Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

The COVID-19 health crisis is so far having only marginal impact on BWX Technologies, President and CEO Rex Geveden said Tuesday. That is largely thanks to the Lynchburg, Va.-based nuclear company’s “essential” role in energy, military, and medical sectors, Geveden said during the quarterly earnings call with Wall Street analysts. As an example, Geveden noted […]

AECOM aims to soon divest its stake in the decommissioning contractor for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California, Chief Financial Officer Troy Rudd said Tuesday. “We are … continuing to progress on our plan to exit our remaining self-perform at-risk construction businesses,” Rudd said during AECOM’s conference call on its latest quarterly […]

The two senators who ordered a report about the Donald Trump administration’s attempts to sell nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia said this week they would consider changing the law to mandate more transparency from the White House about such efforts. In a joint statement Monday, Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said […]

Centrus Energy CEO Daniel Poneman will receive the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from the Japanese government for his work as deputy energy secretary during the Barack Obama administration. Japan will recognize Poneman for “his contributions towards enhancing the relationship between Japan and the United States of America in the energy sector,” […]

The Army Corps of Engineers in April issued $140 million worth of contracts to small businesses for radioactive waste cleanup and other environmental remediation services. The contracts from the Army Corps’ Alaska District were awarded on April 22 and posted to a federal procurement website on April 28. They encompass a three-year base period, plus […]

While a team led by Huntington Ingalls Industries offered a slightly lower price to provide support services at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Energy Department awarded the contract to a Leidos-led venture because it submitted a better overall package, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Congress’ auditing agency on Tuesday posted a […]

A partial stop work order from the Energy Department at the Waste Treatment Plant being built at the Hanford Site in Washington state is scheduled to stay in effect through May 23, a manager for construction contractor Bechtel said last week. The order for the plant that will convert Hanford tank waste into a stable […]

The Senate on Monday voted 87-0 to confirm Department of Justice attorney Robert Feitel as the new inspector general for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Feitel succeeds Hubert Bell, who served 22 years as the industry regulator’s inspector general before retiring in December 2018. The vote was conducted shortly after 6 p.m., following a brief introduction […]

BWX Technologies brought in $542 million in first-quarter 2020 revenue, 30% more than the $416 million generated during the first three months of 2019. Net income for the period ended March 31 amounted to $75.5 million, $0.79 per diluted share, a significant year-over-year jump from $49 million, $0.51 per diluted share, the Lynchburg, Va.-based company […]

The state of South Carolina wants the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to prepare a full environmental impact statement before deciding whether to renew the license for Westinghouse’s Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF). The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) made the request in an April 27 letter regarding the federal regulator’s draft environmental […]

The White House on Monday shoveled 30 nominations to the newly returned Senate, including two for positions on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). Former DNFSB Chair Joyce Connery was nominated to serve a term ending Oct. 18, 2024, while Thomas Summers, former vice commander of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force […]

The Donald Trump administration on Monday nominated Marshall Billingslea, the former Treasury Department antiterrorism official nominally in charge of nuclear arms control negotiations, as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. Billingslea, as special presidential envoy for arms control, is already the point person for the White House’s more-or-nothing attempt to secure a […]

Attorneys for South Carolina and the Department of Energy are set to argue tomorrow before a panel of appeals judges about whether a lower court erred in not forcing the agency to pay the state hundreds of millions of dollars for storage of weapon-usable plutonium. Legal counsel were to argue over the telephone in the […]

AECOM, the former owner of what is now Department of Energy contractor Amentum, generated $3.2 billion in revenue during its second quarter of fiscal 2020, down from $3.4 billion for the same period a year earlier. Net income for the Los Angeles-based engineering and infrastructure multinational landed at $49 million, or $0.31 per share, for […]

Two major engineering and infrastructure companies, one a central player in the Energy Department nuclear cleanup business and another having just exited it, report earnings this week for the first three months of 2020. AECOM, the former parent company of Energy Department contractor Amentum, has scheduled its earnings conference for noon Eastern time Tuesday. Jacobs […]

Honeywell, which owns or has a stake in multiple defense-nuclear site-management contractors, did better than it expected in the first quarter of 2020, but sees economic headwinds due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Quarterly net income for the period ended March 30 rose to more than $1.5 million, or $2.21 a share, from around $1.4 […]

The Senate returns to Capitol Hill today, and the Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled a hearing Thursday to consider the nominations of three Pentagon officials. Ambassador to Norway Kenneth Braithwaite has been nominated to become the next Navy secretary, Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Charles Brown is nominated to become the next Air Force […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has knocked a year off its schedule for the review of SHINE Medical Technologies’ license application to operate its medical isotope production plant in Janesville, Wisc. The agency had expected it would need 36 months to complete the technical review after the application was formally accepted in October 2019. The anticipated […]

Staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has offered initial support for licensing a facility in West Texas for temporary storage of spent fuel from nuclear power plants. The recommendation is included in a draft version of the environmental impact statement for Interim Storage Partners’ planned consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in Andrews County. The document […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Department of Energy nuclear-weapon site closest to a major metropolitan area, is preparing for another month of stay-at-home orders in surrounding Alameda County, Calif., which has a high number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Livemore is still performing only essential national security work and still requires most of its […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is renewing a $14.4 million grant for New Mexico State University to continue environmental monitoring near the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office, which oversees WIPP, announced the five-year financial assistance Thursday to support the NMSU engineering college’s Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring & Research […]

The Air Force might deploy its Long-Range Standoff Weapon cruise missile earlier than anticipated, while the new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile should be ready on time, the head of the service’s Global Strike Command said Wednesday. Raytheon will build the Long-Range Standoff missile (LRSO), while Northrop Grumman looks all but certain to win […]