Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

A coalition of local communities surrounding the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is apparently back in the good financial graces of the Energy Department after repaying nearly $16,000 in grant money. Earlier this year, the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) repaid the agency $15,767 for expenditures questioned  in a September 2019 report […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on Wednesday approved the latest financial assurance cost estimate for closure and post-closure activities for radioactive waste facilities operated by Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County. The three commissioners spent only a couple minutes discussing the matter before their unanimous vote, and asked no questions of TCEQ staff. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped state-federal “holistic” negotiations over major environmental remediation issues at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The talks between DOE, the state, and the Environmental Protection Agency are occurring remotely, Washington state Department of Ecology spokesman Randy Bradbury said in an Aug. 11 email. The talks began in […]

In an order as bristly as the late Wilford Brimley’s legendary mustache, a federal judge on Tuesday postponed the sentencing of a former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who pleaded guilty to lying about his connection to a Chinese government program. Sentencing had been set for today in U.S. District Court for New Mexico, and […]

The Democratic Party’s candidate for the congressional seat representing Texas’ 11th District this week emphasized his opposition to potential storage of radioactive spent nuclear fuel in the region. “One thing I’m particularly concerned about is the plan … to bring in highly radioactive nuclear waste from 100 nuclear power plants across the country, to store […]

Employees for the Energy Department’s remediation contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio were advised recently that they would face a 14-day self-quarantine following travel to a handful of states hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a July 29 memo to employees, Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth said anyone who visits states listed in Ohio’s travel […]