Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is preparing for its third virtual job fair of the summer, coming to a computer or connected device near you on Aug. 26. The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time, according to an announcement from the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency. Those interested […]

Robert Wilkinson and Amy Basche, the two top executives for the current support services contractor at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, will remain in charge of its successor. A DOE hosting page for the Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) website cites Wilkinson as president and general manager and Basche as chief operating […]

Democrats do not explicitly endorse a no-first use policy for nuclear weapons, according to a leaked draft of the 2020 platform that crystalizes their pitch to voters ahead of the November presidential election, but they come about as close as they could. The draft party platform says Democrats “believe that the sole purpose of our […]

Thomas Summers, a former Air Force officer confirmed last month by the U.S. Senate for a post at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), will be sworn in on Monday. Summers will be vice chairman of the federal health-and-safety watchdog for defense-nuclear sites, DNFSB Manager of Board Operations Tara Tadlock said in a Wednesday […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board asked Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette for an in-person meeting by “early fall” to discuss a possible memorandum of understanding about a  now two year-old DOE order that limits the agency’s contact with the board. This summer, DOE finalized changes to Order 140.1, adding congressionally mandated language requiring that […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory blamed a new type of glovebox glove for a June 8 incident that exposed at least one person, and likely more, to radioactive contamination from plutonium 238, the independent federal Defense Nuclear Nuclear Facilities Safety Board reported. Alarms sounded in Los Alamos’ PF-4 Plutonium Facility after a lab Actinide Material Processing […]

Four people employed by Nuclear Waste Partnership, the prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, tested positive for the coronavirus over the weekend. The Amentum-BWX Technologies venture said in a Tuesday press release that three of the people showed no symptoms when tested and were already in quarantine due […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management announced this week that Nicole Nelson-Jean, a familiar face in the weapons complex, will become head of field operations at the end of the month. A 28-year Energy Department employee and member of the senior executive service, Nelson-Jean now manages the Savannah River Site field office in South […]

An Energy Department effort to disallow $15.4 million in fees to Leidos-led Mission Support Alliance can go forward, the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals ruled recently. The services vendor at the Hanford Site in Washington state asked Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) for summary judgement against the agency’s attempt to disallow $15.4 million in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has pushed back to this fall the expected submission of a report on the potential path forward for two rules proceedings for disposal of radioactive waste, a senior official said Tuesday. Earlier this year, the report had been anticipated this summer. “That’s being pushed back slightly. It’ll probably be in the […]

All spent fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California has been transferred to dry storage, majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE) said Friday. The dry-storage pad at the retired nuclear power plant in San Diego County now holds roughly 3.5 million pounds of fuel rods in 123 canisters. Fifty canisters store […]

Four more workers at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state have tested positive for novel coronavirus 2019, the agency said Monday. An additional 12 workers have undergone testing for COVID-19 and are awaiting results, according to an announcement on the Hanford website. The announcement did not state whether the individuals work directly for […]

If any of the factors that led to the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee shipping mislabeled radioactive waste to Nevada are present elsewhere in the Department of Energy complex, the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments did not find them in a year of looking, according to a recent report. The complex-wide evaluation“did not find […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a series of additional webinars to discuss its draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for a planned facility in New Mexico for storage of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. In the document issued in March, staff at the federal regulator said the Holtec International project would largely have […]

The Energy Department is extending the public comment deadline from Sept. 26 until Nov. 27 on a plan for on-site disposal of vitrified low-activity waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Aug. 6 notice from DOE did not cite a reason for the 60-day extension. The agency on May 26 started taking comments […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management expects to stay busy with procurements during the remainder of 2020. The nuclear cleanup office intends to roll out up to six final requests for proposals (RFP) between now and December, according to a quarterly update posted Monday by the Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center. The Energy Department […]

A building at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico used for performance tests on non-nuclear nuclear-weapon components opened back up for its regular work schedule Monday, following a a COVID-19 deep-cleaning. Sandia announced last week that one person in Building 720, home of the Ion Beam Laboratory, tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease […]

The United States must find an innovative solution to its growing inventory of radioactive waste even as it takes steps to strengthen its nuclear power sector, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said Wednesday. Whitehouse focused his comments and questions on the waste issue during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on Chairman John Barrasso’s […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week it plans to conduct a new, broad environmental review of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Livermore’s last such review, officially known as a site-wide environmental impact statement, was in 2005. The new review will cover operations for the next 15 years. In that time, […]

Waste Management Symposia (WMS) said Wednesday it has selected industry veteran Susan Walter as managing director, in charge of planning the nonprofit organization’s annual conference in Phoenix. Walter’s appointment takes effect immediately, according to a press release. She succeeds Jan Carlin, -who stepped down in May after more than two-and-a-half years in the position. “We […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday kicked off procurement of the next Savannah River Site management and operations contract with a request for information from industry about the award that will fund the Aiken, S.C., facility’s biggest nuclear-weapons programs. The agency will sort out the value, duration, and exact form of the contract after hearing […]

A day after the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico had mostly reopened Building 823 after a case of COVID-19 among its workforce, the Department of Energy facility had to close down Building 720 after the disease caused by the novel coronavirus 2019 popped up there as well. Building 720, which houses the Ion Beam […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will be published on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the ExchangeMonitor’s publishing recess in the second and third full weeks of August. The regular daily publishing schedule will resume on Monday, Aug. 24.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week preliminarily cited NextEra Energy with violating federal regulations in mischaracterizing a shipment of radioactive waste from its Point Beach Nuclear Plant in Wisconsin. The incident would constitute a “White” breach, representing low-to-moderate increased safety significance, according to an Aug. 3 letter to Michael Strope, site director for NextEra Energy […]

The Senate overwhelmingly approved Mark Menezes as deputy secretary of energy on Tuesday, despite opposition from some nuke-wary Democrats. The 79-16 vote elevates the current undersecretary of energy to the No. 2 position at the nuclear weapons, waste, and energy agency, though Menezes’ swearing-in had not been announced at deadline Wednesday. All but two of the […]