Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday he will nominate Frank Kendall, a former top acquisition official at the Pentagon, as the next secretary of the Air Force and Heidi Shyu, the Army’s former lead acquisition executive, to be the next undersecretary of defense for Research and Engineering. Kendall, an Army veteran, last served in the Pentagon […]

The Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration this week appointed two new deputy managers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico. Jason Saenz will be the new deputy manager for technical operations and Paula “Erika” Wisdom will be the deputy manager for business, security and missions as a new […]

The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to approve the nomination of Colin Kahl’s nomination for the Pentagon’s top policy job on a party-line vote of 49-to-45. President Joe Biden’s pick to be undersecretary of defense for policy, Kahl failed to win a single Republican vote, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), the top GOP member on the Senate […]

President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally sent to the Senate Frank Rose’s nomination to be principal deputy administrator for the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Last Thursday Biden announced his intention to nominate Rose to the No. 2 slot at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons […]

An article in the April 27 edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [“Hanford TRU Waste Would Move to WIPP by 2050”] should have said crews will retrieve about 17,500 containers of waste stored underground in Hanford’s low-level burial grounds.      

Moving transuranic waste stored at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state to an underground disposal site in New Mexico would be completed by September 2050 instead of 2030 under a proposed change by agencies involved in remediating the former plutonium production complex. The delayed schedule for moving transuranic waste from Hanford to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission appointed two new members to its reactor safety board this week, the agency announced Monday. Vicki Bier, and Gregory Halnon joined the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) April 12, NRC said in a Monday press release. They will both serve four-year terms on the panel. In addition to her new […]

The Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration said Monday it has disposed of more than 100 “legacy” facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas. “For years now, we’ve been strategically removing legacy equipment and materials, packaging and shipping contaminated waste, and demolishing outdated facilities,” Jim […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission shouldn’t have tossed a coalition of watchdog groups’ request for a public hearing on a license extension for a nuclear power plant in Virginia, according to an appeal filed with the agency Friday. NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board erred when it ruled that concerns about the safety of a 20-year […]

President Joe Biden on Friday announced his intent to nominate Deborah Rosenblum to be assistant secretary for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense at the Department of Defense. The nuclear, chemical, and biological defense program, currently led on an acting basis by Brandi Vann, is charged with detecting, defending against and responding to threats posed by […]

The Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration plans to extend by four months an existing deal with a small business that provides technical support and analysis. In a procurement notice published Friday, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said its current three-year-and-a-half year deal with Vector Resources, Inc., which is worth about $3 […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: April: 26: POLITICO Playbook will host a virtual interview with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to discuss the Biden administration’s infrastructure and climate plan. Register here for access to the virtual panel scheduled for 11 a.m. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should formally rule this week on a challenge to one of the two proposed commercial interim storage sites for spent nuclear fuel awaiting federal licensing, according to a notice. NRC’s commissioners will meet Wednesday to finalize their decision on Fasken Land and Minerals, Ltd.’s motion to reopen the record on Holtec […]

More than three years after buying Westinghouse Electric from Toshiba, Brookfield Business Partners is reportedly considering selling a minority interest in the nuclear company. Reuters reported Friday that the international asset management firm is looking at options that include taking on a minority partner in Westinghouse, which Brookfield purchased from Toshiba for $4.6 billion in […]

Texas-based Fluor has signed a deal to use its  twice-retired former chief financial officer, Michael Steuert as a consultant, the Department of Energy contractor said in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Steuert is providing advice and consulting services through Dec. 31, 2023, according to the 8-K notice filed March 31. He will be […]

The Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has hired a Kiewit affiliate, The Industrial Co. or TIC, as the replacement subcontractor to complete construction of a major underground ventilation project. Nuclear Waste Partnership in a Wednesday press release it has awarded the subcontract, worth about $163 million, […]

Public interest groups are ready to sue the Department of Energy and its semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration over what they claim is insufficient review of plans for expanded plutonium pit production in South Carolina and New Mexico. The coalition claims the government failed to adequately review plans to “vastly ramp up production” of nuclear […]

A federal appeals court Wednesday hit the pause button on an environmental group’s recent petition against the licensing of a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, after combining it with a similar case from last year, according to the court docket. Sierra Club’s April 14 petition against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is on […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup sites will stick with “maximum telework” for the time being, the No. 2 boss at the Office of Environmental Management said Tuesday. “As of right now there is no change in our status that we have been in for several months of maximum telework,” Todd Shrader, DOE’s principal deputy […]

Reducing the political space for dialogue with Russia was a “critical error” in U.S. foreign policy and will hamper efforts to negotiate a new strategic arms limitation treaty with Moscow, a former energy secretary said during a webinar Tuesday. There’s “a lot of interest” in a new arms control treaty on both sides of the […]

Preserving the country’s civilian nuclear power fleet is “critical” to meeting federal clean energy goals, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee told the Joe Biden administration Tuesday. “As a zero-emissions baseload fuel source, I believe that maintaining our fleet and preventing closures of existing nuclear plants is critical to achieving emission […]

People in Nevada don’t want to see the U.S. government resume underground explosive-nuclear weapons testing in their state, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) said Tuesday during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.   “Nevadans do not want to return to a time when there was explosive nuclear testing in our state,” Rosen told Admiral Charles Richard, commander […]

The changeover in presidential administrations has slowed appointments to Site Specific Advisory Boards for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, a federal executive said Tuesday. Appointments to the Savannah River Site’s Citizens Advisory Board have “ground to a halt,” Gregg Murray, a member of that panel, told an online meeting of Environmental Management […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has “limited information on the prevalence of sexual harassment” in its nuclear security forces and needs to take steps to comply with federal anti-harassment policies, said a government study published Monday. The NNSA currently doesn’t meet the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) guidelines on responding to and preventing workplace […]

The stories “Watchdog Group to File TMI Response with NRC Today” (Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, April 19, 2021) and “NRC Staff Tell Commission to Nix TMI Clean Water Allegation” (Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, April 13, 2021) should have said that the TMI-2 license was transferred from the FirstEnergy companies to TMI-2 Solutions.