Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Department of Energy’s manager for the Hanford Site declined Wednesday to say how many employees have tested positive for the coronavirus so far this year at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state. “I report those numbers through headquarters now, and there is a more formal reporting process at the headquarters level,” in […]

The coronavirus pandemic pushed a choice between two competing defense-uranium enrichment technologies to January from December, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Wednesday. It’s the second time this year the agency has delayed the day of reckoning between the AC100 technology that Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., started developing around 2012, and a smaller-scale enrichment […]

Fluor, Irving, Texas, reported a dip in total revenue for the 2020 third quarter, even as its government sector enjoyed higher profits in the three months ended Sept. 30. Perhaps most significantly about the earnings press release issued Thursday morning is that it marks a sort of return to normalcy for the company, which has […]

A little over a month after the secretary of energy demanded her resignation as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Donald Trump administration welcomed Lisa Gordon-Hagerty back into the fold, appointing her to a Pentagon advisory board. The Department of Defense announced Wednesday that Gordon-Hagerty will join its Defense Policy Board, potentially giving […]

The story “Authorization Bill With Requested NNSA Budget, Partial Restoration for EM, Expected to Pass Congress This Week; Veto Threat Looms” (Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, Dec. 07, 2020) should have said that, under the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, if the Nuclear Weapons Council determines the secretary of energy’s proposed budget for the NNSA is […]

Concerns over Holtec’s ability to finance the decommissioning of the Palisades nuclear plant, currently owned by Entergy Corp., rang loud at a public meeting held Tuesday afternoon to discuss the two companies’ request to swap ownership of the plant.  Holtec plans to submit the application in December. The plant is scheduled to operate into 2022. […]

The House of Representatives approved the final version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act with a veto-proof margin Tuesday evening, sending the bill and its new nuclear waste and weapons policies to the Senate. The House passed the bill 300-135 , with every member voting. Among other things, the measure would require the Department […]

The advisory board to the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state meets today at 9 a.m. Pacific Time and will hear updates on Tri-Party Agreement cleanup plans. Brian Vance, manager of DOE’s Richland Operations Office and Office of River Protection at the former plutonium production facility, is among the speakers scheduled to address […]

The U.S. and Slovenia, still weighing construction of its second civilian nuclear reactor, signed a memorandum of understanding concerning strategic civilian nuclear cooperation, the State Department announced Tuesday. The memorandum will “strengthen and expand strategic ties between the United States and a partner country by providing a framework for cooperation on civil nuclear issues and […]

NextEra Energy’s application to extend its license at the Point Beach Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2 has been made publicly available on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission website.  “The NRC staff is reviewing the application to determine if it has sufficient information to complete the agency’s extensive safety and environmental reviews,” the commission said in […]

Bid proposals for the new Infrastructure Support Services Contract at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio are due by 4 p.m. Eastern Time Thursday. Portsmouth Mission Alliance, a team made up of an affiliate of Idaho-based North Wind Group and Swift & Staley, holds the current $117-million business that began in March 2016 […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a meeting today to discuss the transfer of the Michigan-based Palisades nuclear plant license from Entergy Corp. to Holtec Intl. for decommissioning.  Palisades is scheduled to shut down on May 31, 2022: a couple years later than the original shutdown date of 2018. The companies agreed to the sale […]

After reviewing its options, cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho has decided to pay the $580,700 civil penalty issued by the Department of Energy over an April 2018 explosion at the Idaho National Laboratory where four 55-gallon drums overheated and blew off their lids spewing radioactive sludge. “Fluor Idaho chose not to contest the findings” in the […]

The Department of Energy has picked up a six-month option keeping North Wind Portage on the job as the technical assistance contractor at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico until June 2021. The basic contract and associated task orders were extended six months from Dec. 4, last Friday, to June 3, 2021, a spokesperson […]

The Department of Energy and other federal agencies will operate under their 2021 budgets for at least another week beyond Friday , if a short-term continuing resolution slated for a House vote on Wednesday becomes law. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced the impending vote on Twitter Monday afternoon. The current stopgap bill, passed […]

Dr. Fred Dilger, a staunch Yucca Mountain critic, has been named Executive Director of Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects by Gov. Steve Sisolak.  “Dr. Dilger has been at the forefront in our State’s efforts in nuclear waste policy and in halting the Yucca Mountain Project,” Sisolak tweeted Monday evening.  Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects/Nuclear Waste […]

Even in a government where Democrats will control the White House and at least one chamber of Congress, political consensus appears to favor continuing the nuclear modernization program the Barack Obama administration started in 2016, the head of the House Armed Services Committee said Monday. “Any effort to change that is running into very strong […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the ExchangeMonitor staff is tracking ahead of the winter holidays. December 08 – Center for Strategic and International Studies. A Conversation With Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), House Armed Services Chair. Virtual. 12:00 p.m. – 1:0 p.m. Eastern time. Registration is free. 09-10 – Center […]

Twelve more employees at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state reported to management that they have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to an online notice posted Friday. The latest batch of positive tests showed up on the employee alerts section of a DOE emergency operations website at Hanford operated by the […]

Orano signed a deal with a subsidiary South Korea’s largest nuclear power plant operator to support its nuclear dismantling activities.  Paris-based Orano and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), a subsidiary of the Korea Electric Power Corporation, signed the deal Friday in Gyeongju, Korea, according to a press release. Through the deal, Orano will have […]

The Oregon Department of Energy is studying updated rules governing transport and disposal of radioactive materials within the state, which could potentially sock violators with millions of dollars in fines. The state department’s Energy Facility Siting Council has been working on tightening Oregon’s radioactive waste rules since May, according to a slide presentation put together […]

A must-pass bill that would authorize even more than the requested funding for Department of Energy nuclear weapons and waste programs could get its first vote in the House today or Tuesday and clear the Senate later this week, a congressional aid said. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would authorize DOE’s National Nuclear Security […]

The Department of Energy says it will be up to the winner of the Carlsbad Technical Assistance Contract to train its own employees and the cost will be borne by the new contractor. That is one of the takeaways from a package of questions and answers published Wednesday by DOE on the potential $100-million small […]

The current $44-million Carlsbad Technical Assistance Contract is set to expire this week for a North Wind subsidiary at the Department of Energy field office in New Mexico. The DOE can exercise an option to keep North Wind Portage on board through June 3, 2021 while the Office of Environmental Management continues to look for […]

A document obtained by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing indicates the Department of Energy’s environmental contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio has confirmed at least 73 cases of COVID-19 so far during the pandemic, with three of those reported in recent days. The document summarizes COVID-19 data compiled through Tuesday by Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the decommissioning […]