Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

Top executives for contractors at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state don’t know when staffing will return to normal amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but said last week changes are being made to protect employee health. The combined federal and contractor workforce at the nuclear cleanup complex is roughly 11,000, but only 20% to […]

An article in Monday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing incorrectly indicated a new Department of Energy procurement on mixed and low-level waste treatment services would replace existing providers of disposal for such material. The contracts are separate.

With most of the ballots counted in Tuesday’s special election in California’s 25th Congressional District, it appears businessman and former Navy fighter pilot Mike Garcia is in position to retake the seat for the Republican Party. Wednesday morning news reports gave Garcia a double-digit lead, 56% to 44%, over Democrat Christy Smith, a member of […]

The COVID-19 scare that shut down construction of the Surplus Plutonium Disposition project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina lasted about two weeks, with work resuming in mid-April, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Tuesday evening. “On April 6, an SPD [Surplus Plutonium Disposition] construction worker called in sick.  In an abundance […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined there would be no significant environmental impact from a 40-year license renewal for the spent fuel storage pad at the retired Humboldt Bay nuclear power plant in California. Owner Pacific Gas & Electric “is proposing no changes in how it handles or stores spent fuel at the Humboldt Bay […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Tuesday reported a $112.3% increase in revenue for the first quarter of 2020, even as the COVID-19 pandemic began to hit its business. Sales rose from $11.7 million in the first quarter of 2019 to $24.9 million in the three-month period ending March 31 of this year, according to a press […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory is set today to begin testing its own employees for COVID-19, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy facility in northern New Mexico confirmed Monday. The local Los Alamos Reporter broke the news Monday. Los Alamos is the second National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) nuclear weapons lab to begin testing. […]

The North Access Road Bypass at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico opened to traffic on Friday. The $9 million, 3-mile bypass connects north and south access roads for the DOE site and directs other traffic away from the underground disposal facility, particularly the construction area on the surface for […]

The 2019 closure of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts drove a major revenue drop that put Entergy Wholesale Commodities’ income into the red for the first quarter of 2020, parent company Entergy Corp. said Monday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the 10-Q filing, the New Orleans-based power company […]

Voters decide today in California’s 25th Congressional District who will serve out the remainder of a term that came open when Rep. Katie Hill (D) resigned last November. Democrat Christy Smith, a member of the California State Assembly, and Republican Mike Garcia, a businessman and former Navy fighter pilot, are facing off in the election […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee thinks its version of the annual policy-shaping National Defense Authorization Act (NSAA) could pass the upper chamber before the Fourth of July holiday, a committee aide confirmed Monday afternoon. Politico reported Monday that the GOP-controlled panel plans to mark up its version of the bill the week of June 8. […]

Centrus Energy Corp. on Monday reported $9.3 million of net income in the 2020 first quarter, up from a loss of more than $20 million a year ago, as revenue improved to $45 million from just under $40 million a year ago, That comes out to earnings of $0.95, on a diluted, per-share basis, up […]

The COVID-19 pandemic in April halted construction on the Savannah River Site’s Surplus Plutonium Disposition Project: the replacement for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility that will help the U.S. government dispose of 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) called a stop-work on the project in the second week […]

Two more staffers at Department of Energy headquarters buildings in and near Washington, D.C., have tested positive for COVID-19, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Friday. One of these people works at the Forrestal Building in downtown Washington, another in the DOE’s Germantown building in suburban Maryland, according to the statement from Brouillette. The Forrestal […]

Experiments resumed at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California in late April, following a COVID-19 shutdown, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said late Friday. The high-powered laser facility’s MShock series of tests resumed with a shot on April 26, followed by more shots that week, the semiautonomous Department […]

Centrus Energy, which is developing a new uranium enrichment cascade for the Department of Energy, is scheduled to report first-quarter 2020 earnings today after U.S. markets close. The Bethesda, Md., nuclear fuel supplier has scheduled a conference call for 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday on the earnings report for the quarter ended March 31, according […]

The Energy Department expects to issue a final request for proposals this month for the Idaho Cleanup Contract, according to a procurement update made public Thursday. The potential 15-year, $6.4 billion agreement will replace Fluor Idaho’s nearly $2 billion, five-year deal that runs through May 2021. It would also replace Spectra Tech’s roughly five-year, $45 […]

Nearly 120 people tuned in to a recent online presolicitation conference to learn more about a planned stand-alone contract for management of the Energy Department’s Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in South Carolina. Representatives for universities, consultants, and DOE contractors ranging from small shops to major corporations participated in the April 28 event on the […]

Fluor on April 30 received a Justice Department subpoena seeking various documents relating to charges reported by the company during the second quarter of 2019, according to a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC in February launched an investigation into Fluor’s financial reporting and accounting during 2019. The Justice Department now […]

US Ecology on Friday said a freeze on all discretionary spending and reduced travel are among the cost controls instituted earlier this year as part of an effort to save tens of millions of dollars in annual expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The tightened spending was among a triad of money-saving measures announced in March, […]

Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) name was misspelled in an article in the Wednesday issue of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.

Engineering giant Jacobs said Wednesday it took in $3.4 billion in revenue during its fiscal 2020 second quarter, up from the $3.1 billion generated during the same period of 2019, despite moving most of its worldwide workforce to telework. Thanks to rapid action since the beginning of the crisis, Jacobs expedited the shift of its […]

There are now three confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, the latest involving an employee of cleanup contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation, according to an online bulletin. The individual, whose last day at work was April 14, recently received a positive diagnosis for novel coronavirus 2019, CH2M HILL […]

The Government Accountability Office has recently rejected protests against two multibillion-dollar contracts at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state – and that’s not unusual. During fiscal 2019, the government watchdog sustained only 13% of the 2,071 bid protests resolved during the 12-month period, according to a November GAO report to Congress. In […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has decided it will not further extend the public comment period for an environmental review of the planned pit production plant at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Last month, at the request of constituents organized by the Santa Fe advocacy organization Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Sens. […]

The Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico temporarily closed parts of the MESA complex where it produces radiation-hardened microelectronics for nuclear weapons after someone working there tested positive for COVID-19. However, the labs network said it planned to reopen Buildings 858N and 858EF on Thursday morning, after shutting them down for deep cleaning. Sandia is […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is giving the Department of Energy a little more time to respond to a recommendation against proceeding with proposed changes to federal nuclear safety management rules. “The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has received your April 27, 2020, letter requesting a 45-day extension to provide a response regarding […]