Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

One of the 11 confirmed COVID-19 cases at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico was at its Plutonium Facility (PF-4), which the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is relying on to produce war-ready plutonium pits starting in 2024. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) mentioned the case at PF-4 in a report […]

One new and one returning member were sworn in Monday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Serving Commissioner David Wright now gets a full five-year term, through June 30, 2025. Commissioner Christopher Hanson fills a vacancy left by the April 2019 retirement of Stephen Burns, with his term lasting through June 30, 2024. NRC Chairman Kristine […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday it will prepare a full environmental impact statement (EIS) on Westinghouse’s application to renew the license for its Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. The EIS would replace a draft environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact issued last October by the federal regulator. The agency changed […]

The B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb the National Nuclear Security Administration is building will work with the Boeing-built F-15E Strike Eagle, the Sandia National Laboratories said last week. “Sandia National Laboratories and the Air Force conducted the full-weapon system demonstration under a full end-to-end test scenario, demonstrating operational crews, representative carriage, release conditions and weapon functionality,” […]

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) in Canada could by September begin preparing to drill test boreholes in one of two locations still in contention to house a geologic repository for spent fuel from the nation’s nuclear power plants. At least two boreholes will be drilled in South Bruce, in southern Ontario, as part of […]

A very small percentage of the Department of Energy’s federal employees were scheduled to report back to work in the Washington region today, even as the agency reported one more  case of COVID-19 among its headquarters workforce. The latest positive case, disclosed Friday in a statement from Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette, brings the total […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has re-elected Huntington Ingalls Industries nuclear and environmental group President Michael Lempke as chairman of its Board of Directors for another year, according to a Friday statement. Sandra Fairchild, project services and support director of Energy Department Savannah River Site cleanup contractor Savannah River Remediation, was elected vice chair […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management will cut contractors some slack when it comes to work deadlines missed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a policy that became official last week. The Energy Department “will continue to evaluate COVID-19 impacts on the ability of contractors to perform required work,” according to the formal […]

Mission Support Alliance has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a subcontractor to build a new water treatment facility on the Central Plateau at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. In a June 2 notice posted on a federal procurement website, the Leidos-led site support services vendor said bids are due by […]

The fire chief for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has died, contractor Mission Support Alliance announced this week. Norbert Kuhman had served in the position since February 2014. Management of the 145-person Hanford Fire Department is part of Leidos-led MSA’s contract to provide support services at Hanford. Kuhman spent more than […]

North Wind Services unseated Akima Infrastructure Services as the manager of a specialized workforce subcontracted to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, the prime contractor for the Department of Energy facility said Monday. In a press release, Lawrence Livermore National Security said the new contract with North Wind, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, has five-years […]

A federal judge in South Carolina has dismissed the $3.5 million racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee of the security provider at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site. U.S. District Judge Sherri Lydon ruled May 28 that plaintiff Marcialena Tremble Brown missed the deadline to file her case against her former employer, Centerra-SRS. […]

The latest issue of the annual Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment of major defense acquisition programs outlined remaining risks to the design and on-time production of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN). In its Defense Acquisition Annual Assessment, published June 3, the GAO noted while the Navy reports the nuclear reactor technology as mature since 2018, “several […]

The American Nuclear Society is urging the federal government to proceed with a moribund update to regulations on recycling of spent fuel from nuclear power plants. “While no new reprocessing facilities are planned in the United States at this time, this in itself should not be the rationale for suspending rulemaking,” ANS Executive Director and […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) might lose credibility in the eyes of Department of Energy site host communities if it does not explain its opposition to proposed changes to federal nuclear safety standards in plain words, a community interest group said.  “It would be in the best interest for sites and communities to […]

A radiation-sensing helicopter owned by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) flew over mass protests in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, but was not part of the federal government’s response to the activity on the ground, an agency spokesperson said Wednesday morning. “NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) rotary-wing aircraft conducted a routine proficiency flight on […]

Bechtel National earned $5 million of the potential $7.87 million 2019 fee for ongoing construction on the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Energy Department said Tuesday. By claiming an overall score of “good” and winning roughly 64% of the maximum available fee for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, […]

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday introduced legislation that would require President Donald Trump to extend the New START nuclear arms control treaty with Russia. The measure, which would need a veto-proof majority to become law, would require Trump to extend New START unless Russia “is not […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is allowing an Oregon utility during the COVID-19 pandemic to delay mandatory physical requalifications for security personnel at the spent fuel storage pad for a decommissioned nuclear power plant. Portland General Electric Co. received notice from the regulator on May 28. The document was posted to the NRC website on Tuesday. […]

While the outcome of the Republican primary remained uncertain Wednesday morning, Teresa Leger Fernandez has apparently won the Democratic Party nomination to succeed Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) as the House member for the congressional district covering the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. Leger Fernandez, an attorney with deep New Mexico roots and endorsements […]

Nuclear fuel management specialist NAC International said Tuesday it has hired a longtime Duke Energy manager and executive as its director of fuel cycle consulting. David Culp will head the Peachtree Corners, Ga., company’s “consulting activities related to the nuclear fuel cycle,” according to a press release. He will report to Michael McMahon, NAC’s vice […]

Cold War nuclear waste will pile up at the Los Alamos National Laboratory under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to make nuclear-weapon cores there, the New Mexico Environment Department told the agency last month. In six pages of comments about the plan, the state agency also challenged the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) March […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico has entered Phase 1 of its gradual return to normal operations, which have been reduced for months during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said Tuesday. Like nearly all of the 16 nuclear cleanup sites overseen by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the transuranic waste disposal […]

A weekend wildfire on Gable Mountain in Washington state, near the Energy Department’s Hanford Site , been brought under control, officials said Monday. The fire was ignited Saturday night by a lightning strike and burned about 9,000 acres before being contained by 8 p.m. local time Sunday night, said Reneé Brooks, spokeswoman for contractor Mission […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in April spent just $84 of its remaining balance from the federal fund intended to pay for a radioactive waste repository. As has been the case each month for more than a year, the agency used the money for unspecified “program planning and support.” The expenditure left it with a Nuclear […]

Department of Energy headquarters plans to partially reopen on June 8, when about 250 federal employees will be asked to return to the Forrestal Building in Washington and the agency’s Germantown facility in Maryland, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Monday. The initial reopening will apply only to federal employees doing mission-critical work at headquarters, […]