Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

U.S. nuclear modernization is nothing like Russian or Chinese nuclear modernization, Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), chair of the subcommittee that writes the first draft of the annual military policy bill for defense-nuclear programs, said Tuesday in a hearing. “When we use the term ‘modernization’ for our nuclear weapons, that leads to the possibility of false […]

A last-minute technical understanding with Iran over the weekend will preserve international record keeping about the country’s controversial nuclear program over the next three months, but little else, the head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said in a webcast Tuesday. “We got a temporary, technical, bilateral understanding,” Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic […]

SOC, a Day & Zimmermann security company, this week protested the Department of Energy’s recently-announced award of a $1-billion Savannah River Site security services award to a Securitas-led team. The bid protest, dated Monday Feb. 22, matched the DOE solicitation number for the Security Services Contract at Savannah River awarded Feb. 12 to the SRS […]

Advanced nuclear technologies could make use of innovative strategies like steam conversion and reprocessing to dispose of spent fuel, according to reactor developers speaking at a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee meeting. At a series of virtual meetings held Monday and Tuesday, the National Academies’ Committee on Merits and Viability of Different […]

The Department of Energy and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection are hammering out some type of legal settlement over shipments of mislabeled radioactive waste sent from the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee to the Nevada National Security Site, according to minutes of an advisory committee meeting posted online. “Progress has been made on […]

A new citizens’ committee in Vermont plans to provide recommendations on reactor decommissioning and nuclear waste storage to the state and federal government by fall, the group said Monday in a public meeting. The Federal Waste Nuclear Policy Committee, a subdivision of Vermont’s Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (NDCAP), met Monday to solicit public comments […]

Flight tests for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent missile, the planned successor to the nuclear-tipped Minuteman III, are scheduled to start in fiscal year 2024, according to a Pentagon environmental review of the new weapons. The service proposes four Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) flight tests from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in fiscal […]

BWX Technologies, the Lynchburg, Va.-based nuclear contractor for the Department of Energy and the Pentagon, on Monday posted a record $557 million in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020, up 11% from the $501 million in the 2019 period. In addition, BWXT’s net income for the fourth quarter was $65.7 million, or $0.69 per […]

The Senate has set up a vote this week on Jennifer Granholm’s nomination to be secretary of energy, following a procedural step on Monday. Around 4 p.m. Eastern time, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D) filed cloture on Granholm’s nomination, effectively signalling the start of a brief period of debate that typically lasts no longer […]

Germantown, Md.-based Amentum recently marked its first full year as a privately-held company after being spun off by Los Angeles-based AECOM. On Jan. 31, 2020, AEMCOM closed on the $2.4 billion sale of its AECOM Management Services division to affiliates of New York-based investment firms Lindsay Goldberg and American Securities LLC. The new owners re-christened […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear weapons assembly hub in Texas was scheduled for more or less back to normal operations on Monday after asking non-essential personnel to remain home for most of last week during Texas’ disastrous deep freeze. “Pantex operations are back to normal schedule today,” a spokesperson for the Bechtel National-led plant […]

As of December, roughly 70% or 11.2 million of the 16 million tons of contaminated debris and soil had been hauled away from an old uranium mill outside Moab, Utah, according to data released by the Department of Energy last week in for a new contract for the project. The DOE in February released its […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the ExchangeMonitor staff is tracking this week. February 22 BWX Technologies releases its quarterly results after the market closes at 4 p.m. Eastern time. 22-23 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Merits and Viability of Different Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Technology Options and the […]

After winter weather crippled many parts of Texas’ electricity grid, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear weapons maintenance hub near Amarillo, Texas, decided to keep some personnel home during the first three days of this week. “In order to reduce energy consumption during the unprecedented winter storm impacting the Amarillo area, Pantex cancelled day, swing, […]

In the midst of a winter weather emergency that left millions without power and caused a nuclear plant to shut down in the Lone Star State, Waste Control Specialists’ waste storage site experienced no problems, a spokesman said Wednesday. A representative for the 1,338-acre storage facility in Andrews County, Texas told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing […]

The Department of Energy this morning posted virtual site tour documents and other background material on its solicitation for a potential $614-million small business set-aside for the Moab Remedial Action Contract in Utah. The DOE Office of Environmental Management released its final request for proposals Feb. 11 for the work that includes cleanup of a […]

A New Mexico Senate committee on Tuesday passed a bill that would create a statewide task force to negotiate with the federal government over the siting of nuclear-waste storage sites in the Land of Enchantment. The state Senate Conservation Committee passed SB 82, introduced by state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D), on a 5-2 vote and […]