Publications: ExchangeMonitor Morning Briefing

WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee predicted Monday that nuclear-arsenal modernization will be “the most contentious issue” in the 2021 defense-spending debates beginning now on Capitol Hill. “[T]his is an enormous challenge,” Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said in response to moderator questions during a morning talk at the Brookings Institute. […]

Organizers of the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix are still holding the annual gathering next week despite public concerns over coronavirus (COVID-19), a spokeswoman said this morning. After a Monday meeting of the WMS executive management team, the decision was made to go ahead with the event – with added precautions to safeguard the health […]

A longtime nuclear industry executive has joined used fuel management specialist NAC International as chief strategy officer. William Gallo “will lead the development of business strategies, strategic partnerships, and acquisitions to drive NAC’s growth and profitability,” according to a press release Monday form the Peachtree Corners, Ga.-based company. President and CEO Kent Cole said Monday […]

The Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup official at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico has called it a career. Doug Hintze’s last day as manager of DOE’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office was Friday, an agency spokesman confirmed Monday. Hintze spent more than 12 years in supervisory positions for the Office […]

As budget hearing season ramps up in Washington, D.C., hearings of a different kind are scheduled elsewhere in two court cases touching the nuclear security enterprise: one involving a former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist who pleaded guilty to lying about ties to China, another involving weapon-usable plutonium sent to Nevada for safekeeping. First, Turab […]

Jury selection and trial are slated for late June in a $75,000 negligence lawsuit against the management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. According to a scheduling order filed Friday, Henry Bradley’s case against Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) will head to trial on or after June […]

Future efforts to secure Russian nuclear material left after from the Cold War are likely to bear little resemblance to the gold-standard programs of the past, if any get off the ground in the current era of significantly worsened relations between Washington and Moscow, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report last week. […]

President Donald Trump intends to nominate a Democratic Party staffer on the Senate Appropriations Committee to fill a vacancy on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the White House announced Friday. There was no word from the White House regarding the schedule for the formal nomination of Christopher Hanson. Hanson said by email Friday he had no […]

Voters in California’s 25th Congressional District will begin to determine Tuesday who might succeed former U.S. Rep. Katie Hill (D) and represent an area adjacent to a major nuclear cleanup site. The district, which includes parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, has been without a congressional representative since Hill resigned Nov. 1 rather than […]

Two of the Senate’s reliable nuclear skeptics last week asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the budget increase the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking for the 2021 fiscal year. Among other things, the pair want the GAO to determine why the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency’s Weapons Activities budget needs a […]

In light of the nation’s focus on high-end threats and near-peer adversaries following release of the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS), the Air Force is taking a new look at its requirements, including the number of B-21 stealth bombers it will need, according to service officials. Will Roper, the Air Force’s head of acquisition and […]

An Energy Department working group is still grappling with recommended changes on management of the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program for communities around nuclear facilities, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Thursday. During a hearing of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, the secretary promised to personally brief Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) on […]

The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday began to ink the contours of the 2021 nuclear weapons budget fight to come, when the panel’s chair wondered why the White House wants to give the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) a $2.5 billion raise with the agency sitting on $8 billion in unspent appropriations. The White […]

Operations at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project in Utah resumed within just a few days earlier this month after a truck overturned while carrying a load of waste, an Energy Department spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. A truck carrying a container of uranium mill tailings rolled onto its side while rounding a corner […]

A former head of the prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, Philip Breidenbach, will lead the vendor team in charge of managing liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Amentum, the successor to AECOM’s government contracting branch, announced Thursday that Breidenbach will replace Tom […]

Jeff Griffin, the associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, is leaving to take a post with the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories in Chalk River, Ontario. Griffin’s departure, effective March 11, was announced in an email sent to staff members Tuesday from Environmental Management Principal Deputy Assistant […]

US Ecology posted net income of $33.1 million on $685.5 million in revenue for 2019. That translated to income of $1.40 per diluted share, the Boise, Idaho-based waste management provider said Wednesday in its latest earnings report. By comparison for 2018, the corporation tallied $49.6 million in net income on revenue of $565.9 million. US Ecology’s Environmental […]

The Department of Energy wants $20 million in fiscal 2021 for operations to lay the groundwork for the eventual consolidation and temporary storage of nuclear waste now dispersed around the nation. That is the largest slice of the $27.5 million requested for Interim Storage and Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight in the budget year beginning Oct. […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina enacted an emergency response Tuesday morning when a vehicle attempting to enter a secure area activated explosive detection systems. Site barricades remained open through the duration of the emergency response and there was “no indication of a consequence beyond the Savannah River Site boundaries,” according […]

While BWX Technologies lost out on a multibillion-dollar remediation contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state, President and CEO Rex Geveden said Tuesday he is optimistic about a “robust” pipeline of potential Energy Department projects. “Unfortunately, we were not awarded the Hanford Central Plateau Cleanup contract,” Geveden said during the Lynchburg, Va.-based company’s quarterly […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Tuesday it plans to soon start work on a South Carolina plutonium disposal project — operations that will consume about one-third of the amount Congress appropriated for the project in the current 2020 federal budget year. This site preparation work for the Surplus Plutonium Disposition project at the […]

Amentum, the Maryland-based successor to AECOM’s Management Services branch, on Wednesday named longtime industry manager Tom Foster as chief operating officer of its Nuclear & Environment business unit. Foster has more than 35 years of experience in the nuclear industry, from decommissioning to operations, according to a company press release. Most recently, he was president […]

The Navy’s only manufacturer of nuclear reactors, BWX Technologies, said Tuesday that the service’s plans to procure just one Virginia-class attack submarine in fiscal 2021 could hit the company’s bottom line. BWXT President and CEO Rex Geveden said in the quarterly earnings call with analysts that while there is a “long way to go on getting […]

Northrop Grumman tapped Bechtel National and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions to provide construction services and specialized transportation equipment for the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) intercontinental ballistic missile production program the aerospace giant hopes to win this summer. Northrop Grumman is the only bidder for the estimated $25 billion engineering and manufacturing development contract to […]

The Department of Energy is seeking comments on plans to use grout to shore up a trio of underground waste structures in danger of collapse at the Hanford Site in Washington state. In a notice Tuesday, DOE said the comment period is between March 23 and April 24 on its plans for the facilities located […]

The Energy Department is accepting resumes for the job of managing the Hanford Site in Washington state, a post currently held by Brian Vance. The agency on Tuesday formally invited expressions of interest for the job of overseeing both the Richland Operations Office and Office of River Protection (ORP) at Hanford, the sprawling complex that […]