Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in a recently-published report to Congress it found ways to continue acting as a watchdog for defense-nuclear sites owned by the Department of Energy during fiscal year 2020. Resident Inspectors continued to perform on-site safety oversight “within the DOE pandemic constraints at each site,” […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is planning one of its occasional business opportunities forums via Zoom in a little more than two weeks. The session is set to commence at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on June 24 and should wrap up in less than 90 minutes, according to a notice posted […]

With the Joe Biden administration yet to nominate a permanent assistant secretary for the Office of Environmental Management, William (Ike) White is nearing the two-year mark at the helm of the $7-billion-plus nuclear cleanup branch. White, a career federal employee, has been the top boss at the Environmental Management (EM) since mid-June 2019, initially given […]

An environmental watchdog group seeking to halt decommissioning operations at Southern California Edison’s shuttered nuclear power plant will have its day in court next week. The Superior Court of California for the county of Los Angeles  was scheduled to hear The Samuel Lawrence Foundation’s case against the California Coastal Commission on June 16, according to […]

A federal judge in South Carolina has dismissed a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by a white former employee of the management contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. In a May 27 order, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Anderson, Jr., dismissed the case brought against Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) by plaintiff Christopher […]

It will take about a month longer than previously thought for personnel at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to certify that a key component of the site’s planned plutonium pit factory can safely accept the higher volumes fissile material required to support the pit mission. The Radiological Laboratory/Utility/Office Building (RLUOB) will be recategorized as a […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: June:  09 – The Hanford Advisory Board meets online in regular session at 9 a.m. Pacific Time. 09 – The Oak Ridge Environmental Management Advisory Board meets at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. 10 – Hearing: House Armed […]

The head of Air Force Global Strike Command is not concerned that the next-generation warhead for the next-generation nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile will be delayed because of a projected delay with one of the two plutonium pit-production plants that will supply the new warhead’s core. In a webcast address to the public and press Thursday […]

A lawsuit by a fired ventilation project subcontractor against the Department of Energy’s prime for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has been settled, according to papers filed in a federal district court in New Mexico. The litigation brought by Christensen Building Group and its Critical Applications Alliance venture against Nuclear Waste Partnership was dismissed by […]

The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Program would be formally closed out once and for all by fiscal year 2022, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s latest budget request shows, and the agency’s replacement plutonium disposal program would take delivery of key hardware. The Surplus Plutonium Disposition (SPD) Program will combine facilities at the Savannah River Site […]

A federal district court in New Mexico has set a Nov. 17 settlement conference for federal and state agencies to bridge their differences surrounding a 2016 consent order on cleanup of legacy waste around the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar issued a May 18 order scheduling the formal […]

Despite this year’s spate of plant closures the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is asking for increased funding for regulation of new reactors during the 2022 fiscal year, according to recently published budget documents. Of the roughly $890 appropriation NRC would get if the Joe Biden administration’s budget plan were to become law, about $89 million would […]

The Department of Energy Wednesday rolled out its much-anticipated solicitation for a new long-term operations and management contract potentially worth $3 billion at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The final request for proposals (RFP) is for up to 10 years, starting with a four-year base followed by six one-year options, the DOE […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., shipped low-level waste to the Nevada National Security Site in May for the first time in nearly two years after the desert site reinstated a certification that was yanked in 2019 following disclosure that Y-12 had sent 32 containers worth of improperly labelled waste to the […]

The Department of Energy spending request put forward Friday by the Joe Biden administration for fiscal 2022 would increase funding for environmental cleanup of past weapons work at several National Nuclear Security Administration sites. The DOE Office of Environmental Management budget for physical cleanup of this legacy contamination would rise by about a third, to […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday that rubble removal at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant in Washington state is resuming after an extended COVID-19 hiatus. After taking down the last major processing facility at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP), DOE said last February it anticipated removing all the rubble from the site by summer […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security will remain on the job at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s two big production sites at least two months longer than planned and possibly as many as six, the agency announced Tuesday. The Bechtel National-led prime for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, […]

The Joe Biden administration proposed putting the Department of Energy back in charge of Manhattan Project site cleanup efforts as part of its fiscal year 2022 budget request, according to a recent press release. The Army Corps of Engineers, which currently oversees the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), would continue cleaning up the […]

The state of New York and other stakeholders involved in an ongoing suit over the sale of Indian Point Energy Center moved to dismiss the case following the approval of a joint settlement, according to recent court filings. New York State, alongside environmental watchdog Riverkeeper and the towns of Cortlandt and Buchanan, N.Y., will withdraw […]

Thanks to an easy victory in Tuesday’s special election, the Democratic Party maintains control of Mexico’s 1st Congressional District seat vacated in March when Deb Haaland resigned to become President Joe Biden’s secretary of interior. Democrat Melanie Ann Stansbury, a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, won 60% of the vote to defeat […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: June:  03: The Portsmouth Environmental Management Advisory Board meets at 6 p.m. E.T.

Voters in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District were set to decide today whether Democrat Melanie Ann Stansbury, Republican Mark Moores or one of four other candidates will succeed former U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) who was sworn in as secretary of interior on March 16. Both major party candidates are already members of the New […]

A May 24 article in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, “Nevada DOE Managers Make Plans for Transuranic Waste” should have said the Honeywell-led Mission Support and Test Services is overseeing preparation of Nevada spheres for shipment to the Idaho National Laboratory from the Nevada National Security Site. In Idaho, the transuranic waste will be processed for […]

Among the highlights of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s detailed fiscal year 2022 budget request: it will cost more than double what the agency once estimated to convert a plutonium recycling plant in South Carolina into a factory for nuclear-weapon triggers; planned air- and sea-launched cruise missiles will share a nuclear tip; next year’s costs […]

The company set to decommission Indian Point Energy Center in New York is now the plant’s official owner, according to a press release last week. Holtec International completed its acquisition of the Buchanan, N.Y. nuclear plant from Entergy Friday, the company said Friday. Holtec subsidiary Holtec Indian Point, LLC now holds the site’s ownership and […]