Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Issue watchers debated Wednesday whether the secret nuclear weapon discussed in Bob Woodward’s new book about President Donald Trump is the W76-2 low-yield warhead. According to a leaked passage from the Watergate journalist’s soon-to-be-published book, Rage, Trump told Woodward in an interview, sometime between December and July, that “I have built a nuclear — a […]

The Air Force’s award on Tuesday to Northrop Grumman [NOC] of a contract for the next-generation ICBM system for the Air Force has given teammate L3Harris Technologies [LHX] an entrée into the service’s training market for global strike systems, L3Harris said on Wednesday. L3Harris said it will do system and software design for at least eight training systems, building […]

A top official with the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management declined Wednesday to specify when a new subcontractor might be selected to finish building a new underground ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. “It is certainly a high-priority for us,” Todd Shrader, DOE’s principal deputy assistant secretary for environmental […]

The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) said Tuesday the final, conferenced version of the fiscal year defense authorization likely won’t be completed until after the Nov. 3 election. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the outgoing HASC ranking member, noted the conference committee will need to particularly work on settling differences between the […]

A panel of specialists at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected a petition from a pair of Texas-based oil and gas interests to reopen its case for a hearing in the licensing of Holtec International’s planned spent-fuel storage facility in New Mexico. The three-member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) essentially decided that Fasken Land […]

Used nuclear fuel management specialist NAC International could face civil penalties for failing to adhere to federal regulations in updating the design for one of its storage casks, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The federal agency cited two apparent violations on Sept. 3 in submitting the findings of a February 2020 routine inspection of […]

Companies interested in managing the two main civilian nuclear-weapon production sites under a potential 10-year, $28-billion contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration will be allowed to visit the facilities on Sept. 22 and Sept. 24. The agency announced in June that it would not pick up further options on incumbent Consolidated Nuclear Security’s contract […]

Longenecker & Associates said Tuesday it has signed an agreement with South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., which should help students there start careers in the Energy Department’s weapons complex. South Carolina State, founded in 1896, is the only historically black college or university in the United States to offer a bachelor’s degree in […]

Deputy Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes is scheduled Friday to visit two Wisconsin companies that aim to help re-establish the United States’ production capacity for the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). Menezes will tour facilities at SHINE Medical Technologies in Janesville and NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes in Beloit, and meet with executives from both companies, according to […]

Fluor Corp. said Tuesday it has discovered more errors in past financial statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the Texas-based Energy Department contractor reported in an SEC filing that a major creditor and trustee, Wells Fargo Bank National Association, last month asserted a “notice of default” against Fluor for failing to […]

The White House’s request to Congress for exemptions to be included in a likely stopgap spending measure covers procurement of two Columbia-class submarines and development of the W93 submarine-launched nuclear warhead, according to documents. The list of “anomalies” for a continuing resolution arrives as the administration and congressional leadership have agreed on a tentative deal […]

As expected, the Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to build the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, the next generation of nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, under a nine-year contract worth $13.3 billion over nine years.  The Air Force announced the new contract late Monday. Last year, the service ballparked the award at around $25 billion. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) should stop managing the Y-12 National Security Campus and the Pantex Plant under a single contract, a Washington, D.C.-based group representing localities that host Department of Energy nuclear-weapon sites said Tuesday. “[D]oes one contract between two very different sites still make sense?” Seth Kirshenberg, executive director of the Energy […]

The Energy Department on Tuesday issued a request for information (RFI)/sources-sought notice for companies interested in the next decontamination and decommissioning contract at the Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio. The current remediation work is being done by Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth under a $3.8 billion award that started in March 2011 and is currently slated to run […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will consider a bill this week that would tighten the secretary of energy’s control over the National Nuclear Security Administration. H.R. 8159, the ‘‘Department of Energy Organization and Management Improvement Act,’’ would make the change by amending the National Nuclear Security Administration Act to say that “Each officer or […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in July continued to keep a tight rein on spending down its balance from the federal fund intended to pay for a nuclear waste disposal facility. The agency used just $335 for unspecified program planning and support, according to its latest monthly spending report to Congress. That left it with an […]

The Navy’s top acquisition official, James Geurts, told reporters last week if there is a continuing resolution (CR) before the next budget is finalized, the service would need an anomaly to keep the Columbia ballistic missile submarine program on schedule. It has become a near-certainty that Congress will need at least one stopgap measure to […]

With two of its own fire trucks out of service, the management contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico is leasing vehicles from local communities. One of WIPP’s two fire trucks had problems with braking and shifting into gear and a second vehicle was leaking fluids, according to a […]

Another federal lawsuit has been filed against current and former contractors that have performed either uranium enrichment or environmental operations at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Pike County Ohio. The class action complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio seeks almost $10 million in damages for an alleged […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published Monday, in observance of Labor Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

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 […]