Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Pentagon is keeping a close eye on nuclear weapons life-extension programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) during the COVID-19 pandemic, but to date there have been no signs of any delays, a senior Defense Department official said Wednesday. “I don’t believe that there have been any COVID-related implications to the life-extension programs,” […]

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, New Mexico’s members of the U.S. Senate are urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend its review of the license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in their state. From Aug. 20 through Wednesday, the federal regulator conducted four webinars on its draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for Holtec […]

Holtec International is seeking approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a new quality assurance program for its current and future fleet of nuclear power plants in decommissioning. The fleet decommissioning quality assurance program (DQAP) from subsidiary Holtec Decommissioning International would replace separate programs in place at the retired Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in […]

The superintendent for the Scioto Valley Local School District in Pike County, Ohio, is asking the U.S. Department of Energy to help underwrite the cost of a new building to replace a middle school adjacent to the Portsmouth Site. Zahn’s Corner Middle School has been closed since May 2019, after Northern Arizona University researchers concluded […]

The Senate delegation from Massachusetts looks set to retain it tag-team of nuclear disarmament advocates into the next presidential term, now that Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) has defeated Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) in a Democratic primary in the blue state. The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth at deadline had not released the official results […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Wednesday morning officially green-lit the Los Alamos National Laboratory to make 30 war-ready warhead cores in 2026 for next-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles. Under the long-expected decision, the northern New Mexico weapon-design laboratory “will produce a minimum of 30 war reserve pits per year for the national pit production […]

China has more than 200 nuclear warheads and about enough fissile material on hand to make at least that many more, according to a report published Tuesday by the Department of Defense. Doubling that stockpile is exactly what Beijing is likely to do over the next 10 years, the Pentagon stated in the 2020 version […]

The Amentum-led prime that manages the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has terminated a $135 million subcontract for construction of a new ventilation system. Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) on Monday announced the dismissal of Critical Applications Alliance (CCA) from the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) project. The contractor said it […]

The prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico has now confirmed a total of 23 COVID-19 cases among its employees, bringing the site-wide count to 28 to date during the pandemic. In a memo sent to employees Monday, President and Project Manager Sean Dunagan said Nuclear Waste Partnership […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California received a VIP visit from the head of U.S. Strategic Command this week, as it continues to work on the warhead-refresh for the airborne leg of the triad. Navy Adm. Charles Richard visited the Livermore, Calif., weapons laboratory on Monday, as wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic continued raging through […]

Analysis of soil samples taken along the route of a planned toll road around the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant show radioactivity levels well within regulatory limits, according to a report from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). The agency shared major findings of its 28-page study last month with entities […]

The Energy Department on Monday issued its final request for proposals (RFP) for nationwide low-level and mixed low-level waste treatment services. The agency could award more than one basic ordering agreement (BOAs) for the work, according to the document. The agreements will have a five-year ordering period, and task orders must be completed within six […]

The draft solicitation for continuing environmental cleanup of the uranium mill tailings in Utah should be issued by early October, the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management said Aug. 24. The draft request for proposals for the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project should hit the streets within 45 days, which translates to […]

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chairman Bruce Hamilton is resigning from the panel, effective early this month, the agency said in a press release late Monday. Hamilton has submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump, according to a one-paragraph announcement. The panel’s vice chairman and newest member, Thomas Summers, will step in as acting chairman. […]

Stakeholders must finally accept that the long-planned, long-delayed nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev., is dead and needs to be replaced with a new approach, according to a former senior official with the Department of Energy. “The sooner everyone agrees to pull the plug on Yucca Mountain, the sooner the United States can move […]

To settle a lawsuit filed in 2016, the federal government will pay $600 million to South Carolina in recognition of the Department of Energy’s inability to remove several metric tons of plutonium from the state by a legal deadline of 2022, state and federal officials said Monday. The money will come from the Treasury Department’s […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should consider additional safety measures for its proposed update on rules for disposal of “very-low-level” radioactive waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The federal regulator currently on a case-by-case basis allows land burial of this waste type in municipal and hazardous waste landfills that are not licensed for disposal […]

Orano USA’s new transport cask is being put to use for shipment of low-level radioactive-waste generated by decommissioning of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The first shipment of reactor internals from the plant within a MP197HB transport cask arrived recently at the Waste Control Specialists radioactive waste disposal facility in Andrews County, Texas, according […]

The Department of Energy is scheduled on Sept. 30 to end an emergency program to reimburse contractors for paid leave provided certain employees who cannot work on-site during the COVID-19 pandemic. A provision included in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act signed into law in March provided for reimbursement to key government contractors, such as those […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette is scheduled for an official visit to South Carolina today, during which he and the state’s attorney general are expected to announce a major financial settlement in a $200-million lawsuit over weapon-usable plutonium stored at the Savannah River Site for about a decade. Two people with knowledge of the secretary’s […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has scheduled a webinar next week to offer details on its plan to ship some material currently classified as high-level radioactive waste from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to a facility in West Texas licensed for low-level waste. The online session is set for 11 a.m. […]

Southern California Edison has about 110 employees remaining at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) following the latest round of layoffs earlier this month, according to a senior site official. The utility transitioned the retired power plant in San Diego County to an independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI)-only property on Aug. 10, SONGS […]

Exelon Generation Co. on Thursday said it would retire two nuclear power plants in Illinois over the next 15 months, years if not decades ahead of the expiration of their federal licenses. The Byron Generating Station in Ogle County will shut down in September 2021, followed by the Dresden Generating Station in Grundy County in […]

Some 1,500 people showed up online Wednesday to check out job opportunities in the nuclear security enterprise during the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) third virtual job fair of the summer. Roughly 2,000 people registered to attend by providing resumes and other information, and most of those got at least some virtual face time with […]

In his newly created role as chief operating officer, Thomas Mooney will focus on key projects at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. This is “a pivotal time for the cleanup mission,” and Mooney will assist incoming Environmental Management Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations (EM-3) Nicole Nelson-Jean in keeping the focus […]

A new cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office on the potential cost of a U.S. nuclear-arms buildup shows the New START treaty should be renewed, according to two senior Senate Democrats. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that withdrawing from the last remaining U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control treaty could lead the federal government to spend […]