Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

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 […]

The Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remediation Action (UMTRA) project in Utah as of Tuesday was the sole Energy Department Office of Environmental Management nuclear cleanup site maintaining normal operations during the COVID-19 crisis. The project’s two work sites are “fully operational” while following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to minimize the risk of […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is giving the public additional time to comment on a proposed regulatory update that would ease the path for disposal of very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW) in commercial landfills. The deadline has been pushed back from April 20 to July 20, agency spokesman David McIntyre said by email this week. Very […]

Essential federal workers, including those at National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plants that have not paused operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, should have access to protective equipment and daily testing for the virus, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Tuesday. “Every day, if you go to work at the White House, you […]

Two Department of Energy contracts held by subsidiaries of Idaho-based North Wind Group, together valued at over $277 million, are due to expire by the end of this year. North Wind Solutions has a $232 million contract to operate the Transuranic Waste Processing Center at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The five-year contract, which […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has canceled an upcoming public meeting on decommissioning of the SM-1A reactor at Fort Greely, Alaska, and is eyeing other possible impacts to the project from the COVID-19 pandemic. “The team made this decision based on the interest of public health and in accordance with recent Department of Defense, […]

A couple of smaller vendors to the nuclear industry say they are prepared to help clients withstand the current COVID-19 pandemic. UniTech Services Group, a provider of personal protective equipment for the nuclear industry in North America, last week predicted no “service disruptions” through the second quarter. “We’re going to take the right preventative measures […]

The Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., was preparing Monday to move some of its workforce back on site, even as the host counties for two other Department of Energy facilities in the state faced new difficulties from the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the two DOE nuclear weapons laboratories in New Mexico, Sandia has been locked […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee is initiating a public exchange of letters with senior Trump administration officials regarding the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2021 nuclear-weapon budget request.  It is one of the committee’s so-called “paper hearings,” invented to prevent public gatherings during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This session, which includes leadership from DOE and the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved its first exemption authorizing a nuclear power plant to exceed federal limits on work hours to ensure it remains operational during the COVID-19 pandemic. The April 3 approval was filed one day after Exelon Generation submitted the request for its Limerick Generating Station in Montgomery County, Pa. The document […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday provided a large swath of its licensees with an overview of options for relief from federal nuclear safety rules as they strive to sustain operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency addressed a letter to licensees authorized to hold byproduct, source, and special nuclear materials, excluding operating commercial nuclear […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spending from its Nuclear Waste Fund balance slipped below $100 in February, according to the agency’s monthly report to Congress. The outlay of $97 for unspecified program planning and support left the agency with a balance of $430,881 from the fund intended to pay for federal disposal of high-level radioactive waste from […]