Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

President Biden’s nominees to lead the Nuclear Weapons Council and the Department of Energy’s intergovernmental affairs programs are headed to the Senate, the White House announced Monday. Michael Brown got the nod to be undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment. If confirmed, he would lead the joint Pentagon-Department of Energy council that coordinates nuclear […]

The New Mexico Environment Department last week gave its blessing to a Department of Energy’s plan to commence remediation of radioactive contamination along a public road just outside Los Alamos National Laboratory property. The work plan stipulates that DOE will start its field work on Middle DP Road in April and it should last six […]

President Joe Biden on Friday said he will nominate former Federation of American Scientists and Al Franken Senate staffer Ali Nouri as the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental affairs. Nouri has been with the agency since January as the deputy assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental affairs, a post which did […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s planned revival of an underground ventilation fan that has been idle for years poses scant radiological risks, according to the Department of Energy and its prime contractor for the facility in New Mexico. Data gleaned from a four-hour test of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)’s 700-C ventilation fan on […]

Congress is in session. Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: April 12 – Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Virtual workshop with the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) on spent fuel performance margins. Continued discussion on NEI’s 2019 white paper on spent fuel storage. Register […]

The companies looking to trade ownership of Indian Point Energy Center can participate in a federal case against the transaction, a judge ruled Friday. In an order dated April 9, a D.C. circuit court judge approved Entergy and Holtec International’s petition to join the case, filed Jan. 22 by the state of New York. The […]

Navarro-led Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration is scheduled to take over the 222-S Laboratory soon from two separate contractors, Veolia and Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions, at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration (HLMI), a joint venture of Oak Ridge, Tenn.,-based Navarro and Gaithersburg, Md., -based Advanced […]

Texas’ deep freeze in February damaged “pipes and air-handling units” at the Pantex Plant, including at weapons production facilities, but most of the damage had been repaired by March, a spokesperson for the plant’s prime contractor said Wednesday. The affected systems “developed leaks and other cold‑related impacts [but] [a]ll operations in the impacted facilities were […]

The former CEO of nuclear services company Orano U.S. is joining the environmental services division at competitor Westinghouse Electric, according to a press release from the company this week. In his new role, Sam Shakir will lead Westinghouse’s “expansion as a leading services and technology provider in the global commercial and government nuclear decommissioning and […]

Last decade’s bipartisan consensus, that arms-control diplomacy and the refurbishment of the nuclear arsenal should walk hand-in-hand, does not exist anymore, according to a former Republican Senator who helped forge the consensus. “Right now, we do not have the consensus that ostensibly existed back in 2010,” former Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday during a […]

A former ventilation subcontractor’s lawsuit against Waste Isolation Pilot Plant prime Nuclear Waste Partnership was put on hold Wednesday while the parties attempted to settle their differences out of court. The prime, Nuclear Waste Partnership, and subcontractor Critical Applications Alliance have agreed to stay the case while pursuing mediation, their attorneys said in a joint […]

After settlement talks failed to bridge the gap between Department of Energy contractor Leidos and subcontractor Professional Project Services, or Pro2Serve, the parties could be headed toward a federal court trial this summer on the smaller company’s claim it was wrongly cut out of the new landlord services team at the Hanford Site in Washington […]

After nearly a year of deliberations, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has finalized a settlement agreement with the company set to take over Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. The settlement document, dated Tuesday, withdraws Massachusetts’s objections to the Cape Cod-based plant’s license transfer to Holtec International from Entergy for decommissioning. The commonwealth in 2019 filed petitions with […]

The prime contractor for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrence wrapped up a key review for the program and set a cost and schedule baseline for the Air Force’s next-generation, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile. Northrop Grumman, which holds a $13 billion Air Force engineering and manufacturing development contract to build the first tranche of Ground Based […]

The Department of Energy expects to sign a small firm, Strata-G, to perform regulatory work on short notice connected with cleanup at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. This purchase order is for up to two years and not to exceed $150,000, a DOE spokesperson said Tuesday of the proposed sole source set-aside notice  […]

Appointments to receive Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine are available from the occupational medicine contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, where eight workers have since Saturday tested positive for the disease. The latest four positive tests at Hanford were reported Tuesday, according to a DOE website run by Hanford’s Leidos-led landlord contractor. […]

More than 10 months ago the Department of Energy published its final solicitation for a new $6.4-billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract with a 10-year ordering period and industry sources are keeping watch. Bid proposals for the environmental work around the Idaho National Laboratory were due last July. The two incumbents, Fluor Idaho has the five-year, […]

An article in Tuesday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [“Better Guidance Urged for Interim Storage of Spent Fuel at Hanford”] should have reported that an Amentum-led group has managed Central Plateau cleanup since Jan. 25, 2021. 

There are three new federal field office managers and one new deputy field office manager across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear security enterprise, according to a recent dear-colleagues letter from acting agency administrator Charles Verdon. Also, Verdon said, two longtime civil servants will retire from National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) headquarters in Washington at […]

Like so many other federal workplaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board continues to have most of its staff working from home, according to the agency’s Annual Report to Congress. “The Board has proven its effectiveness while in maximum telework posture, despite the unexpected challenges of adapting work practices to remote […]

An oil company opposing the licensing of an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in west Texas won’t get a private meeting with the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency said last week. Since Fasken Oil and Ranch, Ltd. is involved in ongoing commission proceedings, it would sacrifice the agency’s impartiality for […]

It is time for the Department of Energy to focus on ensuring two aging facilities for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel at the Hanford Site in Washington state remain safe beyond the current 40-year design life, according to a recent DOE report. The agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments, in the report issued last month, […]

Amir Vexler, president of Orano USA’s nuclear fuel services subsidiary, became CEO of the company this week, according to a press release. In addition to his new role as the company’s top manager, Vexler will continue to serve as president of TN Americas, Orano’s subsidiary company that handles spent fuel management and transportation, the Monday […]

More than a year after announcing its plans to keep incumbent cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT on the job at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Department of Energy has executed a potential $690-million extension that could run until late March 2023. The final agreement, announced today by the two partners, took effect March 29 and includes […]

A panel made up of local stakeholders is set to meet for the first time this week to discuss the decommissioning of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station. The Community Advisory Panel (CAP) — organized by TMI-2 Solutions, the EnergySolutions subsidiary responsible for dismantling Three Mile Island — will meet virtually on Wednesday. They’ll meet […]

Palantir, the intelligence community software vendor with a name ripped from the pages of The Lord of the Rings, has notched its first contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Denver-based company said Monday. Palantir’s pact to serve as the software platform for the agency’s Safety Analytics, Forecasting, and Evaluation Reporting (SAFER) project is […]