Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The Energy Department is so far rejecting requests to extend the Aug. 10 deadline for bids on the contract to operate the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. Multiple potential bidders requested more time in question-and-answer documents published by DOE last week and Monday. Some asked to move the proposal deadline to late August, […]

The number of coronavirus infections among employees who work for the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state continues to grow. Eight employees reported to management Monday they have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the DOE Hanford website that provides regular updates on the virus at the former plutonium production site. No additional information, […]

The management prime at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has resumed downblending plutonium at the K Area after operations were suspended in 2019. Workers for site manager Savannah River Nuclear Solutions started downblending plutonium in the K Area in 2017, but the operations were paused last year for an extensive maintenance […]

FirstEnergy Corp. CEO Chuck Jones on Friday acknowledged the power company remains a focus of the federal bribery probe over state legislation that provided a financial bailout for two nuclear power plants in Ohio. The Department of Justice last week announced racketeering charges against Ohio Speaker of the House Larry Householder (R) and four associates. […]

The Department of Energy confirmed five new cases of COVID-19 among the staff of its Washington, D.C., area headquarters, including someone who was at the office recently, in a statement posted online Friday. That makes at least 20 cases among the Washington DOE civil service, most of whom work in either the Forrestal Building in […]

A recent audit by the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General found that a major vendor at the Hanford Site in Washington state, Mission Support Alliance (MSA), is not meeting its agreed-upon small business contracting commitments. The Leidos-led vendor, which provides landlord services at the former plutonium production complex that range from road maintenance to […]

The House of Representatives is scheduled this week to debate its $49.6 billion energy and water appropriations legislation as part of a larger seven-bill spending “minibus” for fiscal 2021. The House’s posted floor schedule for the week does not provide the specific schedule for debate on H.R. 7617, the Defense, CJS, Energy and Water, Financial […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina disclosed late Friday that it now has recorded 183 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among its workforce, up by 52 from July 17. In the first update in a week on novel coronavirus 2019, the SRS website said 102 of the federal and contractor employees have […]

The COVID-19 pandemic “significantly impacted” earnings at Honeywell in the second quarter of 2020, the prime contractor for several major Department of Energy defense-nuclear sites said Friday. Company-wide, quarterly revenue fell almost 20% year over year to about $7.5 billion. Quarterly net income from continuing operations was down about 10% to just over $2.5 billion, […]

In a revised order, the Department of Energy has relaxed the firewall it attempted to erect between personnel at nuclear-weapon sites and the federal agency responsible for sniffing out potential threats to public safety from those operations. The Energy Department shared a draft of the revised Order 140.1 with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management plans to beef up its procurement staff to evaluate contract proposals. The nuclear cleanup office said in a July 16 press release it is launching an “acquisition corps” to increase its talent pool of procurement specialists at field sites and the Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC). […]

Orano TN said Wednesday it has promoted a vice president to the newly established position of chief commercial officer. Roger Maggi assumed the role this month after more than two years as vice president for aging management systems at the nuclear logistics subsidiary of Orano USA, according to his LinkedIn profile. “I want to thank […]

Another worker at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has tested positive for infection by novel coronavirus 2019, contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership said Tuesday. The site management prime confirmed the new case in a social media post on both Facebook and Twitter. The individual became ill July 11 and was subsequently […]

The lawyer for a disgraced former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who pleaded guilty to lying about his involvement with a Chinese talent-recruiting program said his client should not be sentenced to prison on the technical grounds that his deception did not amount to perjury, which under federal sentencing guidelines could carry harsher penalties than […]

The Energy Department said this week that demolition of 10 buildings is underway at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif. Teardown of a guard station marks the start of demolition of 10 deteriorating buildings at the Radioactive Materials Handling Facility (RMHF) complex agreed to in May by DOE and the state of […]

A pair of buildings at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico mostly reopened Tuesday after deep cleanings that followed one confirmed case of COVID-19 among regular facilities users. The one-day closure affected Building 983, which hosts the Z Pulsed Power Facility high-energy density physics operation, and Building MO321, an office trailer. Building 983’s High […]

Lockheed Martin on Tuesday posted double-digit percentage gains to its top and bottom lines in the second quarter, driven by strong operating results across its business segments. The company raised guidance for sales, earnings and cash for 2020. Lockheed Martin was able to shrug off negative impacts from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which it said […]

NAC International will provide the canisters that would hold radioactive waste in storage or disposal through Deep Isolation’s planned “horizontal borehole” approach, the two companies announced Wednesday. In a press release, Berkeley, Calif.-based Deep Isolation said it had sealed an extended cooperation deal with NAC, a spent nuclear fuel management specialist headquartered in Peachtree Corners, […]

The reactor pressure vessel for the decommissioned Unit 1 at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California has reached its final destination for disposal, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The federal agency noted the July 14 milestone in a report issued Monday from its latest inspection of the three retired reactors at […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries said Tuesday its operations for the Department of Energy would not be affected by the newly announced merging of two business groups. The corporate parent of Newport News Shipbuilding is combining two business lines within its Technical Solutions division: The previous Fleet Support and Mission Driven Innovative Solutions (MDIS) groups are becoming […]

Marshall Billingslea’s bid to become the Trump Administration’s top nuclear arms negotiator may not have been knocked off easy street yet, but it certainly encountered some potholes in his confirmation hearing Tuesday, where the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat said the nominee is stained by his support of torture and is generally unfit for […]

The Ohio Legislature’s speaker of the House and four others have been charged with funneling roughly $60 million in bribes and illegal contributions to a three-year secret campaign to subsidize two financially struggling nuclear power plants in the state. House Speaker Larry Householder (R), a political adviser, and three lobbyists face federal charges of racketeering […]

The House approved its version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act with a bipartisan vote Tuesday, supporting the Trump administration’s requested funding for nuclear-weapon operations at the Department of Energy. However, President Donald Trump threatened to veto the measure, over provisions including production of plutonium warhead cores and removing Confederate iconography from government property. The vote […]

The White House on Tuesday nominated a former staff member at the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board (DNFSB) to become a member of the panel. Matthew Moury has since June 2017 served as Energy Department associate undersecretary for environment, health, safety, and security. His nomination to the DNFSB will be considered first by the Senate […]

Low-level radioactive waste that was being carried in a railcar that caught fire in June near Chicago is now being transported by truck to Tennessee, according to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA). Transport of 42 intermodal containers started last week and is expected to wrap up this week, IEMA spokeswoman Rebecca Clark said by […]