Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Boeing on Wednesday reported a loss in its second quarter, but not quite as bad as a year ago, as sales fell sharply on fewer commercial aircraft deliveries due to continued weakness in the 737 MAX passenger jet program, temporary shutdowns of some facilities in the spring, and the ongoing impacts to airlines from the novel […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)  still plans to produce the first copy of a refurbished Navy submarine warhead in 2021, and the first copy of a refurbished nuclear gravity bomb for the Air Force in 2022, a senior official with the civilian nuclear-weapon agency said Wednesday. Those were the new dates, announced in February, […]

“Many” of the nearly 250 National Nuclear Security Administration employees confirmed to have caught COVID-19 are believed to have been infected while teleworking, the head of the Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency said Tuesday. While NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty did not say how many of the confirmed cases involved transmissions outside of an agency site, each […]

A deal could be approaching to resolve the state of Pennsylvania’s concerns about the planned sale and decommissioning of the long-retired reactor Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. In a letter Monday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) asked to be given until Aug. 10 […]

An estimated 750-acre wildfire on the Nevada National Security Site was reported close to “100 percent containment” late Tuesday, after burning for at least two days. “No injuries reported, and no impact to mission facilities or assets,” according to a Twitter post for the Department of Energy nuclear-weapon complex. The site first acknowledged the fire […]

Raytheon Technologies on Tuesday said it swung to a loss in the second quarter largely due to a slump in commercial aerospace triggered by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s defense businesses performed well. The commercial outlook remains weak and the company has achieved its cost savings synergies for the year. Sales in the quarter […]

Not long ago, the Energy Department anticipated operational startup this year of the long- awaited Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory – but the new target is September 2021. That is the anticipated date for “full-fledged operation,” as opposed to testing, of the plant intended to treat 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing […]

Edison International and subsidiary Southern California Edison on Tuesday reported a significant drop in earnings for the second quarter of 2020, even as the parent company remained firmly in the black. Sale of fuel from the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) helped offset the non-core loss per share at Southern California Edison (SCE), […]

Another nine employees at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington Site reported Tuesday they have tested positive for the novel coronavirus 2019. This notification on the Hanford website came after the Energy Department confirmed eight new cases of COVID-19 within the workforce at the former plutonium production complex on Monday, plus seven over the […]

An article in the Tuesday edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing misstated plans by Exelon and FirstEnergy Corp. for their respective reactors at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.

International Isotopes has agreed to a pre-decisional enforcement conference with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over apparent breaches of federal regulations and its license in connection with the May 2019 spill of cesium-137 at a hospital research building in Seattle. The teleconference is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, Aug. 4. The meeting notice […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Monday it has promoted a longtime manager to the position of executive vice president of waste treatment operations. The Board of Directors for the Atlanta-based waste management company approved Richard Grondin’s appointment on July 22, also making him an executive officer, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. […]

The House Rules Committee on Monday delayed by one day writing rules of debate for a package of fiscal 2021 appropriations bills that includes funding for the Department of Energy. The committee is scheduled to take up H.R. 7617 at 11 a.m. today. That would keep the lower chamber on pace to this week approve […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has voted 4-1 to approve an exemption for some emergency planning requirements for the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The commissioners’ votes and comments were collected during the past couple weeks, and posted Monday to the NRC website. Commissioner Jeff Baran cast the sole vote against the exemption. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) should either delay by a year its promised delivery date for the proof-of-concept unit of the next-generation nuclear cruise-missile warhead, or justify why it won’t, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Citing congressional requirements and Pentagon schedule demands, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency promised to […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Thursday dismissed the two challenges to the potential $13-billion Tank Closure Contract at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, but it is unclear if this spells victory for the BWX Technologies-led team that won the award. Three sources said Monday the congressional auditor dismissed the challenges filed […]

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). […]