Publications: Morning Briefing

A former employee of energy technology firm Holtec International said in a federal lawsuit Monday that she was forced to resign in January in the face of harassment and illegal practices on medical and family leave. Gereka Bracey is seeking reimbursement for lost earnings, punitive damages, damages for emotional distress, and legal costs, according to […]

The Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories started offering limited COVID-19 tests for its employees last week, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory could start testing this week, according to a senior state official. Sandia is for now only testing federal employees, contractors, and subcontractors at its Albuquerque campus, a spokesperson for the weapons-engineering lab […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) believes it can safely continue building the Uranium Processing Facility, and operate it starting this decade, after taking a court-ordered look at federal earthquake data from 2014. In a lawsuit filed by environmental groups, the U.S. District Court for Eastern Tennessee last year ordered the semiautonomous Department of Energy […]

Vendors have until Thursday to file important paperwork for two significant procurements from the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management. Barring another extension, bids are due by 4 p.m. ET for the potential five-year, $250 million support services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Incumbent Swift & Staley’s existing five-year, $192 million landlord contract […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has acceded to a request from three senior members of Congress to delay collection of fees from licensees for 90 days amid the COVID-19 pandemic. All invoices for annual fees scheduled to be issued for the third quarter of fiscal 2020 will now go out on July 22, NRC Chairman Kristine […]

The Energy Department has applied for renewal of the state permit to operate the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The New Mexico Environment Department issued the current Hazardous Waste Facility Permit to DOE and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership in late November 2010. The state agency has said it has no timetable for […]

The members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday unanimously approved a license for the Department of Energy to export nearly 5 kilograms of weapon-grade uranium to Europe for production of medical isotopes. The four commissioners offered no comments on the matter before or after the roll-call vote on the memorandum and order. The document […]

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it has no plans for a public hearing on the Department of Energy’s waste acceptance criteria for the On-Site Disposal Facility being built at the Portsmouth Site. The document is available online, an agency spokeswoman noted by email. “There is no requirement for a public hearing,” Heidi Griesmer […]

The Idaho congressional delegation last week urged Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to prioritize preparation of spent nuclear fuel at the Idaho National Laboratory for shipment out of state by the end of 2034. The Energy Department should follow the U.S. Navy’s lead in getting spent fuel at INL “road ready,” the lawmakers said in a […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee will continue to work toward its goal of completing its version of the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act markup by the end of May, but remains flexible “because of the uncertainty associated with the coronavirus in the weeks ahead,” spokeswoman Marta Hernandez said in the statement last week. “At […]

Environmental and construction services provider APTIM on Friday announced its second new chief executive officer in a year. Mark Fallon will assume the CEO position on April 20, according to an APTIM press release. He succeeds Michael Donnelly, who was appointed chief executive officer in April 2019 and is retiring. “We are pleased to welcome […]

Waste Control Specialists on Sunday noted a slowdown in shipments from some customers during the COVID-19 crisis, but said its disposal facility in Texas remains open for business. The drawdown of some federal facilities to essential operations “has delayed some planned waste shipments,” President and Chief Operating Officer David Carlson told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing […]

The Department of Energy on Friday reported three more cases of COVID-19 among its workforce in the Washington capital region, including the first confirmed case at the agency’s Germantown, Md., building. That brings the total confirmed number of cases at DOE headquarters to at least eight, according to a series of statements the agency has […]

S&K Federal Services, a small tribally owned business based in Montana, has received a potential five-year, $22 million contract to provide technical support services to the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management. The office said in a Wednesday press release the S&K contract supports the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) in Cincinnati and small […]

Federal and contractor employees for the Hanford Site in Washington state should be particularly vigilant about cyber threats while they work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Energy Department said this week. An Energy Department spokesperson said last week that 60% of Hanford’s 11,000-person workforce was telecommuting following the March 31 transition to essential […]

The members of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Wednesday unanimously approved the next steps in revising state regulations to reduce one charge for disposal of low-level radioactive waste in a state-owned facility operated by Waste Control Specialists. The vote by the three-member panel sets up publication and a hearing on the amendment to […]

The state of Montana has delayed until May final publication of new rules on landfill disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) waste in landfills. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality had planned to issue its notice of adoption this month, but has pushed that back to May 29 due to the COVID-19 […]

The Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state is under court order to demonstrate it can convert low-activity tank waste into glass by the end of 2023, and effectively do the same thing for high-level waste by the end of 2033. An article in the Wednesday Weapons Complex Morning Briefing misstated the […]

With COVID-19 cases in and around the sites on the rise, the Y-12 National Security Complex and Pantex Plant are transitioning to mission critical operations and kicking out just about everyone who wasn’t already teleworking. There are at least two confirmed cases of COVID-19 at Y-12, the Oak Ridge, Tenn., defense-uranium hub where contractor Consolidated Nuclear […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee called off an exchange of letters and statements about the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget that was scheduled today between lawmakers and top managers from the agency and the Pentagon. The so-called paper hearing was scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. The committee had not announced a makeup date […]

The current COVID-19 public health emergency, which has laid waste to scheduled events great and small, is delaying plans to sample for potential radiological contamination around a Pike County, Ohio, middle school near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site. Officials from the DOE Office of Environmental Management said during a March industry conference in Phoenix they […]

Long-anticipated talks between the Energy Department and Washington state on remediation milestones at the Hanford Site could go forward remotely. “We are moving forward on holistic negotiations, but when they might start depends on the availability of the [federal] mediator, and how successful we are at kicking off the negotiations through remote communications,” Randy Bradbury, […]

Because of COVID-19, the management and operations contractor for two of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapon-production sites may not know until June whether it will be kept on the job into 2023 and what fee it earned last year. “Due to the ongoing COVID-19 national emergency, the contractor notification date for the CNS […]

The Pike County, Ohio, Board of Commissioners says local residents should have a chance to review waste acceptance criteria for the On-Site Waste Disposal Facility being built at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site. The Energy Department and cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT recently sent a draft of the Waste Acceptance Criteria Implementation Plan, which specifies the types […]

Pennsylvania’s top environmental official on Monday expressed deep reservations about plans for the expedited decommissioning of reactor Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The reactor famously operated for only a few months before partially melting down in March 1979. It never resumed service. Nuclear services firm EnergySolutions plans to buy the […]

A employee at Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C., has died from COVID-19, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette announced Tuesday. News of the he death, the first confirmed COVID-19 fatality at DOE, hit while the agency logged more cases at defense nuclear sites. “I regret to share with you that we have lost a […]