Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The director of the Washington state Department of Ecology Laura Watson hopes to have a new person in charge of nuclear waste cleanup by the end of the year. After spending five-and-a-half years in charge of Washington’s nuclear cleanup, much of which involves regulating the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site remediation, Alex Smith left the […]

Brian Ellis will join Entergy’s board of directors, expanding its size to 11.  Ellis is the senior vice president and general counsel at Washington, D.C.-based Danaher Corp., a global science and technology innovation company. Before Danaher, Ellis served as vice president and general counsel at Medtronic.  Last week, New Orleans-based Entergy announced that its third-quarter […]

Three months of frozen budgets is probably no big deal for the National Nuclear Security Administration and its portfolio of 21st-century weapons-production construction, but a year’s worth would be bad news, a senior official said recently. “We’re inoculated for a period of about a quarter,” Bob Raines, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) associate administrator […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies hauled in $520 million in revenue during the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, which is up 3% from the $506 million it took in during the same period a year ago, according to a Monday earnings release. Its net income for the quarter dipped a bit, however, as BWX Technologies […]

An article that appeared in the Oct. 19 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [“Cesium Removal From Tanks Continues at Savannah River Site”] should have said that the Tank-Closure Cesium Removal unit is a demonstration project to provide an additional means of speeding tank closure. The story also should have said that cesium-rich resin removed from Tank […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the ExchangeMonitor staff is tracking this week. Monday: Financial results are out today from BWX Technologies for the quarter ended Sept. 30. U.S. Strategic Command kicks off its annual Strategic Command Deterrence Symposium — it’s virtual. Tuesday: This is election day as U.S. […]

Days after firing CEO Chuck Jones and two other executives, FirstEnergy Corp. reported third quarter earnings of $0.84 per share on revenue of $3 billion, up from $0.73 per share on revenue of $3 billion in the same quarter last year.  The Akron, Ohio-based company reported third-quarter profit of $454 million. FirstEnergy shares have lost […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies will discuss its financial results for third quarter, ended Sept. 30, during a 9 a.m. Monday conference call with Wall Street analysts. During the second quarter, BWX Technologies (BWXT) reported net income was up $5 million to about $64 million, or $0.67 per share, from about $59 million, or $0.62 per […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration still had not at deadline released the final solicitation for the potentially $28-billion, $10-year contract to manage its two big nuclear-weapons production sites, but more information is percolating up through industry about the players interested in the deal. With the envisioned start of the transition from the Bechtel-led incumbent, Consolidated […]

Entergy is in conversations with the NRC and could close on its transfer of the three-unit Indian Point Energy Center license by the middle of 2021, a spokesman said in an earnings call Wednesday. NRC spokesman Scott Burnell told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing in an email on Monday the commission is on track to complete […]

By early next year, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and the Department of Energy could sign a memorandum of understanding about how to share information under a two year-old DOE order that limits interactions between the federal agencies. On Tuesday, the board — a roughly $30-million-a-year agency with a staff of around 100 full-timers […]

Next week, the National Nuclear Security Administration will host a second virtual meeting with the public to discuss a planned release of tritium from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to a notice posted online. The second virtual meeting about venting flanged tritium waste containers is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 5, from 5 p.m. to […]

The Department of Energy extended to January the transition periods for the support services and solid-waste cleanup contractors at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Transition periods for both the Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions team and the Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co. are being extended until Jan. 24, the DOE Hanford Richland Operations Office […]

U.S. Representative Mike Levin (D-CA) has introduced that would require NRC inspectors to remain at decommissioning nuclear power plants until all spent fuel is transferred from pools to canisters. The proposed law, introduced Friday, is Levin’s response to “failures” at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) located around four miles south of San Clemente, […]

Steven Lawrence, until this year the manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada Field Office, appeared to tweet Tuesday afternoon that he is receiving chemotherapy. As I sit in the infusion center getting chemo, my heart goes out to everyone dealing with cancer or other life changing events, including our caregivers…. Stay strong and […]

An Alaska native corporation, Tuknik Government Services, won a $15-million Department of Energy contract for technical support work for the environmental business center in Cincinnati, Ohio. DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) announced the five-year, indefinite-delivery, indefinite quantity contract for information systems technical support Tuesday. Tuknik, a subsidiary of Koniag Government Services, is a […]

The cities of Cincinnati and Columbus are suing FirstEnergy Corp. and others in a last-ditch effort to keep fees associated with controversial House Bill 6 off ratepayer bills starting in January.  In a suit filed in the court of common pleas in Franklin County, Ohio, on Tuesday, the two cities are attempting to do what […]

A venture led by Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Navarro Research and Engineering is assured of becoming the new operator of 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Washington state, now that the window for protesting DOE’s contract award to the team lapsed. The period for contesting the award to the Government Accountability Office ended Monday, two […]

The barrage of winter weather in the Western U.S. closed down some nuclear weapons sites again on Tuesday, with the Pantex plant bracing for a third straight snow day for non-essential workers. Pantex canned the Wednesday day shift on account of snowy and icy conditions after doing the same on Monday and Tuesday, according to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public opinion on its review of Virginia Electric and Power Co.’s license renewal at the Virginia-based North Anna Power Station. Staff are seeking views on environmental issues surrounding the 20-year license renewal by the company, also known as Dominion, until Nov. 23 following the publication of a notice in […]

With a looming Halloween deadline, two more cities have dropped out of the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) mini reactor project, the latest municipal bail out from the Department of Energy-subsidized venture. Bountiful, Utah, a town that has been on the fence about the project for months now, will hold a final vote Tuesday […]

The Department of Energy is entering the final phase of construction at the seventh large saltstone disposal unit at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, an agency manager said Monday. Workers are currently installing a leak-proof rubber liner in the inside of the tank at Saltstone Disposal Unit-7 (SDU-7) before testing of the facility […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General said there is not enough vetting of respirator maintenance for environmental cleanup workers at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, which increases the chance of employees being exposed to radioactive contamination. Decontamination and decommissioning contractor Fluor-BWXT has over 1,300 employees who rely on respirators as part of the […]

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan-Grisham (D) wants the Department of Energy to explain how its plan to dispose of some seven metric tons of diluted, weapon-usable plutonium at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant complies with environmental law, according to a recent letter. The tranche is part of the 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium that […]

Amid worsening winter weather in the western U.S., the Los Alamos National Laboratory called for a delayed opening on Tuesday after sending personnel home early on Monday.  Likewise, the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, ordered non-essential workers on two of three shifts to stay home on Tuesday, and told anyone who could telework to do […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state seems to be experiencing a surge in coronavirus infections in recent days with five more workers testing positive. That makes 11 new cases of COVID-19 among Hanford’s 11,000-member workforce since Friday. The DOE emergency operations website at Hanford posted a notice late Monday saying five employees […]