Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

The Senate voted 96-0 Wednesday night to approve a $2 trillion relief package to battle the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout. The House of Representatives will vote Friday on the measure, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) President Donald Trump is expected to sign the measure soon afterward. This would mark Congress’ third legislative […]

Centrus Energy Corp. closed out 2019 by boosting revenues and trimming its losses from the prior year, but management said the COVID-19 pandemic has for now dimmed the company’s hopes of returning to profitability in 2020.  On Tuesday, the Bethesda, Md.-based uranium-fuel broker and centrifuge developer reported a 2019 net loss of about $16.5 million, […]

Top Navy officials have not seen any shipyard delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic yet, but they are expecting and planning for future issues. “[T]o date we haven’t seen any sort of perturbations in that right now but we are anticipating that there will be, and we’re looking at what that might cost with respect […]

CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley in New York state is, like other nuclear remediation vendors for the Energy Department, decreasing its work to “mission-essential” tasks for the near future due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Daily on-site staffing at the West Valley Demonstration Project was decreased effective Monday, and many employees will “telework to the extent […]

The Department of Energy plans to issue a potential four-year, $1 million contract for consultant Jeffrey Trent to assist in “hot commissioning” of the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The notice for the planned no-bid contract was posted earlier this month by the Hanford Office of River Protection on a […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on Tuesday followed its sister site, the Lawrence Livermore lab in California, into minimum safe operations amid the worsening the COVID-19 pandemic. As of Tuesday evening, there were no confirmed cases of the viral disease at either facility.  On Monday, Los Alamos posted a memo from Director Thom […]

Negotiators agreed to language on a $2 trillion economic stimulus bill to help the nation combat the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, CNN and other national news outlets reported. The specific language of the bill had not been released at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. At press time it […]

The Energy Department and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Tuesday increased the amount government procurements officers can pay on “micro-purchases” and “simplified’ acquisitions in order to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The updates are outlined in an emergency purchasing flexibility document posted by DOE. The federal procurement officers can […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a March 30 “virtual meeting” to discuss the results of its latest performance assessment for URENCO USA’s commercial uranium enrichment plant in Eunice, N.M. The assessment period covered the entirety of 2018 and 2019. Agency staff determined URENCO did not need to make improvements in five operational areas: safety […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., is taking a reduced number of waste shipments following a recently concluded maintenance outage. The underground disposal facility for defense-related transuranic waste is accepting “limited shipping to support critical operations within the DOE complex while observing COVID-19 precautions through consultation with our stakeholders,” a DOE […]

The Waste Management Symposia on Tuesday said both attendees at this year’s event who showed signs of possible COVID-19 infection had tested negative. Test results for “Attendee #1” were received Tuesday, one day after the results for “Attendee #2,” according to a statement from James Gallagher, chairman of the board for the annual nuclear cleanup […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) wants a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Energy to further improve the contentious relationship between the federal agencies. That would be an additional measure on top of DOE’s revision to the controversial Order 140.1 that revised its interactions with the board. The revision comes after Congress last […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday it expects shortly to decide on a request from New Mexico’s congressional delegation for more time to submit comments on a key document for a planned spent nuclear fuel storage facility in the state. “An announcement should come soon,” agency spokesman David McIntyre said by email. In a draft […]

The organizer of a major nuclear cleanup and waste industry conference held earlier this month said Monday one participant has tested negative for COVID-19 after a potential exposure. Results from testing of one other participant are pending, possibly by today, according to Waste Management Symposia. “We hope to receive the results of the first attendee […]

The containment vessel that blew a leak during a subcritical nuclear test last year in Nevada was not properly designed or procured, the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory concluded in a final report about the accident. The independent federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) summarized the lab’s unreleased report in a recent […]

The Energy Department on Monday reported the first case of COVID-19 among the workforce at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, which is now being downshifted to “minimum mission-critical activities.” Management at SRS management learned of the positive test Monday morning, according to a DOE press release. “During this period, activities that support our […]

The ongoing stock market dive triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic marks the latest bad news for Fluor, which still has not filed its annual report for 2019. Fluor shares were worth $5.93 at market close Monday, down from $13.78 one month earlier on Feb. 24 – prior to the New York Stock Exchange decline caused […]

South Carolina’s attempt to wrench hundreds of millions of dollars in plutonium-related fines from the Department of Energy is headed to oral arguments before a panel of appeals judges May 5, according to a Friday court filing. South Carolina has been trying to extract the money from DOE and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

The defense industrial base is considered part of the United States’ critical infrastructure by the Department of Homeland Security, and as such has a “special responsibility” to maintain normal work schedules amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, according to a memo written March 20 by the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer. In the memo, Undersecretary of Defense […]

Decommissioning and spent-fuel offloading will continue at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), but with added safety measures to prevent any transmission of COVID-19, according to majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE). “We’re monitoring the situation very closely, on a day-to-day basis, with plans in place to ensure the appropriate levels of safety and […]

The Navy on March 19 awarded Lockheed Martin a $601 million modification to exercise contract options for submarine-launched ballistic missile Trident II D5 production and deployed systems support. The work will mostly be performed in Magna, Utah (33.5%); Sunnyvale, Calif. (13.7%; Denver (10.6%); Cape Canaveral, Fla. (6.9%); and other various locations. It is expected to be finished […]