Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The next big contract procurement update from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management should be out by Independence Day, according to a Thursday notice. The next quarterly procurement update from the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center will be posted within about 30 to 45 calendar days, meaning it should be out by July […]

In a budget hearing that was mostly a best-of, a couple Senators asked the acting head of the National Nuclear Security Administration about alternative means of meeting the mission objectives of the day, including by producing pits at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory or buying, instead of enriching, uranium needed to produce weapons-tritium in the […]

The Department of Energy announced Wednesday a new program aiming to reduce the volume of spent nuclear fuel produced by advanced reactors, according to a press release. The “Optimizing Nuclear Waste and Advanced Reactor Disposal Systems” (ONWARDS) program under DOE’s existing Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) will get up to $40 million in funding from […]

The state of New York’s public service committee voted unanimously Wednesday to approve a proposed joint settlement agreement in which the company set to decommission Indian Point Energy Center will commit to greater financial transparency and community engagement. The New York Public Service Commission’s 4-0 vote at a virtual meeting Wednesday to greenlight the April […]

The Department of Energy’s goal of establishing a “clean energy standard” for zero-carbon sources of electricity will ensure that demand for nuclear power stays high in the face of mounting plant closures, the Secretary of Energy said Wednesday. “The number one solution the [Joe Biden] administration believes is very important for nuclear’s future is to […]

A Northern Arizona University researcher, Michael Ketterer, recently reasserted findings from 2019 that radioactive contamination from the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio poses a concern for people outside the fence, and local leaders are using his analysis to press for federal money to replace a shuttered school. In an April 28 letter to […]

While the numbers won’t be out for another week, House and Senate committees used Wednesday hearings to press Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and other DOE officials about the progress of nuclear cleanup. During a four-hour hearing before the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee, Granholm said the Joe Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 budget request […]

The Department of Energy’s largest and most complex nuclear cleanup property is looking at relaxing its COVID-19 protocols soon but has made no changes yet, Hanford’s site manager Brian Vance said in a Tuesday memo to all employees. Likewise,  the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky are “for now” keeping their […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission isn’t looking too closely at disposal or repurposing of spent nuclear fuel from future advanced reactors, the agency’s fuel safety chief told a National Academies panel Tuesday. NRC won’t regulate the back end of the advanced fuel cycle until it has “a firmer idea of what advanced reactor developers are looking […]

Leo Sain, a senior executive at Amentum who has led joint ventures across the Department of Energy weapons complex, has died at age 73. Most recently Sain served as the decommissioning and demolition and waste management sector lead at Amentum. He died May 13, according to an obituary posted by Weatherford Mortuary in Oak Ridge, […]

House and Senate subcommittees were scheduled to hold hearings about the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2022 budget request on Wednesday, even though the White House was not expected to release the full budget request until May 27. The Senate-side hearing will be the first of the season dedicated to the civilian nuclear weapons programs managed […]

The existing nuclear fleet is essential in giving the Joe Biden administration time to expand the capacity of renewable generating sources, the White House’s climate czar said Tuesday. Nuclear energy provides a “very stable baseload” of electricity generation, national climate adviser Gina McCarthy said at a virtual event hosted by the Columbia University Center on […]

A three-day New Mexico Environment Department hearing on the need for a new underground shaft for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant kicked off Monday with a lawyer for DOE saying the case is not about a life extension for the transuranic waste disposal site. The hearing is about efforts to “restore a […]

Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), a reliable vote against the nuclear-modernization status quo in the House Armed Services Committee, told disarmament advocates Monday that the Joe Biden administration should pause development of the next U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile. It was one of two steps Garamendi said Biden should take as part of the administration’s nuclear posture […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory employees who can provide proof that they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19 will not have to submit to mandatory random screenings for the viral disease, lab leadership said. In a May 17 email to employees, Kathy Segala, associate laboratory director for capital projects, said Los Alamos personnel can skip out on COVID-19 […]

Bechtel, Reston, Va., and Fluor, Irving, Texas, are leading separate bids for the potentially $10-year, $21.5 billion management and operations contract for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, people familiar with the competitive landscape said Monday. Amentum, Germantown, Md., is also in the mix as a partner, one of these people said. The Savannah […]

New York’s public service commission will vote on the proposed settlement between the state, Holtec International and Entergy over decommissioning of the Indian Point Energy Center on Wednesday, state attorney general Letitia James said in a recent court filing. In the Thursday filing, the state asked a federal judge for a little more time to […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 27 shipments of transuranic waste in April, which marks its busiest month since the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) logged five months in 2020 when it received 20 or more shipments. October was the busiest month, […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: 2021 May 17 – Arms Control Association virtual meeting: Smarter Options on U.S. Nuclear Modernization. Includes remarks from Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), member, House Armed Services Committee. 2:00 p.m. – 3 p.m. Eastern time. Register […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state should transport between 10 and 20 shipments of transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico starting in 2028. The vast majority (99%) of the defense-related transuranic waste now at Hanford’s central plateau, in the 200 West Area, will be hauled to the […]

Swift & Staley’s share of the Portsmouth Site’s infrastructure services contractor helped make the company ineligible for a small-business set-aside contract at Department of Energy’s Paducah Site, according to a ruling made public this week by the Small Business Administration. Swift & Staley’s annual receipts alone did not push it past a $41.5 million size […]

The Joe Biden administration will start its nuclear posture review soon and work on it into the fall, there’s no new Minuteman III life-extension study at the Pentagon and bad welds on some missile tubes won’t delay delivery of the first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, witnesses testified late Wednesday before a Senate Armed Services panel. […]

The National Academies of Science are putting together a panel of experts to look at the thoroughness and technical quality of a recent analysis done by the Department of Energy national laboratories on supplemental treatment options for low-activity tank waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Nominations are due by May 21 via this […]

With just over two weeks left in the session, the Texas state Senate has not yet debated a suddenly controversial proposal to ban storage of high-level nuclear waste in the Lone Star state. The Senate-side version of H.B. 2692, introduced in March by state Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R), is still listed on the state Senate’s […]