Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Karen Skelton has been named a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, DOE announced Wednesday in a press release. Skelton comes to the Joe Biden administration from California, where she spent the last decade as the CEO and founder of Skelton Strategies, a policy and political consulting firm working on energy, climate, technology  and […]

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee unveiled a proposed climate bill Tuesday that would classify nuclear energy as a “clean energy project.” The CLEAN Energy Act, introduced by committee chairman Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) alongside Reps. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), considers nuclear to be a zero-emissions energy source. As a […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor, which began producing tritium for nuclear weapons on Nov. 19, will irradiate a bit more than half as many tritium-producing rods as hoped in fiscal year 2021, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Tuesday. The semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency had aimed to irradiate 992 […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition to hear a challenge brought by New Mexico-based Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety over a Clean Water Act permit at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. The high court’s denial of certiorari, or “cert” in legal shorthand, means a decision last April by the […]

A federal magistrate judge in Ohio will hold a preliminary pre-trial conference by telephone March 25 in a lawsuit filed in September against current and former contractors for the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The corporate defendants in the case on Tuesday asked the judge to throw out the litigation, arguing in a […]

The story “Nuclear Fuel Services Gets $57M NNSA Contract to Prep for Weapons Uranium Work in Tennessee” (Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, March 2, 2021) should have said that Y-12’s Building 9212 will purify uranium until 2023 and possibly convert uranium oxides to uranium metal around 2030. The correction in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing (March 1, […]

The Department of Energy plans this week to test Saltwaste Disposal Unit 7, a key part of the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste cleanup effort, for leaks, the agency said Monday. Amentum-led contractor Savannah River Remediation is conducting what DOE described in a press release as a liquid tightness test, which involves pumping 33 million […]

The New Mexico Environment Department’s deputy cabinet secretary, Jennifer Pruett, is retiring in May after a 37-year career that included 20 years with the state agency. The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) said in a Monday press release it is actively working to fill the post by April. The deputy secretary is appointed by Gov. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission resumed anti-terrorism exercises at nuclear power plants with additional COVID-19 guidelines in February, the agency said. Force-on-force inspections started up again last month, NRC spokesperson David McIntyre told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing in an email Monday. The agency had previously said in a February webinar with industry that exercises would resume […]

Nuclear Fuel Services, Erwin, Tenn., last week received a long-expected $57-million contract to design and demonstrate highly enriched uranium conversion and purification for the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency announced Monday. If the BWX Technologies subsidiary’s pilot meets the agency’s goals, the company could earn a follow-on contract to perform some of the uranium […]

French waste and water management corporation Veolia suffered a setback last week in its attempt to take over the Suez Group, another French conglomerate in the same business. In dueling press releases last Thursday and Friday, neither multinational corporation mentioned the effects of this takeover attempt will have on either’s North American operations, which make […]

After the COVID-19 pandemic struck the U.S. in 2020, Department of Energy contractor North Wind Portage actually hauled more contaminated material away from an old uranium ore processing site outside Moab, Utah, than it did during a corresponding period in 2019. That is according to data posted online by the DOE Office of Environmental Management […]

Kim Budil was set to take over as the 13th director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California on Tuesday. The younger of the two nuclear weapons design laboratories announced the change at top in late January. Budil replaces William Goldstein, who was to retire after six years as director and 36 years at […]

The story “NNSA Contract Award to Nuclear Fuel Services Imminent, City of Oak Ridge Says” (Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, March 1, 2021) should have said that Building 9212 at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., will handle highly enriched uranium conversion and purification work until 2023, after which purification work at Y-12 […]

The City of Oak Ridge remained on the lookout this week for the fromalizing of a National Nuclear Security Administration contract that would, against the city’s wishes, move some uranium conversion and purification work to Nuclear Fuel Services from the Y-12 National Security. “The transfer of this function could begin with a Phase I contract […]

Due to a shortfall in the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund, the Department of Energy is drawing upon other money in fiscal 2021 to help pay for cleanup of the government’s shuttered uranium enrichment plants. The Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning (UED&D) Fund was budgeted by Congress during the current fiscal year at $841 […]

The top executive for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management will brief the first meeting of the nuclear cleanup’s branch’s advisory board during the Joe Biden administration Wednesday March 24 starting at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. In addition to remarks from DOE’s acting assistant secretary for environmental management, William (Ike) White, the Environmental […]

The Washington state government and others asked new Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to rescind the Department of Energy’s recent decision to reclassify some high-level waste, including waste in the Hanford Site’s underground tanks. On Friday, less than a day after Granholm’s swearing in, the Washington Department of Ecology, Washington Attorney General Robert Ferguson (D), […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the ExchangeMonitor staff is tracking this week. 2021 March 2 – Bipartisan Policy Center. Webinar: “Advancing the Energy Transition with Innovation and a Clean Energy Standard.” Reps. David McKinley (R-W.V.) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) speaking. Registry for remote access here. 10:00 A.M. Eastern time. 3 […]

The Joe Biden administration’s nominee for energy secretary, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, should be voted upon by the full Senate Thursday after two-thirds of the chamber voted Wednesday to end debate. The vote to end debate was 67-to-32. With a Granholm vote imminent, a confirmation hearing for Biden’s deputy secretary of energy nominee, David […]

Another New York politician this week leaned on the state’s Public Service Commission to block the transfer of the Indian Point Nuclear Generating Station’s operating license to Holtec International until the latter proves it can afford to safely decommission the site. On Tuesday, George Latimer, county executive for Westchester County, N.Y., echoed concerns earlier voiced […]

Exelon Corp., Chicago, plans to split into a pair of companies by early 2022, separating its power generation businesses — including nuclear — from its electric and gas sales and distribution businesses, the company announced Wednesday. Exelon operates 15 nuclear plants across the country, though it plans to shutter the Byron and Dresden plants in […]

The Department of Energy’s legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico suspended some work for more than a week in January to address safety issues, according to a recent staff report to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. According to a board report dated Jan. 29 and posted online this […]

The Department of Energy plans to extend Swift & Staley’s infrastructure services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky for up to a year after a protest derailed plans to award the company a follow-on contract for the work. The DOE’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office intends to issue a noncompetitive modification to the current contract that […]

During an earnings call Tuesday, BWXT Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden sounded less like a boss disheartened by seeing a $13-billion contract award undone than someone eager to land a bigger payday before long. In December, the Department of Energy cancelled the Tank Closure Contract that a BWXT-led team won in May after losing […]

A coalition of watchdog groups asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a two-month extension on today’s filing deadline for objections to the sale of two nuclear plants in Michigan. According to a filing provided to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing by nuclear watchdog Beyond Nuclear, the organization — along with watchdog groups Don’t Waste Michigan and […]