Publications: Morning Briefing

The top members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Monday asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay collecting charges and fees from nuclear licensees for no less than 90 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member Tom Carper (D-Del.), along with Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), asked […]

The Defense Nuclear Safety Facilities Board (DNFSB) is urging its inspectors and staff to press their newly bolstered authority to inspect Department of Energy defense-nuclear sites, as codified by Congress last year. Congress, at least in the board’s interpretation, used the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 to short-circuit DOE Order 140.1, which was written […]

Radioactive waste management provider US Ecology said Tuesday it would cut tens of millions of dollars in costs this year to offset the economic uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Boise, Idaho-based company said in a press release that unspecified “cost control initiatives” should save $15 million to $20 million annually. A 30% cut […]

An employee who alleged age discrimination by the Energy Department’s liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has settled his federal lawsuit. In an order dated March 27, U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis said she has learned from the attorneys that Jeffrey Risher’s litigation against Savannah River Remediation has been […]

A subcontractor for the legacy environmental remediation vendor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has tested positive for COVID-19. The subcontractor for Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) is self-isolating at home and will not return to work until cleared by a medical provider, laboratory Director Thom Mason said in a […]

International Isotopes said Tuesday it would no longer provide radiological field services for the Department of Energy, after the federal agency put a hold on all existing contracts in the wake of a cesium-137 spill last May during a job in Seattle. “Regardless of the DOE’s future plans for field service contracts, it is unlikely […]

Department of Energy contractors and subcontractors, including those in the National Nuclear Security Administration, can be indemnified from damages arising because of testing for COVID-19, under a determination published Tuesday by Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.  The order also indemnifies contractors that plan to offer DOE computing facilities to scientists who want to model the […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is scheduled next week to consider updating its regulations to reduce a specific fee for disposal of radioactive waste at a state-owned facility operated by Waste Control Specialists. With approval from the commission, the curie inventory charge would be cut from $0.40 per millicurie (1/1000th of a curie) […]

A 6.5 magnitude earthquake shook Idaho at around 6 p.m. local time Tuesday, with the epicenter about 120 miles from the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed. “While ground shaking was felt, there was no damage to any INL facilities,” INL spokesperson Sarah Neumann said in a Wednesday email. It was […]

Two more staffers at the Department of Energy’s Washington, D.C., headquarters have tested positive for COVID-19, raising the number of confirmed cases at headquarters to at least three, the agency announced this week. At the same time, Sandia National Laboratories reported two more confirmed cases, one each among the workforce of its Albuquerque and California […]

The Energy Department is temporarily ramping down operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., because of the COVID-19 crisis, a spokesperson said by email Monday. By Wednesday, the transuranic disposal facility will be down to essential mission critical operations. This could include roof bolting and other work necessary “to ensure the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was urged Monday to extend consideration of updating its rules on disposal of very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW) in landfills until the COVID-19 crisis has passed, or to just end the proceeding altogether. Extending the comment period on the proposal for up to six months past the end of the pandemic […]

A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report update lays out how the COVID-19 pandemic could impact the Navy’s shipbuilding programs and noted what action Congress has taken in the past to mitigate other events. The report, Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress, was last updated March 27. It notes COVID-19 […]

The Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio, has a confirmed case of COVID-19, contractor Fluor-BWXT said on its website Friday afternoon. The environmental remediation vendor said it is following guidelines on controlling spread of the virus from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Ohio Department of Health. It is […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is allowing nuclear power plants to request exemptions from some staffing requirements to help ensure continuity of operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. “A sudden and potentially long-term reduction in available facility staffing, such as that which may result due to the COVID-19 (public health emergency), was not considered during the rulemaking […]

A second person has tested positive for COVID-19 at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge Tenn. The individual shared a work area with the first infected worker, the site said Monday. The second confirmed case at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) defense-uranium hub underscores how rapidly the disease can spread, and how […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) canceled or suspended contracts with International Isotopes after cesium-137 was accidentally released last year while the company was removing a blood irradiator under agency contract from a facility at the University of Washington in Seattle. The company, which wants indemnity under a federal law covering nuclear incidents, disclosed the development […]

The House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) markup will be delayed as the United States issues more guidelines to counter the COVID-19 pandemic. Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said March 30 that the committee has postponed the fiscal 2021 NDAA markup, originally scheduled for April 30. The postponement follows President Donald […]

Constellis, owner of Energy Department contractor Centerra Group, said Monday its lenders have approved an overhaul of the company’s debt package that should strengthen its balance sheet. The deal received consent from 100% of term loan and revolving lenders, according to a Constellis press release. As a result, Constellis is cutting its debt by about […]

The Pentagon has agreed to tidy up records of its responses to three Obama-era reviews of its nuclear infrastructure, personnel and programs, according to the unclassified version of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report from the fall. The three internal reports made hundreds of recommendations, but the Defense Department has done a poor job tracking […]

An article in the March 26 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing should have said that Centrus Energy sells natural uranium to short-term traders and utilities, and that it returns uranium feed components to the Russian refining company TENEX.

A longtime employee of the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has filed a lawsuit under the Americans With Disabilities Act against facility management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS). The case was filed Wednesday in the Second Judicial Circuit of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas by Richard Lusby, […]

The Kansas City National Security Campus is moving some of its workforce off-site to help cope with COVID-19, making it the latest Department of Energy civilian nuclear weapons site to expand telework during the pandemic. “To further protect our work force during the COVID-19 crisis, the Kansas City National Security Campus has reduced its on-site […]

President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law the $2 trillion relief bill to support national recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to nearly $100 million for the Energy Department’s Office of Science and semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to support research and development to help contain the fallout of COVID-19, at national […]

Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal suggested Friday that a foreign entity could be used for recycling of U.S. spent nuclear fuel. “If we don’t build a recycling plant in the United States, that’s OK, there are other entities that certainly could do this for us,” Baranwal said during a webinar hosted by […]

The Energy Department has again extended the deadline for bids on a potential five-year, $250 million support services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. In a notice published last week, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said proposals are now due by 4 p.m. EDT on April 16. Originally, proposals were due March 19 […]

Southern California Edison said Wednesday it is preparing to temporarily ramp down some decommissioning operations at the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in response to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The utility expects in the next few days to determine which deconstruction activities will be temporarily frozen and what work can continue, according to […]