Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office first rolled out its end state contracting model in 2018 and now wants to clearly define exactly how that model is supposed to work. The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) tucked this nugget inside its Strategic Vision for 2021-2031. “In 2021, EM will implement a new End-State […]

The chair of the House Armed Services Committee quoted chapter-and-verse from his bible of nuclear weapon policies in a Tuesday chat with the D.C.-based Reagan Institute, during which he advocated for trimming the defense budget by preventing particular crises rather than gearing up to win an all-out war. “I think that we can have a […]

Managers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state have confirmed six more positive cases of COVID-19 since Saturday. The latest five were reported Tuesday in a note posted to a DOE website run by a Leidos-led Hanford support contractor. New cases at the former plutonium production complex have run in the low- […]

Within 10 years, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management hopes to have its vitrification plant humming at the Hanford Site in Washington state, with 40% of the tanks closed at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and also be about done with legacy cleanup at the Moab Site in Utah as well […]

In its final scorecard, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation earned 78% of the fee available to it for about four months of work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Altogether, the Jacobs subsidiary pocketed $6.36 million out of an available $8.16 million for the period from Oct. 1, 2020 through Jan. 24, […]

The next contractor in charge of moving defense-related transuranic to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., under a planned five-year contract may handle 500-to-800 shipments annually, the Department Energy said in comments posted online recently. “Over the last 10 years, WIPP carrier miles have varied greatly from roughly 300,000 miles to more than […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration appointed Jason Armstrong to lead the Savannah River Field Office, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon steward wrote in a press release on Monday. Armstrong was most recently assistant manager for nuclear safety and engineering at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Production Office in Tennessee, where he had worked […]

A nuclear watchdog group’s request to delay the sale of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating station is “procedurally improper and without merit,” and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should toss the group’s objection, agency staff wrote in a Monday brief. The group, Three Mile Island Alert, alleged that the FirstEnergy companies and an EnergySolutions subsidiary ran […]

The Department of Energy expects to issue the final solicitation for a new prime contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico between now and June, according to a Monday procurement notice. The agency said the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should be out between 30 […]

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. […]