Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The April announcement from the Department of Energy that the B-109 tank is leaking at the Hanford Site in Washington state is not a cause for alarm, site manager Brian Vance said Wednesday. The single-shell tank is leaking at the rate of about 1,000 to 1,500 gallons per year, Vance told an online meeting of […]

A proposed testing program for an experimental, 20-kilowatt nuclear reactor — and its eventual dismantling and defueling after a planned two-year run — won’t harm the environment, the Department of Energy reiterated this week in a final environmental review for the project. In a proposed finding of no significant impact notice published Tuesday on its […]

While not divulging details yet, the manager of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state says the complex will loosen its COVID-19 protocols for fully-vaccinated workers next week. The relaxed rules will technically go into effect Friday, which is not a workday at the site, Brian Vance, the top federal boss at the […]

The Joe Biden administration’s budget request proves they’re willing to help out the nuclear energy industry as part of its clean energy agenda, the Secretary of Energy said at a trade group conference Tuesday. “The administration isn’t just ready to talk the talk, we’re willing to walk the walk” on nuclear energy, said Jennifer Granholm […]

The company in charge of decommissioning a New Jersey nuclear power plant will lay off just under a hundred of its employees later this summer, according to the state’s labor department. Holtec International subsidiary company Consolidated Decommissioning International (CDI) will lay off 92 workers at Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Forked River, N.J. effective […]

A proposed consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel won’t need a special construction permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, the military civil works formation said in a recent letter. If Holtec International got the go-ahead from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build its consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in southeastern New Mexico, […]

Rear Adm. John Mitchell (ret), whose decade-plus, post-Navy career with Bechtel National took him on a tour of senior leadership posts at defense-nuclear sites and Yucca Mountain, died June 1. He was 79. That is according to a short memorial post online that indicated Mitchell’s final arrangements would be handled by a funeral home in […]

Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions took home $44.6 or 96% of nearly $46 million in available fee for its work as operator of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina for the 16-month period ended Nov. 30. That is according to the latest fee scorecard for the joint venture published Tuesday by […]

The Amentum-BWX Technologies joint venture that runs the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico will be kept on at least until early 2022 as the agency moves ahead with its solicitation for a new prime, according to a nugget tucked inside the White House budget justification for the Office of Environmental […]

The Hanford Site in Washington State would receive a haircut under President Joe Biden’s budget request for the Department of Energy in fiscal 2022, but still account for nearly a third of the entire $7.6-billion budget sought for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Should the spending package for cleanup at the former […]

The Department of Energy’s environmental liability, which stands at more than a half-trillion dollars, continues to grow and most of it is concentrated in the agency’s nuclear cleanup office, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday in an update to Congress. The DOE liability stands at $512 billion as of fiscal 2020, which is the most […]

The Navy should scrap plans to develop a nuclear-tipped sea-launched cruise missile, the service’s acting secretary wrote in a memo dated June 4. Media this week widely reported on the memo that Thomas Harker, the acting secretary of the Navy, sent to the undersecretary of the navy, the commandant of the marine corps, the chief […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory published new research about how near-surface detonations can affect nuclear-weapon yields, the California-based design lab said Monday. The findings, summarized in a paper titled “the reflection of a blast wave by a very intense explosion,” were published last week in Proceedings A of the Royal Society Publishing. The authors are […]

The Small Business Administration, Swift & Staley and a firm that successfully challenged the latter’s size eligibility for a Department of Energy landlord contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky have until after Independence Day to file briefs with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Federal Claims Judge Thompson Dietz last week gave the government, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will focus on modernization of the existing fleet of nuclear power plants and developing regulations for advanced reactors, the agency’s chairman told one of the nuclear industry’s largest trade groups at its annual conference Monday. NRC wants to ensure the nation’s current fleet of nuclear plants are outfitted with new technologies […]

A story in Monday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing (“RLUOB Recategorization in April ‘22 Instead of March ‘22, Defense Board Reports”) should have said that the Radiological Laboratory/Utility/Office Building (RLUOB) is classified now as a radiological facility and can legally accept just under 40 grams of plutonium at once.

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 […]