Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

The upcoming decommissioning of the Crystal River nuclear power plant needs more government oversight, some type of independent monitor, and better guarantees against cost overruns, a Florida government watchdog agency told the state Public Service Commission last week. “We ask you to order some modest changes” in the decommissioning contract, Charles Rehwinkel, an attorney for the […]

There remains no need to transfer management of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Department of Energy, the House Appropriations Committee said Sunday. The Trump administration proposed relocating the 46-year-old cleanup program in budget requests both for the current fiscal 2020 and for the […]

A 2021 spending bill up for debate today in the House Appropriations Committee would prohibit development of a proposed new nuclear warhead for the Navy while upping investments in infrastructure to produce new plutonium triggers — but not by as much as the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) wants. That is according to a detailed […]

A trio of major Energy Department nuclear cleanup sites targeted for fiscal 2021 funding cuts by the White House would be restored at least to current levels in the House of Representatives, according to newly released details of a committee spending package. The House Appropriations Committee on Sunday released the detailed legislative report for its […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) has replaced nearly 10,000 sprinkler heads at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, completing a $46 million retrofit of safety hardware last touched in the 1960s, according to a press release this week.  The new sprinkler heads, installed in six different facilities, replace some that were at or near the […]

The Army Corps of Engineers has slimmed the annual funding expected to be available for the next contract for cleanup of the Luckey Site in Ohio under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). In a second set of responses to vendor questions on the procurement, posted online Wednesday, the Army Corps said contractors […]

The Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky have received approval from the Energy Department to bring back additional personnel who have largely been off-site for months during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Your commitment to enhanced safety and deliberate restart of planned project activities has paved the way for moving to Phase 2 […]

The Senate has approved the nominations of Thomas Summers and Joyce Connery to seats on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The Senate approved the two by voice vote on July 2, according to the website Congress.gov. That came after both were nominated in May and then reported out of the Senate Armed Services […]

The Energy Department has delayed publication of a draft record of decision (ROD) for a new 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee by up to six months. Energy Department Office of Environmental Management officials at Oak Ridge agreed in April, after consulting with state and federal regulators, to push back publication […]

Community advisory boards for nuclear power plants in decommissioning benefit from being formed early in the process and with a clear framework for their operation, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report made public Thursday. The agency was required to prepare the report, on best practices for establishment and operation of the local panels, […]

A federal judge has delayed sentencing the former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who pleaded guilty to lying about his connection to a Chinese talent recruitment program, giving the defense attorney a chance to persuade the court not to send his client to prison. It is the second sentencing delay for Turab Lookman, who worked […]

The Savannah River Site in South Carolina as of Wednesday had confirmed 70 cases of COVID-19 among its workforce, the most known within the facilities of the Department of Energy nuclear complex. The Energy Department this week recorded the first COVID-19-related death among the site’s 11,000-person workers. Officials said Monday that an employee of operations […]

The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee needed just 30 minutes Tuesday to advance its latest funding bill for consideration by the full committee. Subcommittee members proposed no amendments to the $49.6 billion appropriations legislation covering the Department of Energy and other agencies, but did air complaints on matters including the level of nuclear-weapon […]

A spending plan advanced by the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee Tuesday would provide $50 million for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to clean up recently discovered contamination along a nearby public road. The money for investigation and remediation of an area along DP Road in Los Alamos County would […]

A nuclear medicine specialist is taking over as head of BWX Technologies’ medical isotope business after a stint as an adviser to a rival company. Martyn Coombs will on July 20 succeed Tom Burnett as president of BWXT ITG Canada, according to a press release Monday. Burnett is retiring. Coombs will assume profit and loss […]

William Goldstein confirmed Tuesday he will retire as director of the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, as soon as the nation’s second nuclear-design facility finishes the potentially lengthy search for a replacement. Goldstein became the Livermore, Calif., lab’s 12th director on March 31, 2014. He joined the lab’s Physics Directorate in 1984 and […]

Although they withstood bid protests in April, winners of two multibillion-dollar contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state still have not received Department of Energy notices to proceed to the jobs. Neither Hanford/s new support services contractor, nor the new contractor for cleanup of the Central Plateau, have gotten the go-ahead yet, an agency […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) three major production sites have returned to normal operations with maximum telework even as cases of COVID-19 rise again around the nation. This means many support services workers are back on-site at the nuclear-weapon facilities, even while people who can easily work remotely continue to do so. A spokesperson […]

Navarro Research and Engineering faces no challenges to Energy Department contract it won last month for a potential 10-year, $350 million contract to continue providing environmental services at the Nevada National Security Site. The Energy Department awarded the contract to the incumbent on June 17. The window for protest to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) […]

A House Appropriations panel on Monday followed through with its promise not to grant a $20-billion budget request for civilian nuclear weapons programs in a fiscal 2021 spending bill that would also forbid preparation for a nuclear yield-test, limit Pentagon influence on Department of Energy budgets, and potentially slow development of a proposed new nuclear […]

The Senate last week adopted language that would scale back, but not eliminate, some of the new oversight and influence the chamber’s Armed Services Committee proposed to give the Pentagon over civilian nuclear weapons budgets via the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). On Thursday, the Senate unanimously adopted an amendment from Sens. Maria […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is still investigating whether any of 15 employees working on plutonium-238 oxide were internally contaminated with the material last month after the apparent puncture of a glove-box glove. “Fifteen Laboratory workers are being evaluated for potential exposure. The area inside the Plutonium Facility where this occurred has […]

The Energy Department last week said it plans up to yearlong extensions to existing contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state for management of underground tank waste and laboratory testing services. Washington River Protection Solutions’ (WRPS) long-term contract, now valued at about $7.8 billion, could be extended to Sept. 30, 2021, according to a […]

The House Appropriations Committee indicated Monday it plans to fund the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management at $7.46 million for fiscal 2021. The nuclear cleanup funding is roughly equal to the amount appropriated for fiscal 2020, which ends Sept. 30, and an increase of $1.4 billion from the request submitted in February by the […]

The Energy Department confirmed Monday that an employee of the prime contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has died as a result of COVID-19. “I regret to inform you that we have lost a member of the SRNS [Savannah River Nuclear Solutions] team to a COVID-related death,” SRNS President and CEO Stuart […]

The commonwealth of Massachusetts’ court challenge to the transfer of the federal license for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station is being dismissed with prejudice, which would prevent it from being refiled. The parties to the petition for review filed the dismissal agreement on June 30 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would receive its full budget request for the upcoming 2021 federal fiscal year via the House Appropriations energy and water development legislation unveiled Monday. That covers $849.9 million for the core operations at the federal regulator, plus just under $13.5 million for the NRC Inspector General’s Office. That would be good […]