Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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, […]

State and federal lawyers are dotting “i’s” and crossing “t’s” on a settlement that would end the lawsuit over the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) 2018 shipment of weapon-usable plutonium to Nevada. In an order posted Friday, Judge Miranda Du of U.S. District Court for Nevada gave the parties until June 29 to tweak the […]

Energy Department documents addressing issues from research needs to employee benefits at the Savannah River National Laboratory have been added to a federal procurement website. The DOE Office of Environmental Management in April published a draft request for proposals (RFP) for the potential 10-year, $3.8 billion stand-alone lab contract. Comments on that draft RFP were […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina as of Tuesday had confirmed 23 cases of COVID-19 among its workforce. That is up from 22 reported at the end of last week. Sixteen of those employees have recovered and returned to work, a spokeswoman for the DOE’s SRS operations said by email. Savannah River […]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, vendors to Columbia-class prime General Dynamics Electric Boat might be a few months late delivering missile tubes for the next-generation ballistic missile submarine, the Navy’s program executive officer said Monday. “[T]hat did hit us hard on the missile tubes, to the extent of probably a couple months delay in the […]

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is accepting nominations for experts to a new panel that will write reports on the nuclear fuel cycle and waste issues linked to advanced nuclear reactors. Nominations are due by June 11, according to the National Academies. The experts will “evaluate and assess (1) the merits and viability […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) last week gave the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee the all-clear to start building a key piece of equipment needed to move uranium secondary-stage work out of the aging Building 9212 and into the under-construction Uranium Processing Facility. The new calciner, to be built in 9212, reached its […]

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Friday released the House’s summer schedule, which shows the majority of June will be used for committee days for members to focus on major legislation to be passed before the end of the fiscal year. In a Dear Colleague note, Hoyer highlighted the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization […]

Some of the Energy Department’s largest nuclear cleanup sites are calling more employees back to the jobsite, but asking them to travel solo to help limit the potential spread of COVID-19. Officials for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, along with the company building the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) still has not received the nearly quarter-million personal respirators it ordered from a small business in Georgia, due to “order and shipping backlogs,” an agency spokesperson said Friday. Under a fixed-price contract, signed April 27 and now valued at $415,000, American Dream Builders LLC was by May 29 to […]

Some of the United States’ radioactive spent fuel could be recycled for use in advanced nuclear power reactors, but the nation still needs a long-term repository for the waste, according to the head of the industry policy organization. Used nuclear fuel retains 95% of its original energy, Nuclear Energy Institute President and CEO Maria Korsnick […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina continued to do 22 “essential supporting activities” during a period of dramatically reduced operations forced by the COVID-19 pandemic during April and May, according to information provided to a local watchdog group. Savannah River Site Watch Director Tom Clements said he received the list from a […]

A new federal strategy for strengthening the United States’ nuclear energy industry will pay dividends in promoting global nonproliferation, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Friday. “Our nation’s credibility as a supporter of nonproliferation depends upon a robust civilian industry and our technological leadership in the global marketplace,” he said during a webinar organized by […]

The Department of Energy confirmed Friday three more cases of COVID-19 among the workforce at its Washington, D.C., headquarters. Two of those three people had not been in the Forrestal Building in downtown Washington since “early March,” and a third was last on-site on May 22, according to a notice from Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. […]

Good news for those who might want a job with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA): although an in-person job fair scheduled for July is officially canceled, the agency will host a virtual event online. “Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we will not be hosting an in-person job fair in July [but] will be hosting […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management on Wednesday released the final request for proposals for the potential $6.4 billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract. The solicitation covers environmental remediation at the Idaho National Laboratory, as well as spent fuel management there and at the retired Fort Saint Vrain nuclear power plant near Platteville, Colo. The […]

The United Steelworkers union is sharply opposing a proposal to ease Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules for disposal of “very low-level” (VLLW) radioactive waste in landfills. “The United Steelworkers asks the NRC to withhold issuing this proposed rule and strongly urge you to reconsider. The minimal monetary costs this rule may reduce is not worth the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving ahead with a set of updates to its oversight of dry-storage pads for spent nuclear fuel, including downshifting the schedule for standard inspections to once every three years. The agency intends this year to complete the revisions to its independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) inspection program, with all […]

Some government fleet vehicles were vandalized and stolen from a commuter parking lot frequented by National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) contractors traveling to and from the Nevada National Security Site, according to the Department of Energy inspector general. The mischief happened prior to October 2018, when somebody told the agency watchdog that people were using […]

The Donald Trump administration intends to nominate Lucas Polakowski, a former officer at U.S. Strategic Command, to be the top civilian in the Pentagon’s program to counter weapons of mass destruction. The White House announced its intent to nominate Polakowski on Wednesday for the post of assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological […]

The federal government and the firm it hired to build a now-canceled plutonium recycling plant have one year to settle allegations that the contractor defrauded the Department of Energy, or the case will go before a jury later that year, according to a Wednesday court filing.  In 2019, The Justice Department alleged CB&I AREVA MOX […]

The Department of Energy announced Wednesday that the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is starting a “safe and deliberate process to resume operations” scaled back two months ago to curb the spread of COVID-19 among its workforce. In the same news release, the department said a 19th case of COVID-19 had been confirmed at […]

The Energy Department intends to keep security contractor Centerra Group on the job at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina into 2021, according to a Tuesday procurement notice. The current deal with Centerra ends Oct. 7, but now will be extended through Feb. 7, 2021. The Energy Department can also exercise two additional four-month […]

A longtime federal attorney was sworn in Wednesday as inspector general for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Robert Feitel succeeds Hubert Bell, who retired in December 2018 after 22 years in the position. As inspector general, Feitel now leads an office with a yearly budget of about $13 million and a mission to conduct audits and […]

There is about one month left on the temporary indemnity determination the Department of Energy allowed nuclear-weapon sites to add to their management and operations contracts after the COVID-19 pandemic forced mass telework in mid-March. The determination, which Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette issued on March 26, will lapse on June 30. The decision specified […]

Two runners-up for a potential $13 billion tank closure contract at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state filed protests Wednesday with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Hanford Tank Closure Co. and Tank Closure Partnership LLC both objected to DOE’s May 14 award to Hanford Works Restoration, which is comprised of BWX Technologies, Fluor, […]