Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

There are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among U.S. nuclear forces, and fewer than 50 people supporting that interservice group are self-quarantining because of possible exposure during the global pandemic, the head of U.S. Strategic Command said Tuesday. “[W]e have zero people in STRATCOM headquarters or in the components that have tested positive, so I […]

Three employees at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state are undergoing testing for novel coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19), according to updates posted Tuesday on an employee advisory website. It was not clear from the post if the three included the employee of Hanford services contractor Mission Support Alliance who last Thursday was scheduled […]

Nevada and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) are attempting to resolve the state’s federal lawsuit seeking the immediate removal of 500 kilograms of weapon-usable plutonium from the Nevada National Security Site, court papers filed Tuesday show. To comply with a court order in a separate federal lawsuit, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons […]

President Donald Trump will nominate a familiar face, Joyce Connery, to serve a new term on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), the White House said Tuesday morning. If confirmed by the Senate, Connery would serve a term expiring Oct. 18, 2025, according to the intent to nominate announcement. Initially nominated by President Barack […]

Organizers of a nuclear waste and cleanup industry event held last week in Phoenix said Monday that one participant has subsequently been tested for coronavirus infection and another is self-isolating for 14 days after developing flu-like symptoms. There was no word at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing on whether one or both of the […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is transitioning to minimum-safe operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a move that by next Monday will sharply shrink staffing levels and curtail some scientific activity at the Department of Energy nuclear weapons facility. Livermore Director William Goldstein made the announcement Monday night after the government of […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has kicked off market research for a new contract to operate depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center issued the request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice Monday. The Energy Department is […]

The Department of Energy is still preparing a report to Congress on “innovative options” for meeting its legal requirement to dispose of tens of thousands of tons of U.S. nuclear waste. “The Department is currently working on the report, and we’ll follow up once it’s public,” a spokesperson said by email Monday. The spokesperson did […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management could tap the brakes on a trio of major procurements due to the ongoing national emergency surrounding the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Due to travel restrictions and other uncertainty spawned by the outbreak, the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) said in a special notice Saturday it might […]

A California regulator has authorized Southern California Edison to withdraw $405.5 million this year from the trusts that will pay for decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The March 6 decision from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) overrules a challenge from a state watchdog organization, even though Southern California Edison acknowledged […]

On top of the $6.5 billion required to build the Uranium Processing Facility by 2026, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will have to spend nearly $1 billion to modernize other facilities needed to support the next generation weapon-uranium hub, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The spending figure comes from an integrated master […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is soliciting bids for a potential five-year contract, encompasssing a one-year base and four single-year options, to store low-enriched uranium required for tritium production. The semiautonomous Department of Energy branch, civilian steward of the U.S. nuclear weapon stockpile, released the solicitation Thursday. The agency wants new deals in place […]

A federal judge last week rejected a request to dismiss a February 2019 fraud lawsuit against a former contractor and subcontractor for the Department of Energy’s never-completed plutonium recycling plant at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Project prime MOX Services and subcontractor Wise Services failed to explain why the case should be thrown […]

An office building used by one of the main contractors for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has been disinfected after an employee was tested for the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), according to a weekend posting on a Hanford website. The office building at 3170 George Washington Way “has been disinfected […]

James Taiclet will become president and  chief executive officer of aerospace and defense titan Lockheed Martin, of Bethesda, Md., effective June 15. He will succeed Marillyn Hewson, who has led the company since 2013, according to a Monday press release. Taiclet, who came up in the defense industry through Pratt & Whitney and was later […]

Idaho continues to assess $6,000 in daily penalties against the Department of Energy for failure to treat 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory, and the total is approaching $7.8 million, a state official said last week. The penalties will continue until the lab’s the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) […]

Energy Harbor Corp. on Friday said it had reversed its decision to retire the two reactors at its Beaver Valley Power Station in Pennsylvania. The announcement came just weeks after the former FirstEnergy Solutions emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a new name and no longer owned by FirstEnergy Corp. Management notified regional power transmission […]

Naval Sea Systems Command on Thursday awarded Fluor Marine Propulsion a $1.776 billion modification for naval nuclear propulsion work at the Naval Nuclear Laboratory. Work will be split between Schenectady, N.Y. (52%), Pittsburgh (31%), Idaho Falls, Idaho (11%), and Charleston, S.C. (6%). The Navy did not disclose how long the contract runs through or what additional […]

House appropriators got their first crack at acting Environmental Management head Ike White on Wednesday, when they promised the interim cleanup manager that proposed cuts to legacy nuclear waste cleanup will not stand — especially not at the Hanford Site. The script is familiar by now, written at the beginning of the Donald Trump administration’s […]

Interested bidders for the Energy Department’s potential five-year, $250-million support services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky have received an additional two weeks to submit a proposal. The agency announced the delayed deadline, from March 19 to April 2, Tuesday on the website for the procurement. On the website’s question-and-answer section for the contract, […]

Radiation monitors for the public went online Tuesday at the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), majority owner Southern California Edison announced Tuesday. Three gamma radiation monitors were installed on the San Diego County property in response to long-running public calls for ways to check for potential radiation leaks from spent fuel in dry-cask […]

PHOENIX — Demolition of the X-326 Process Building at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio should begin this fall, managers said here Wednesday. Cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT finished deactivating the facility, disconnecting the utilities and making the structure “cold and dark,” in 2019, DOE Portsmouth Site Lead Jeff Bettinger said at the Waste Management […]

A facility planned for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico could produce more nuclear-warhead cores while generating less transuranic waste than the plutonium pit factory planned at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to environmental documents published this year by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The agency aims to manufacture […]

An article in the Wednesday edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing should have said the Energy Department expects within weeks to issue a draft request for proposals for management of the Savannah River National Laboratory.

There are no known cases of COVID-19 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory after an employee who reported exposure to the novel coronavirus tested negative for the disease, a lab spokesperson said Wednesday. “We’ve had no cases, confirmed or presumptive,” the spokesperson wrote in an email Wednesday evening. Livermore managers became aware last week of […]

PHOENIX — The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is no longer producing a public roundup of solicitation timelines for cleanup jobs within the nuclear weapons complex, a procurement official said here Tuesday. “We no longer have a procurement schedule on the website,” Norbert Doyle, EM deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and program management, […]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) latest legislative push to establish a pilot program for interim storage of radioactive waste got stuck in Senate gridlock this week when the big, bi-partisan energy bill stalled out amid a fight about climate change. Feinstein’s proposal was one of many amendments being balled up into a legislative package known as […]