was filed soon after the public learned of radioactive contamination at a public school outside the fence, plaintiffs said in a filing last week. Ursula McGlone and fellow plaintiffs argue in a June […]

It may take almost a year longer than recently expected to fully certify the F-35A to internally carry one or two B61-12 nuclear gravity bombs, but the head of the service’s Nuclear Weapons Center said the nuclear end of things isn’t what’s pacing the process. “The timing right now I think to get to full […]

The state of New Mexico is pursuing its lawsuit over a proposed interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel in the wrong venue, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission argued in a recent court filing. Since New Mexico attorney general Hector Balderas’s March suit in the state’s district court cited a violation of the Atomic Energy Act […]

A group composed of Battelle and a quintet of universities from two states is now operating the Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. The Battelle Savannah River Alliance (BSRA) took over management of the lab Monday, officially announcing the news via Twitter: “Proud to be @Battelle’s newest national laboratory! Our team […]

The federal government’s independent nuclear health and safety watchdog wants to know what the National Nuclear Security Administration is doing to address perceived safety culture issues at the country’s central nuclear-weapons maintenance facility. After a number of technical safety requirement violations in 2019, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) “received multiple concerns from Pantex […]

The Pantex Plant wrapped up production of the W80-1 Alt 369, which replaced limited life components for the warhead that tips the Air Force’s AGM-86b Air Launched Cruise Missile, the Amarillo, Texas, plant said recently. Pantex announced the milestone in a press release earlier this month. Limited life components include tritium reservoirs, neutron generators and […]

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) held a town hall-style meeting Saturday in Piketon, Ohio, to discuss local concerns over open-air demolition of the X-326 Process Building at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site and radioactive contamination discovered around a local school. Ryan and Zack Space, former congressman for Ohio’s 18th district, were scheduled to participate in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was scheduled to meet this week to affirm its decisions to again deny a minerals company’s request to reopen the record about an objection to the licensing of a commercial interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, according to the commission’s schedule. During a meeting set for Tuesday, the commission will […]

The Central Plateau Cleanup Co. will begin cocooning the K East Reactor later this year, Brian Stickney, the Department of Energy’s deputy Hanford manager for the agency’s Richland office, said last week.  Stickney spoke Wednesday at a public briefing on Hanford in general for the public. The briefing was conducted via Internet with about 150 […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: 22: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission meets for an affirmation session on pending business and the agency’s midyear review, “Transformation at the NRC.” Web access available here starting at 8:55 a.m. Eastern time. 23: The Risk Management […]

A Bechtel-led group, one of four losing bidders for DOE’s Idaho Cleanup Project contract, last week filed a bid protest over the potentially 10-year, $6.4-billion nuclear-weapons cleanup pact. At deadline Monday, the details of Idaho Remediation LLC’s protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over last month’s award to Idaho Environmental Coalition — made up […]